Depending on what state your in they don't have to hand you the summons. In many states if the named defendant refuses serves it can and will be drop served which is valid. You don't have a choice to accept or not. As long as your line of sight your legelly served. For those who hide a affidavit of due diligence is filed with a motion for alternate service and the judge will allow posting or certified mailing of the summons. Best advise is accept and file answer within allotted days to avoid default judgement. All sheriff/magistrate appointed or judge cerified process servers carry issued ID badges abnd are officers of the court. They are also allow to file notes of serve for the judges review so if you act up just be aware the judge will in most cases be informed. Good way to prejudice your judge against you from the start.

a job interview??  what a novel way to ensure garnishment of wages.

you are at least lucky to have had someone talk to you. their faxes do not even work.

whether or not you are handed the papers or not they can continue with the judgment against you and you wont know it until you pull your credit.. So ignoring it wont help of course it will ease your mind. but the process server doesn't have to show id they may be just an employee of the law firm.. Good Luck with that!

Calling them back or not doesn't matter the fact is they are still a collection agency.. But can sue you.
I would suggest you pay your bills and stop stealing services/merchandise and you wouldn't be getting these calls!

I'm "in"!

Howard G.
howard.glass@gmail.com

See my message above.
Since they continue to persist, you may want to seek an "injunction" against them in small claims or county court.

Your last sentence raises other issues that I am not experienced enough to address.
HOWEVER, the bulk of your message seems to be about harrassing calls at your place of business/employment.  
Fed and State laws protect you against this abuse... do a Google search for "stop creditor calls" or something similar to that, and you'll find that you can send them a certified letter requesting that they cease calling you at your employer's place.  You might want to include some detail about how you've been embarrassed, or otherwise damaged, and that "the federal and state consumer-protection laws prohibit them from calling you"...  That should work unless there is a significant development with the matter (e.g., a lawsuit filed or matter is dropped).

Regards,
Howard G.          howard.glass@gmail.com

Yes, FIGHT it. If you don't show-up, they get their judgment and can tack on whatever collection fees and attorneys' fees that they want.  If you do/did show up, then the judge will keep them "in check" and, if they've been abusive in their collection attempts, tell the Judge. They might end up owing you money under various consumer Fed & State laws/acts.

ALSO, if they take a Judgment against you, it will stay on your credit reports for 10 years... and then they can actually "renew" it and keep it on there for another 10 years at each "renewal time" (every 10 years).

Zakheim cannot garnish your wages unless you make over 6 figures... & even then they probably can't do much with their Judgment from the Court. They can file for a court order after a judgment against you if you own certain "non-exempt" property, like if you own more than 2 boats or cars, more than one household, etc. from what I've heard.

How did the Zakheim & Assoc. case evolve after you posted your message here?  I experienced a similar situation when the Zakheim attorneys took over for CitiBank.  I had defaulted on a $5000 limit card; by the time it got to Zaheim, that amount inflated to over $8000.  We finally settled for 50% (roughly $4000).  At that time they mailed me documentation showing they had dismissed a lawsuit (with prejudice, meaning they cannot refile for this debt) against me... a lawsuit in which I was never served nor did they ever tell/warn me about.
HOWEVER, instead of settling as I just mentioned, CitiBank continued to report my account as an R9 (the worst possible rating) because Zakheim took my settlement check and then decided to report the "remaining debt" (about $4000 also) to the bureaus, thus ruining my credit.
Recently (but after tolerating this nonsense on my credit reports for over two years!), I called CitiBank and warned them about a possible lawsuit for credit slander and various violations of the Fed and State debt protection acts.  I demanded removal of the entire CitiBank report to all 3 bureaus and I requested a mere $1000 as compensation for credit slander.
CitiBank promptly sent me a letter stating that they were not removing the reports, but would correct them to state that there was a settlement "for less than the full amount" on my reports but reflecting a "zero balance."  This will now stay on my report for another 7 years.  As you might expect, they ignored my request for $1000 in damages, which actually was quite generous compared with what a Court might do under the above-referenced acts and other consumer-protection laws.
So, I am curious about your case.
Thanks,
Howard G.     howard.glass@gmail.com

Got a call. No message was left.

I just got a summons for court at 8 pm last night and was shocked.  First of all I didn't realize that credit card companies could take you to court for that but then I guess that is why our court systems are so backed up over stupid stuff such as this.  The lady that served the summons asked me how old I was...what business is it of hers of course being so taken aback by the fact that she was even at my door I stupidly told her.  Later while looking over the paperwork there wasn't even anywhere on there that required that information.  I know that I have to show up in court but is there some way to settle this out of court?  Does anyone know the ins and outs of this type of thing?  Unfortunately we have fallen on hard times for quite a few years and I haven't been able to afford it nor can I now but I really don't want to go to court over this.

Even though this office is very bad , you should check what he does to its employee... he does not pay them for their over time, and try to find every way to steal their bonus.. if any one present and former employee who des not get paid for their over time and bonus, join us in getting togather to file a class action law suit against zakheim

calling private cell 6 times in 8 minutes = cell does not belong to who theyare looking for - have notified via cert mail 4 times - per fcc this is harrassment - notified cert mail to fcc and attorney general, fl.

This agency continues to call my work number because I don't have a landline at home.  I work in
a government office and they frown upon Debt Collectors or Creditors calling a government
office harassing City employees about their debts. This agency collects on debts from Target
Stores, I've never had a Target account, or Credit Card.  I  visited the local Target store maybe
twice in the 15 years I've lived in Florida. Target Stores don't impress me, so I really don't shop
there.  I wish this company would stop calling this government office, because this is my
place of employment. Several of my co-workers have lost their jobs due to budget cuts and I cannot   afford to lose my job because of harassing phone calls.  I lost my home this past March after15 years, I could nolonger afford to pay the large monthly mortgage payments being single.

I received a call from this company today but I am on the no-call list for solicitations.  When I googled the company name I found out they are debt collectors who behave in unethical manner.  There's no reason for them to be calling me so I assume it's a wrong number anyway.  I will report them to the State of Missouri's Do Not Call List as a harrassing phone call.

If you do not answer that summons within the 21 days, they win by default.

It is imperative you pay your attorney the fee, usually $399,00 for the court and about $900.00 to the attorney. You must answer that summons within 21 days of being served to the judge as to why they should not garnish your wages and what your hardship is. This is very important. Answer that and then get that money from someone to pay that attorney. Shop around for an attorney make sure bankruptcy is their specialty because as you see, not all attorneys are scrupulice. Some just want to take your money and not protect you. Ask around. Above all, you will have to produce last years tax return, last 6 months of wage stubs and include any and all debts in this because you only get one chance.
Good luck! It can be very stressful.

Read the message again, they said they called the police and the person could not produce identification proving it was a process server. This company broke every legal law, they cannot tell anyone they are collecting a debt from you, they cannot call your job, you can file a $1000.00 suit against them per infraction for calling you once you tell them to stop. Read the Fair debt pratice act. There are times, and places they are forbidden to call you. Also, retain a bankruptcy attorney, it is worth every penny. About $399.00 dollars to file the court papers in Florida.  They bought your debt from your creditor for pennies on the dollar. Fight it.If you do get served respond to the judge within the alloted time period stating your hardship and a copy must go to the slumball attorney collector.  That is what the dirt bag got a law degree for? He cannot make a living being a "real judicial doctorate of law"

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf

I just got served a summons From A process Server for The Court of Seminole County on behalf of Zakheim & Associates who are representing HSBC Bank of Nevada(Discover). I have never replied nor answered any of thier calls or mailings. I understand I will have to appear in court to avoid a Judgement against me.  I am currently Paying a bankruptcy attorney so I can file bankruptcy.  I will not be able to actually file for the discharge until my attorneys fees are paid in full.  Am I protected against any Wage garnishment, etc.??  I understand this first court appearance is considered a pre-trial

That was a process server trying to serve with notice of the lawsuit that they have filed against you.  If they hand you the papers personally, you will be considered served with notice and you will have to: 1) get a lawyer, 2) show up to the court date to personally contest the charges, or 3) not do anything and a default judgment will be entered against you.  Once the firm has a judgment against you, this means that the firm can attach liens to your home or other personal property and/or garnish your wages.  The judgments are typically good for 25 years, and they will accrue the statutory interest rate, which is about 9% APR.

Basically if they serve you and get a judgment, they will have legal rights to enough of your wages and property to satisfy the debt + interest + attorney's fees + court costs.

They called me just today for a job interview. I am so glad I researched them and found your post before calling them back. Not someone I want to be associated with. Sorry it happened to you but thanks for the post.

These people are the sketchiest bunch of them all. I was considering accepting their settlement and paying my debt once and for all, but after my experience with them and reading their posts, I refuse to give them one cent of my $.

They sent me a letter with a settlement and gave me a month to come up with $3,000 - which, of course, I don't have. But I was going to call them and see if we could work out something. I still have ten days until "their notice" is up, when this happens:

a person claiming to be a court official came to my place of residence while I was at work and since I was not home, my father would not accept the documents. Once this person was told to go home, he came back and aggressively knocked on the door once more. Once my father asked for proof that he was in fact a court official, he could not produce the identification and was told to leave the property. He would not, so my father called the Police Department and it was only until the Police the Department showed up that the man left - since again, he could not prove he was a court official.

Then again last night at 9:30 pm he showed up to the house and began banging on the door. The door was not opened since I wanted to check my rights and with an attorney before even dealing with these people.

He banged and banged on the door for half an hour, waking neighbors and shouting on the street that he was going to through me in jail if I did not open the door, and now that all my neighbors would know.

After we ignored him (but he persisted banging on the door) he eventually left but left some papers on the door and a note. (Which I still have not read)

I had every intention of settling my debt and it was because of economic hardship and the fact that I was unemployed that I stopped making payments on my credit cards. It might have not been the smartest thing to do but I also refuse to deal with people who have continually, and aggressively confronted not just me, but my family members who have nothing to do with my debt.

Thank you for posting this very valuable information. I highly appreciate it. I stopped paying a credit card that is about $7,500.00 and now Chase Bank turned it over to them, they are suing me in county court but I am not going to pay them back, and I dont care if my credit ruins, I gave up on having good credit. Did you have debt you paid? I just want them to stop calling my job. By the way if you are at a store and the cashier asks you for your phone number to send you coupons in the mail, dont share your phone number / cell # because they share it with creditors!

I had an experience with this company and everything about them seems shady. How did they get an overage from you?

This company is crooked and once they get their money from you, they refuse to return phone calls requesting verification of payment, payoff status, etc. I am thinking of taking them to court over a refund of an overpayment that they owe to me. I have called and left over 50 messages for the various attorneys and associates and none of them will call me back now that they got their money, too much money, from me.

Here is their address:

Zakheim & Associates
Scott C. Zakheim
1045 S. University Dr.
Ste. 202
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324-3365
Phone:     (954) 735-4455
Fax:     (954) 484-6452

This is a listing of recent federal lawsuits filed against Zakheim & Associates: http://dockets.justia.com/search?query=Zakhei ... 1&max-year=2008

If you need advice and legal assistance, check out these websites:

http://www.budhibbs.com/First.htm
http://www.naca.net/debt-collection-abuse/
http://www.fairdebtlawyers.com/
http://www.myfairdebt.com/
http://www.consumercounselgroup.com/
http://fair-debt-collection.com/

Did not leave a message.  Calling them back shows that it is a collection Agency