Loretta Dobbins

Loretta Dobbins Loretta Dobbins is a dead-beat who does not pay her debt or return phone calls/emails Columbia, South Carolina

29th of Mar, 2011 by User703532

I am the owner of a moving and storage company. On December 21st of 2010 we were contacted by Loretta Dobbins in reference to her relocation scheduled for December 29th or 30th of that same year. Loretta came to our office/warehouse to set up her relocation and pay a security deposit in the amount of $600.00. She stated that she required 1 month of storage before her delivery. Now, with our firm, like most moving companies, when a client requires storage there is a portion due upon pick up, that portion goes toward labor, storage and also to protect us IF a client decides not to pay or collect their belongings. Loretta was explained that 50% of her balance was due upon pick-up on the 29th and the balance was to be paid upon delivery. She then gave us what now we believe to be total nonsense and just pure lies. She told us, "I am awaiting a check from the military which arrives on the 10th of January so I will come in and pay the 50% on the 11th or 12th" her exact words. We never do that for this particular reason but we did since she was A) local resident and B) Supposed active military so against our better judgement we accepted. Our agent picked up her belongings on the 29th of December and placed them into storage for what was to be 1 month and that very day we paid the movers $1,738.50 on behalf of Loretta in anticipation she would do as she promised and show up 11 or 12 days later with the money to repay us. Well, needless to say, the 11th and 12th passed us by and we had no word from Loretta so I let it go for a few additional days before contacting her. About 5 days past the date she was supposed to come in and pay us back we attempted to contact her and her phone picked up and as soon as someone from accounting said hello the phone disconnected immediately and then just kept getting put into voicemail for the next 3 or 4 attempts. Well, I knew we had an issue from that moment on. I then sent her an email stating that she was about a week past the date she said she would come in and pay what was owed and recieved no response. A few days later I sent another email, again, no response. This went on until I finally sent a forceful email after 3 attempts and then mysteriously recieved a response within about an hour stating and I quote "I apologize for not contacting you sooner. My phone has been lost since last week. I had arrangements to make a payment last week. I had anticipated my income tax return by now but it has not been processed yet. I apologize for the delay and if the is a penalty, please let me know. I normally check my mail at the library a couple of times a week, so please reply by email. Once again, I apologize for the delay."
Thanks,
Loretta Dobbins Now, this was quite strange because all of a sudden, the check was first said to be sent was from the military and now all of a sudden it was a tax return, and since when does the I.R.S give an exact date a return will be recieved? Nonsense, all nonsense. I am not trying to judge anyones character but it is 2011 and anyone that has a cel phone knows, you can't live without it, you can go to any Walmart or Walgreen and pick up a prepaid phone, furthermore, you don't have a cel phone or email and someone needs to get in touch with you or vice versa in case of an emergency then what do you do? Well, I replied and said basically, thanks for contacting us and we wouldn't charge any penalties and to please let us know when to expect payment because I was really tired of waiting. All we ask is common courtesy and even if you told us look I'm in a pickle and don't have ANY money, we would have understood and did what we had to do until she had the funds, she never did that, she continually lied and that is what really gets us. 7 days later she had not attempted to contact us so I sent her another email requesting the status of our payment, no response, 2 days later I sent another and finally recieved an email back a day later and this is what was emailed and this is a direct quote from her email. "I interpreted your email as a threat. As I stated in my original email, I anticipated my refund to disbursed to me by now, so how you come to assume that my intent was to abandon my property is baffling to me. If that was my intent, i would have simply left my property at the location that it was picked up at.
As for your ASSUMPTION that YOU DON'T BELIEVE I have been without a phone for 3 weeks, I don't recall requesting for that service.So for clarification,,,,, I have EVERY intent to pay for the service that was PROVIDED, I have not abandoned my property and as soon as the funds have been released to me, you will be paid in full. If my funds have not been released by the 2ND, I will send a payment. If you have a link where I can make my payment on-line, please send it to me. I don't like doing business with businesses that feel the need to threaten me. And as for as how often I check my email, please don't let that be of your concern, I don't recall that being part of the contract!!!!!!! And just so you know, I will be forwarding your email to consumer affairs t file a complaint." I can't imagine how anyone would even threaten a complaint with consumer affairs when they owe US money and all we are trying to do is collect what is owed. She also stated in another email that we were violating her consumer rights??? What is that supposed to mean, she continually uses the military as her crutch and anyone who knows our company knows we support the military and love our active and veterans. However, that does not mean that if you are in the military and own a car or house that if you don't make a payment for months, a big old tow truck isn't going to show up and tow that car or slap a lock on that house military or not. I mean, I told her that she knows our toll-free number AND our address as she was in our office nice as pie when she set up the relocation and then she stated that she was in the state of Maine in training. How were you going to come in and pay your debt if you were 11 states away without a phone for weeks and email? Wow this gets really interesting now. Another week goes by and she has incurred additional storage fees (remember she was picked up at the end of December and the end of January would have been a month and now we're already in February with the emails) I sent her another email asking what is going on because she never once initiated any communication and in fact it had always took 2 or more email to get a response from her. "I see that if you dont get an immediate response from me, you automatically ASSUME that my intention is to abandon my property and you have no other chose but to seek legal options. FOR THE 100th time, I am waiting on my refund. If you re-read YOUR response,,,,,, YOU said if I didn't have the money "WAIT UNTIL YOU DO". I was going to make a payment at the beginning of the month but YOU said to wait until I have it all!!!!! Thanks,
Loretta Dobbins She is waiting for her refund that was SUPPOSED to come January 10th and now February 15th still no refund, excuse me but this is not our problem, had she been honest about anything from day 1 we would have understood. Here is another email recieved after I had sent 3 more. I do not dispute the fact that I owe on both accounts, nor do I intend to abandon my property and not pay for the service rendered. Although I am negligent in my responsibilty, I appreciate your willingness and continued efforts to try and assist me.
I will be more cooperative and submit a payment to you and Jacobi on Tuesday of next week. The reason I did not respond last week is because I was in the field and this is not considered an emergency to the military,,, so I was not allowed to come out of the field to contact you. Once again,, I appreciate your constant efforts to assist me and I will send a payment to you and Jacobi by Tuesday of next week. Thanks,
Loretta Dobbins So you see, that email was sent February 15th which the following Tuesday would have been February 22nd that SHE said both our firm and the movers would recieve payment right? So patiently we both awaited. Guess what? The 22nd came and gone and do you think we heard from Loretta let alone received payment? NOPE. No call no show, so on the 28th I sent her another email, again, initated communication without response until I sent a second email and finally recieved one back on the 4th of March stating that she had sent payment to the movers in the amount of $500.00 but makes no mention of the $1,700 plus she owes us and clearly stated she would send payment to BOTH of us in the previous email. Is anyone starting to see a trend? She then asked for our phone number in another email marked the same day and I gave it to her and guess what, no call. Well, a week later and the mover still never received that mystery check in the amount of $500.00 and she never bothers to pick up the phone and give anyone a courtesy call and finally she emailed the storage agent and get this, said she sent the check out in the amount of $500.00 and put a stop payment on it because she was scared that her items would be auctioned off and somehow the bank retrieved the check from the post office. Call me crazy but I think someone isn't being truthful. Finally on the 9th of this month March 2011 I received an email from Loretta stating that she had hired an attorney and furnished me with his name, number and email address....Wouldn't paying your debt be easier than hiring an attorney? Let me tell you how professional the attorney is. The minute I received his information I called him, he had no answering service just a voicemail which I left a voicemail on to please contact me so we can discuss the matter. No return call, 2 days later I left another voicemail, no return call, I finally emailed him to which he replied he would call me either that day or the next day, never happened.
Left another message for the attorney, no return call so I emailed Loretta again to which she replied, that I should take a class in business ethics, if I took her class in ethics I would have NO business. Finally a week later I received that call from the attorney and he said he wasn't yet her attorney and he had to speak with her and figure out whether or not he was going to represent her and he would call me back after he spoke with her....that was 2 weeks ago and still no word from her or her attorney. In short, this woman is not to be trusted and I am certain she has had these troubles in the past. Typically it is the consumer posting reviews about a company, we are an outstanding company and have never been burnt by anyone up till now. I have seen the television show Storage wars and always felt bad for the people whom they auction off their lifelong possesions, now I know why they do it. I am at this point in time certain we will never recoup the money owed and at this point I don't care, if this woman was even halfway honest, we would have worked something out, we don't want her belongings and we are compassionate people, but fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, this will never happen again.

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