Bass & Associates Hit with Lawsuit Over Allegedly Illegal Debt Collection Calls

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Bass & Associates, P.C. has been hit with a proposed class action over its alleged practice of placing automated debt collection calls to consumers’ cell phones without their consent.

The plaintiff in the case claims the defendant placed dozens of “harassing” collection calls to his cell phone with regard to a debt he insists he does not owe, and even after he instructed the company to stop calling.

The 13-page suit alleges violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Per the case, the calls to the plaintiff began following a vacuum demonstration he scheduled with The Kirby Company in late 2019, after which he decided not to purchase the vacuum. Nevertheless, the plaintiff was later “astonished” to receive a call from United Consumer Financial Services in which he was told that he had an outstanding debt related to his purchase of a Kirby Company vacuum, the suit relays.

The lawsuit claims the plaintiff began receiving debt collection calls in 2021 from Bass & Associates, who had allegedly acquired the rights to the purported debt after it was in default. Per the suit, the plaintiff immediately requested to be removed from the defendant’s calling list as he does not owe the debt at issue.

The case alleges, however, that Bass & Associates continued placing “numerous harassing calls” to the plaintiff’s cell phone despite his request that the calls cease. Whenever he answered the calls, the plaintiff was directed to press “1” to speak with a representative or press a different number if he was not the individual the defendant was attempting to contact, the lawsuit relays. If he did not answer the calls, the defendant left a roughly 30-second prerecorded message asking the plaintiff to call back, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff asserts that he never provided Bass & Associates with his cell phone number or consent to contact him using automated technology. Per the case, the defendant has no system in place to determine whether it has a consumer’s consent before placing automated calls to their cell phone, a requirement of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Moreover, the “abusive, harassing, and oppressive” calls violated multiple aspects of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, according to the lawsuit. The case claims the debt collection calls “have severely disrupted Plaintiff’s daily life and general well-being.”

The plaintiff seeks to represent anyone in the U.S. to whose cell phone the defendant placed or caused to be placed a call using an artificial or prerecorded voice without the individual’s consent at any time within the past four years and through the date of class certification.

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