Hi
I got a call so many time from them saying that I ho 1365.00$ from a companie call dell.inc, but I whent banckrupcy & and they still caling saying that I had till the 19 March to pay & they don't stop, the girl said the she is from Claude Steven Walter law ofiice .
Please some one help me this is arassement, you can reach me hat cbernatcher@yahoo.ca

I got a letter from these people about a debt that's 4 years old. It's a collection agency and as long as they have 1 person who's a paralegal working in their office from a law firm they can claim it's the law firm trying to collect the debt. After 2 years there's what called "statute of limitations" which means that any company and/or collection agency has 2 years from the date of last payment to file legal papers in small claims court against you. Judges have thrown cases like these out of court because the average consumer does not know about the statute of limitations law as it relates to money owed. I have no intention of paying my debt to this collection agency and I've never acknowledged the debt. Once you do acknowledge the debt the clock resets and they can go after you in court if they wish. Never say you owe the money and request documents with your signature on it. Chances are that they don't have it on file if the debt is older than 3 years. Debts are written off by these companies after 120 days of non-payment, and then the debt is sold to a 3rd party for pennies on the dollar. I know all of this because I used to work for a collection agency and it was the worst job I've ever had. My supervisors would pressure me to collect anything as they got paid a bonus on any funds collected. Good luck and don't let them scare you with threats...

I got the same call from this woman today and put her and her "law firm" in their place. These con artists work for the worst gym in the history of gyms- Premier fitness/Century fitness. Plain and simple they are criminals. Not only did she mock my voice she threatend me so I gave her a word of caution. Please be advised everyone, it is a violation of the Ministry of Ontario's collection agency provisions to contact someone wothout sending them a hard copy letter, an email is not sufficient, it must be a letter send through the mail. I contacted my MPP today and informed her of this and she said she would look into it.

Received a call to call back. Was a premier member until the gym closed and canceled my membership .

I just had a call from my father in law saying that this law firm is trying to find me (same phone number). I haven't returned any calls as of yet. The strange thing is, this "law firm" continues to add my underage daughters' names in their request for a call back? (it happens, that we each joined the gym together but neither of them could sign a contract!) I find it strange that they would call my father in law, when I never listed him as an emergency contact and on the contract I signed at the gym I listed my email address and my husband as an emergency contact. The more I read here, the more suspicious I am becoming. On a side note, the best part is that the gym I joined never actually got a signed contract because they kept saying they needed to draft one up by the manager regarding the "special promotion" I was getting. UGH! Again, I didn't speak to anyone, but my father in law could barely make out the information on his voicemail because the accent was so thick he couldn't understand the numbers she was saying

Recieved a call this am claiming that theres a claim on michelles desk. So i call back repeatedley and noone answers. So i proceed to leave message after message and i have asked her to send me a registered letter in the mail and gave my address. So im waiting. I did speak with my lawyer about this and he said have u recieved any paper work and i said no. So he said to ask for a registrred letter to be sent. So that is what im doing. Wish me luck. Sandra

Yup. I'm 36 years old and some woman from this law office just called my mom to try to get info about my phone number.
A) not a law office
B) lawyers don't call people, they notify by document
C) this woman thinks being rude = professional
D) would not disclose reason for calling

Mom mom knew better and was polite and in turn called me to let me know.

Scam scam scam scam scam

This is why my phone number is unlisted.

:)

this is a caller from Stephen Walters Law office collections corporation her name is Claude. She is calling on behalf of MDG and I must send money to them now or I will be taken to court and a credit rating mark on my credit will be done. they have 2 locations one is 8 Main Street E in Hamilton and I was told there is another location in Mississauga, but refused to give me the address. I am suppose to give a certified or money order to Stephen Walters in trust.  Sorry! even if they try and do a credit rating I am in the process of identity theft and the government is all over this! They do not even have my proper name or SIN number....I was in shock and among others so I just agreed with everything, she is telling me I am fully aware of this as I have not paid since august and I have a choice to pay with or without the NSF charge. That is NOT a collection agency, one they MUST provide a letter with their collection lic number on it, 2 they can not make such demands and threaten and bully you....all against the law! 3 the so called lawyer MUST be on the premises at all times....so I got home and replied to the email that was bogus stating that they MUST contact me in writing and NOTHING is getting paid through them until they prove to me who they really are and what they want. I have already contacted a legit law firm on them! I have asked that they verify if this is a real law firm and I might have a case for them. I do not take things like this lightly, hence the call to a law office!

http://ca.linkedin.com/pub/stephen-walters-ll-b-ll-m/7/198/145

i've just had a call from a woman at this number, informed her to cease and desist all contact between their agency and myself, hung up, after a screaming match, and the woman immediately called me back! did the *69, called back and ironically no one was answering the phone! did some online research and came up with a whole lot of complaints regarding this number and several other numbers associated with this agency! the only information i found was a profile on linkedin regarding this Stephen Walters, and I gotta tell ya! i'm not all that impressed! poor b*stard! when you have to resort to collection agency tactics in the guise of a lawyer, times have gotta be rough! i'm sure his parents are very proud and his degree, if he really is a lawyer, has probably cost him more than what he earns trying to scam money from people! i imagine he probably still lives in his parents basement and has no hope for paying back his student loans!

f they claim to be a law firm call the LSUC, Law Society of Upper Canada.  regarding these misleading statements. Record them, then use the recording against them~!  Recorded conversations are legal and binding~!

i got a call from this lady.  at first she is very kind and helpfull.   but the more you ask questions you have the right have to ask.  she gets rude.  she called me about money i knew owed.  but instead of trying to work with me at my level,  she says i need all of your info.   instead of calling or giving her access to anything.  i called her boss.  spoke to them.  got the proper info.  then i called the people who they said i owed the money too.   they were
more than willing to work with me.  

BEWARE  OF THIS PERSON.  IN MY DEALINGS WITH HERE SHE IS RUDE  AND UNDERHANDED.

I cancelled my gym membership to Premiere over 5 years ago .  Last week I received a phone call from a Claude Nourian from Stephen Walters Professional Corporation saying I owed them $537.18.  If I didn't remit payment in 5 business days then they would commence with legal action to collect, notify the Credit Bureaus and garnish my wages.  After some research it appears this collection agency is going through a list of names alphabetically. A gentleman who last name begins with the same letter as mine was contacted last month about the same thing, fortunatley for him he kept his cancellation notice and was able to present it to his Lawyer.  I however disposed of my cancellation a few years back figuring I would not need it.  Wonder if Premiere Fitness paid back any monies owing to the members that arrived at the gym one day to find the doors locked!

I just recieved a phone call from this Claude woman.  telling me that she had this "claim"  come across her desk for me.  from Premiere fitness.  A membership i canceled 5 years ago, when i found out the staff was forging my name to documents, and stealing money from my account.  She told me if i didnt give her my banking info it was going to go against my credit score.  I said go a head do what you want. She sounded pissed when I said this.  I'm so glad I looked this up and saw i'm not the only one shes trying to steal from.

someone else answered this call,cause i wasn't at home,
it says that it was from :
SIMON WALTER lawyer
and they wanted me to call back,been searched in ontario directory
and there was no simon walter lawyer in there.
so,who can be this SIMON WALTER LAWYER?
from :905-296-3647

Caller hung up as soon as I answered the call.

It seems this is the new number for the female scammers who want u to call them back regarding some fake claim NUMBER u never filed

I received a call from Claude from Steven Walters law office regarding a premier fitness contract that I cancelled> I contacted my attorney who said they're just blowing smoke until they serve legal papers. I found another posting similar to this with the phone # 905-296-3027. sounds like the same situation. I guess buyer beware! wouldn't expect that with a big gym though

I've been recieving numerous calls from Claude Nourian at work despite telling her several times that I can not discuss this while I'm at work.  She has my email address where I have asked her to contact me but she has ignored this and has twice called a co-worker (not my boss, or supervisor, or payroll) identifying herself as "stephen walters law firm" and that she had a case regarding me and that they did not want to speak to me, but needed to fax in important papers regarding my pay.  I have not recieved any notice that they were pursuing legal action against me, I have not been taken to court, I have not seen any documentation that they are allowed to garnish my wages.  I do not feel this was within her rights at all and will be contacting the Financial Consumer Agency with my concerns tommorrow.

Its your legal right to know who is pursuiting claims against you saying you owe money to a fitness gym and a lawyer office contacting, i know most lawyers would not be contactin you by phone if it a legal pursuit claim they send letters out this is a scam and if anyone falls for it well you desire to lose your money. In closing it is agaisnt the law for collection business/lawyer offices to not notify you of the pursuiter of claims agaisnt you for owed money. Fraud is against the law and if Everyone was smart about this they would be contact there local police department and letting them look into it.

I've been reading all these posts and although i'm sure most of you have figured this out by now: Stephen Walters Professional Corporation is real - Stephen is a Corporate and Commercial Lawyer and the reason his company is contacting all of you is because you owe his CLIENT money, (not him - just to be clear). If you refute that idea then it's something you should be taking up with the client, (for many of you its Premier) - this has nothing to do with him - nor is this a "scam" as you're all calling it. The reality is that contracts (including gym contracts) have a lot of cancellation stipulations that many people don't care to read because of their lengthy and tedious nature - unfortunately, this has come back on many of you. Stephen Walters IS in fact licensed by the Law Society (if you really looked that up you would realize it).

Now, the reason you're all getting a call from a "collection" agency is because ultimately, money is owed - and despite what many of you think, you don't need a "license" to collect funds that are owed to you - it's called small claims court and EVERYONE has access to that. Essentially, that's the aspect of the Stephen Walters Professional Corporation "collections dept.). C'mon guys, I know a lot of ppl are angry (this is why I pay CASH for gym memberships - I just don't trust them), but you're all going after the wrong people.

Sorry to say but this just isn't a scam - but don't take my word for it - that'll be brought to your attention sooner or later.

I've been reading all these posts and although i'm sure most of you have figured this out by now: Stephen Walters Professional Corporation is real - Stephen is a Corporate and Commercial Lawyer and the reason his company is contacting all of you is because you owe his CLIENT money, (not him - just to be clear). If you refute that idea then it's something you should be taking up with the client, (for many of you its Premier) - this has nothing to do with him - nor is this a "scam" as you're all calling it. The reality is that contracts (including gym contracts) have a lot of cancellation stipulations that many people don't care to read because of their lengthy and tedious nature - unfortunately, this has come back on many of you. Stephen Walters IS in fact licensed by the Law Society (if you really looked that up you would realize it).

Now, the reason you're all getting a call from a "collection" agency is because ultimately, money is owed - and despite what many of you think, you don't need a "license" to collect funds that are owed to you - it's called small claims court and EVERYONE has access to that. Essentially, that's the aspect of the Stephen Walters Professional Corporation "collections dept.). C'mon guys, I know a lot of ppl are angry (this is why I pay CASH for gym memberships - I just don't trust them), but you're all going after the wrong people.

Sorry to say but this just isn't a scam - but don't take my word for it - that'll be brought to your attention sooner or later.

I agree with you Crissy, but they get 80 to 90 percent of people to pay to protect their credit, they try to bully people, if you look online at CanLii all cases are ex-employees sueing premier f. and contractors sueing them too and premier lose 95-99percent of their cases. haha.

I just got a call from Claude Delrean on behalf of bogus Stephan Walters Laws office.  I purchased for 1 year membership in full and never used.  Since I am very aware of Premier's scam I cancelled my credit card 6 months into the contract because I knew they would try to process payments after 1 year. If anyone is interest in the real law you can check out the consumer's act and the gym's got it's own section...

According to the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 all gym contracts must end after one year and may only be renewed if the gym complies with certain rules, including if my membership is renewed with 30 days notification but not more than 90 days. You can exercise your rights to cancel the agreement as a result of non-disclosure(s) as described in the Consumer Protection Act, 2002.

If the Stephen Walters Office calls againg read the above statement to them as I don't think it's a real law office or else they would be very aware of the act.

Call the number and leave a message. Tell them to stop calling you, and as per the law send you a letter...make her register it .  Then when you get the letter..it will say you have 5 days to pay up. Ignor it...everything is just a threat. I did that..and havent heard back from them yet..and its been over a month. I check my credit rating..and nothing has been touched.  Just as a precaution I had a lawyer send them a fax..but try and not get too upset. Your reaction was the same as mine when then contacted a married sister of mine. You just need to acknowledge her calls or this Claude will hound you forever.

Crissy

I didn't get a call from Claudia, my mother received a call. I put my mother down as my emergency contact on my premier fitness membership and these b*****ds had the nerve to call my mother who I do not even live with. Now my family fears for me thinking that I am getting sued and will owe a lot of money.
I had a 1 year membership with premier fitness and called, spoke with a representative, faxed in my cancellation and even received a confirmation. I moved to a city where there are no premier fitness locations so I wanted to cancel. They proceeded to take funds out of my account for the next two months until I finally had to go to the bank and close my account. My bank told me the same thing, that premier fitness has a reputation for stealing money out of peoples accounts and they will not stop until you close that account.
Now after almost two years, I am getting a call from a law office with a claim # to reference.
The office is closed so I have not yet had the pleasure of ruining the life of whoever answers the phone but I cannot find ANY information on this law firm.
Does anyone have anything on these people?

Gosh..I just read that comment by Angry.... I say you must be a fool. I welcome Claudia or Michelle or anyone from Stephens Walters to take me to court. lol  They can only loose after the court reviews  the evidence presented. After reading all your comments... this crazy collection agency..or what ever they are does not do their homework and is harrassing people not for car theft..but for a stupid GYM membership. What a friggin Joke!!!!! Just sit back and think of it...then you go to your mail box after all this hastle and you find some stupid advertisement to come join with Priemer Fittenss ...again! hahaha..  Lets get all our stories together and start a smear campain on Priemer Fitness.

Angry/Michelle you are so full of it!!  Scam scam scam.  Must be nice to be able to sit on your a** from your house or wherever you are (because you are NOT in any type of law firm. as I said above I checked with the Ontario Barristers Society and this firm does NOT exsist!!) and try to scare people out of their money.  You can't serve and sue people in another province unless you are ready to fly to that province and appear LIVE in court there.  I am in NS and these calls are comming from Ontario.  Unless this Michelle person were to actually be willing to fly here and appear in small claims court, which would never happen, this is another way you are scamming.

People have found you out on the internet and now you are trying to put fear into them here.  Nice try but it won't work.  You can't sue someone from another province unless you appear in court there personally.  And most of these amounts are only enough to go through Small Claims court.  Small claims court can not garnish anyones wages.  
Honestly, I don't know how you sleep at night.

Ok so I feel the need to share with all of you that I received a call from Stephen Walters office and after I read all of this on this web page i decided to ignore the calls. Then I started getting letters stating they would take me to court/effect my credit...But i kept on ignoring the calls and letters. So now guess what??!?!?!?!??!?!?

They have taken me to court and garnished my wages.....OMFG you're all wrong about them. They are real they have the right to call and yes they will make good on the threats....May I suggest to everyone to STOP reading crap from people that dont actually know whats going on. Call the people back and find out what they want then fight the claim on your terms...get the so called proof or else you'll be in the same spot as me having my wages garnished instead of figuring it out on my terms......

I have gotten a call Claude Nourian, claiming I owe 650.95. $300 of this is a random service fee, the other part is my balancing owing.

I filed a complaint to the BBB, if the money is coming out the chqing account can call the fraud squad (police). Sadly was coming off my VISA so wasnt able to use the police in this situation. Tomorrow I will my mailing a letter to Equifax to have a record of things. I am hoping they can tell me more information for what i can do to get this to stop.

My letter:

Back in December of 2008, through work there was an offer for a gym membership for $300 hundred dollars at Premier Fitness. I thought to be an excellent deal for a membership, little did I know. I called them up, worked with John to sign up for this offer for a corporate membership. John said I could come in and work out for free in December and my membership will start in Jan. It was all set up and done over the phone and through fax. I couldn?t get the corporate membership at the local gym (St. Catharines) for some reason another which wasn?t a big deal to me at the time with Premier Fitness. The first payment was suppose to be 15.23 starting 09-01-09 and being biweekly after. With the corporate membership I got a free fitness test. I did that in December where I purchased a nutrition program for $630 paid upfront in full on my VISA, came off December 17th. On December 30th I was on my VISA making sure things were going through alright for phone and various other pre-authorized payments and purchases, when I noticed a payment of $313.95 had been taken off by Premier Fitness Clubs Mississauga ON. I tried phoning that day and left messages.  It took a few days before I could even get a hold of someone, and they kept passing me from person to person. I have several numbers written down. I also had emailed various people. Finally after a long debate with Sharon, she issued me a refund. I didn?t want to be apart of a club that had little to no costumer service.  The cheque was issued for Jan 16th and sent by mail. I couldn?t get it refund to my visa, they did not care what other charges I may have incurred because of their mistakes. The refund cheque was for $298.71, cheque #239.  At this point I thought all was fine and I didn?t have anything to worry about.  Then in September I got a call from Kathy from Premier Fitness saying I had an outstanding balance of $243.68. I tried to tell her about what happened, but I never seemed to get anywhere when I first called her back. In the voicemail she left an e-mail, which I sent her one and never got a response. I figured that I had made my point and proved that I didn?t owe any money for a membership that was refunded.  I only used the club for half of December, and a few days in January. Late November I have now received a call from Claude Nourian Collection Manager of Stephen Walters Professional Corporation stating that I now apparently owe $650.16.  As I am sure you?ll guess I was very confused at seeing this amount. The figures are not adding up from what I was previously told, disregarding the fact I got my membership refunded and canceled it.  I soon after filed a BBB report, case # 1202384.  With all this going on I went back to the original contract I signed back in December, it is missing the back page, it is completely blank, and is written up showing that I have a free year then a renewal date of 09/01/10. I have no idea how they can do this legally.  Trying to work this out, and get to the bottom I asked Claude to provide a break down of how I supposedly owe $651.95, after some and a broken scanner at their office I had received nothing. So I called Premier Fitness Costumer Service number, asked them to pull up my profile, and asked how much I owed or if there was anything wrong with the account.  The gentleman I was speaking with said there was nothing wrong. It seems like I can?t get the same answer twice and the story always changes. I finally got the email from Claude, there was a $300 service charge fee, and I am guessing $351.95 for some other random thing. In the email it brings up another client from premier fitness and says I owe for their purchase of Personal Training. I don?t understand how they can provide his name like that to me, and charge me for his balance.