Tex. Lawsuit Seeks to Halt J.C. Penney’s ‘Relentless’ Debt Collection Calls
J.C. Penney violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when it placed at least 75 debt collection calls to plaintiff John Alford’s cellphone between December 2021 and the present after he told the retailer to stop calling, alleged Alford’s complaint Tuesday…
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(docket 4:23-cv-00813) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Sherman. Alford, a Houstonia, Missouri, resident, also alleges the company violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, and is guilty of invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The retailer’s collections efforts “were relentless and unreasonable,” and the “incessant” calls caused Alford “actual harm,” including “aggravation that accompanies unwanted calls, increased risk of personal injury resulting from the distraction caused by the unwanted calls,” and wear and tear on his cellphone, said his complaint. The system the company uses to place calls to Alford “has the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to determine the order in which to pick phone numbers from a preloaded list of numbers of consumers that are allegedly in default on their payments,” it said. Alford alleges the defendant “knew its collection practices violated the TCPA, yet continued to employ them in order to maximize efficiency and revenue,” said his complaint. Court records list the retailer as the defendant in seven federal TCPA actions, active or closed, since March 2011.