Have received several computer generated calls from this number Today received a call from a live person asking for Jan. I have a daughter by that name & told the young lady that she hadn't been at this # for years. Asked her where she was calling from, have the name Stephens & Michaels, Inc. When I Asked what type of firm it was she said she couldn't tell me, if I had to know to google it. I did & called another # and told the young man to stop cling my #, didn't know what calls were about but I knew the firm was under federal investigation  then I hung up. He called me back  & said HE was calling the authorities because I was harassing HIM. Too much!

Johnnie's post, as well as those following indicate that your research abilities must be limited.

IF a collection agency will produce evidence of a VALID DEBT, FOLLOWS THE FDCPA RULES, and it can be VERIFIED WITH THE ORIGINAL CREDITOR, and they can show THEY HAVE LEGAL OWNERSHIP OF THE DEBT, and if it was NOT a TIME-BARRED DEBT, I would consider it as a legitimate debt.
Otherwise, the collection agency has NO LEGAL GROUNDS.  

But, you go ahead and pay someone just because they call and threaten you!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!

If they really did that  make sure you report this to the Federal Trade Commission. It is against the law for them to use abusive language like that and they can face some serious fines.
Report any problems you have with a debt collector to your state Attorney General?s office (naag.org) and the Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov).

Received a call at 8:45AM this morning from a woman from stephens & michaels asking for my mother.  When I asked what this is about she refused to tell me.  When I told her my mother passed away, she asked me several times when did she pass away. I refused to tell her unless she told me what the call was about. So she hung up.

you are either an idiot or just lying.  I've research Stephens & Michaels and they are an upstanding collection agency. Either way if you do in fact owe a creditor PAY THEM.

Go to CreditKarma & get all your credit scores from Experian, TransUnion etc. CreditKarma is a free site that allows people to their check credit scores any time and as often as they wish.

See if these scam artists have put anything on any of your credit agencies. If they have, immediately file a grievance with that agency stating the entry is false, was fraudulent, is outdated, paid in full...whatever the case may be. Request that the item be removed from your credit score immediately. I've never had a problem getting these things removed doing it this way & it takes away the only power the bad guys have.

If ANY person or agency threatens you with 'the Federal Marshals are coming to get you' or 'the police are coming now'  or are harassing you at work, etc. make sure you have their phone number and the name of the company/person calling.  Tell the caller they are in violation of the Federal Debt Collecting Act & that the person calling is personally responsible and they can be arrested, fined, & possibly imprisoned for their actions. Even if their supervisor told them they were allowed they can be held personally responsible - ignorance is no defense in a court of law. The person & company may also be sued by YOU civilly for the violation.

Then contact the Federal Marshals, local police etc & let them know the company is using them as a weapon.  The Federal Marshals will be knocking on a door - but not yours. Also immediately file this violation with your State Att'y General. Note the time & date of your call & all info you were told or heard.  Make note of how many times they've called you on caller ID.  All of this is can be used against them.

Hope this helps you sleep better. Even more,  I hope this gets them off your back!

This phony 'law firm' used to call from 866?261?7666 but now they call from 866-788-9612.  The automated machine voice identifies itself as "The Law Firm of Stevens & Michaels Associates" and states that if one does not hang up immediately one is accepting the identity of whoever it is for whom they are calling.
    I attempted to find out who they really were after the agent identified herself as "this is the law firm of, etc." I asked for the legal name & address of the firm as well as her legal name and she refused. When I told her she was required by law to give her name she almost screamed "You don't tell me what the law is. We're a law firm!" I told her there was no way this was a law firm, that it had to be some sort of undercover collection agency using a law firm as a face company.  I told her I heard numerous voices like a boiler room in the background behind her. so her claim to being a law firm was false. I told her it was illegal in the state of Ohio to misidentify oneself & to harass people by calling four and five times a day starting at 8 AM & going on til 9pm.

At that the girl hung up on me.

I have my caller ID set to identify the firm as "Bill Bozos" so I know who is calling me & I don't bother with them anymore. I refuse to answer their phone calls and they can't identify who we are (obviously).
   
It's only gotten worse.

Because I won't answer my phone they start ringing at 730 in the morning and don't stop until 9 PM at night, often calling 4 and 5 times a day. I have no idea what they could be collecting on since I pay all my bills promptly and therefore they had no reason to be calling me.

I like to thank those who gave the information in previous entries regarding the fact this firm is being sued by multiple state attorneys general. At least now I feel justified in ignoring them.

I have been getting a computer generated call from Stephens and micheals for weeks.  Finally they called me at 8:45 am and I called back apparently they have been looking for a ms Wilson. I have an unlisted number. I finally  got tired of their bull.  No ms Wilson here.  1 866 201 0940 was the number used.

They willl not stop they hve been harrassing me for a couple years - stating I owe money and God help me if I do not pay- refused to send anything in writing- finally found who I supposedly owed- Well that was a loan- it was paid in full ( payments were drafted out of my account) I told them- they would not listened- wanted my lawyers name!  I contacted the company that I supposedly owed complaining about the idiots they hired- I got an email back stating my account was paid in full and they hired no one to collect any money- what burns me up is that I have an inquiry from them on my credit report and that affects your score as well! I cannot get them to stop!

I was contacted by these  people and told they would settle a debt I owe Verizon Wireless for much les than I actually owe.  I was in  he process of calling them to pay the debt off when I searched on here for  the phone number.  After reading all of this negative information I am not so sure I want to deal with them.  What do you guys think?

TOTAL SCAM

UPDATE!!!
I got the letter from Stephens and Michaels saying I owed them money. I replied with 3 debt validation request letters , 1 of which I sent via certified mail and 2 others by snail mail. They have a few different addresses so its best to use both in case they had tried to claim that they never got it.  During the time awaiting for them to respond, I received correspondence from  the ftc and state attorney general. Stephens and Michaels denied they had broke any rules but closed out the account claiming the person who hired them hadnt supplied the debt validation materials yet as requested.
SO I had these people call me and on the first call threaten me and tell me the debt was mine only to have them say they have no proof the debt is mine. In the end I refused to be bullied and they closed out the account.
REMEMBER TO RECORD EVERYTHING AND BE AWARE OF YOUR RIGHTS AND THE LAWS> YOU WILL BE THE VICTOR

Got a call from these people today.  Very rude man left message to call 866-201-0940.  Said his name was Shaun Johnson with Stevens & Michaels Associates.  Don't know what's going on, I have not debt and owe no car payments.  Ask my daughter to give him my cell phone number.  She refused.

they have 5 days to send you a statement saying you owe. In order to verify that this debt is real and valid when they send you the statement, be sure to send out a debt validation request via certified mail so they have to sign for it. They have a live office and a po box they use. Send a debt validation letter demanding everything related to the bill including signatures, contracts,recordings or anything they have that proves the debt is valid . Many times they are trying to collect on old zombie debts that have passed theit statue of limitations.A simple statement saying you owe them because of some old bill isnt enough. If you send out 2 letters. one certified to the live address and one regular to the PO BOX you should be okay. Thats no guarantee since we have no reason to trust these people and the amount of civil suits filed against them doesnt help their cause. Also include in your debt validation letter a demand for them to stop calling you and for them to only correspond through the mail. I say do this because of how they treat people over the phone. They are bound by the FDCPA to obey or else you can sue them. Im in the process of reporting them to the FTC,State Attorney General and anyone else who will listen.

Christina Barbeau?

They keep calling us for weeks now. Today i answerd the first time and a voice was asking for a person i don't know and i did not understand the name.
I had the option to press 3 to be removed from the list - thats what i did. Then a woman (Christine) got on the phone to tell me that she really need to talk to my husband.She had his last four dig. from his SS.
I told her he is not available (he is delpoyed) and if i could leave a message.
She told me that he has to pay $148.48 for a phone he used to have with verizon. i don't know anything about it so i asked her for the number but she said she does not have the number.
I told her i have to talk to him and she hung up. Stupid woman !!
Not sure what to do now ???

oops, forgot the link-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oISRtCOJ8

if you dont trust the link. just go to YOUTUBE and search this title " Stephens and Michaels Associates collections ". it should come up as I made the video public

I got a call from Stephens and Michaels Associates Inc..

you will not believe how egregious this is and how I was treated. this was first contact and I can not believe this is how these people operate. Luckily I record all conversations with everyone because this is exactly what kinda crap you have to deal with from people like this.

I used a digital recorder and uploaded the file to YOUTUBE as a video. its 3 minutes long.



always record all your dealings with anyone like this.

I've been getting calls from them for weeks.  The one time I answered I got a recorded message to "hang on".  I hung up and the calls continued.  Last night they left a message for a person who lived in my home over 5 years ago.  I called them back and told them they had the wrong number and why and the woman said she would update her information.  Time will tell.

PS - Thank You for making your validation code legible.  Other sites have them so distorted that you can't even read them.  What is the point of that?!?!

They have been calling for a while.  The one time I answered I got an automated message telling me to hold so I hung up.  Haven't answered since.  Yesterday they left a message for the person that lived at my address 5 years ago.  Called them this morning and told them that they had the wrong number and why and the women took the information and said they would change their records.  Time will tell.

PS - Thank you for making your validation code legible.  It drives me crazy when sites make them so skewed that you can't even read them.  What's the point of that?!?!

continue to receive automated calls for someone who i've never heard of.

I get about 3 calls a day, mostly between the hours of 4am and 7am, and always calling for someone different.

I've called them back, each time, having to call 2 or 3 times to get a live person. Each time, the person, politely listens and says they'll change their records.

Then I get another call from them. Usually within a few hours.

I've had this number for over a year. It is a personal cell phone, and my cell phone company, AT&T told me that my number hadn't been assigned since 2002. So there's very little chance it was someone who used to have my number.

Hey! That was a great idea, donotcall.gov   How many times can you say you have the WRONG# and WRONG PERSON before those a-holes get it! I even leave them message WRONG# WRONG PERSON!!

rude

They called me and had information on a past debt that i owed. Try saying that they were offering me a settlement but it had to be done over the phone by the next day. I thought this was weird so i told them to call me back. they never called me back. I thought it was a scam, and now that I see this website I know. I'm a little concerned as to how they had my cell phone number, my previous address, and exact information about a past debt I had. How do they get all that information.

I called back today and it went to an operator.  He had a Boston accent and was gruff.  He kept saying he was calling to talk to someone named John Buckner (or something like that).  I kept telling him I had no clue who that was, and he just kept saying "We're calling to talk to John Buckner!  John Buckner!"  It's not like I stuttered or something...I have no clue who that is!  And my phone number was never registered to anyone before me, so it has to be an error.  He did say he would remove me from their list so I could stop getting calls...we'll see how well that works.

Also, they seem to be using caller ID, because as soon as the guy picked up when he called, he thanked me for calling back and said they'd been trying to reach me.

On 9/2/10 I received a call for someone who doesn't live here.  They asked for Jeanette Warrenpool(??)
  Don't know anyone by that name and never heard of this law firm.

They called looking for a carmilla and when I informed them I just got this number a few weeks ago an no one lived here by that name they got rude. At that point  I got back with they are to "remove my number and if your company and I now your name, should call here again looking for any name that I will contact an attorney and sue them for harrassment."  She laughed at me said "good luck with that" and hung up.

This company is now using 866-plus numbers and ALL are
different each time they call.  How they got a hold of my
cell number is beyond me and also very upsetting.
Now, they change the number but still use the 866-plus
and the calls are still from the same idiots: Stevens
and Michaels...They are rude and ridiculous with their
mannerisms...They will not take no for an answer . They
are robots trained to use combative techniques. I don't
have time or cell phone minutes to listen to their stupidity.

Where can I report them??? They have the wrong number and
call us at home and on our cells...what is their problem?!?!?!?