Williams & Fudge, Inc. — Local services in Rock Hill

I don’t get how James hasn’t been fired. He is so incredibly rude and doesn’t stop harassing you! My university never sent me a notice that my loan was about to go to a debt collector and the debt collector never informed me they picked up the loan. So I was shocked when a couple months ago I start getting repetitive calls from James while I’m at work. I don’t mean once a day. I mean he would call me, then try again as soon as it went to voicemail, and again and again and again. Giving zero time between calls and not leaving a voicemail. Very annoyed I finally answered and said I was at work so it wasn’t a good time and this jerk responded with “I can just call your work instead. Would you prefer that?” I don’t even know how he has my work number. I have a state government job. He shouldn’t have that number and if anyone calls for purposes aside from what my work is those calls are all reported to our security department to take action. He also didn’t explain anything, just stated he was a debt collector and DEMANDED I pay him. Didn’t tell me a single thing, I had to ask for details, and when I said I needed to call my university before I would talk to him he told me it was pointless to call them so I may as well just talk to him now. Excuse me what? This is so out of the blue and he was so pushy and he didn’t even want me to confirm it wasn’t a scam? I talked to my school who realize they generated a letter but forgot to send it and profusely apologized. I called the collectors back at lunch and talked to Allison, who was AMAZING! She let me know the letter just barely sent and wouldn’t have made it to me yet so James shouldn’t have even been calling the way he did. She was so sweet and patient and set up a payment plan. After a few good payments there was a holiday on the Thursday my payment was due and it didn’t get pulled. I assumed it would happen the next day, still nothing. It didn’t try to pull until Monday. I had to get groceries on Sunday so I was exactly $3 short. I transferred more money to my account and went online to ensure the payment went through. I still made the payment in time but because that failed attempt a couple hours before it apparently automatically cancelled my payment plan! Once again James starts with his rude behavior. Calling repetitively so I ended up just blocking him with a plan to talk to someone else later. I already stated I refuse to work with him because he was such a jerk and here he is ignoring that to do whatever he wants. After getting blocked he started calling from a different number! He doesn’t tell me the payment didn’t go through or anything. He just goes “I see you made a payment on Monday. When are you paying again?” And just keeps demanding to know when he can see my next payment. I hung up on him and called the main line, I got Stephanie that time who was such a sweetheart like Allison! She explained everything to me and reinstated the payment plan. I asked if there was any way to get switched to a different person to handle my case but was told unfortunately not. On top of all that these scumbags added a $680 collection fee! I’ve never seen a debt collector do that and they’re doing that to college students? Plus having some rude abrasive person harassing them? It all seems so predatory. I’ll be filing a complaint against them and paying this off asap. If I could I would file a restraining order...

Make paying back things easy- kind and helpful. Jackie Robinson is a certified badass. Hard working, cared about me from the first moment on the phone. I’ve been so stressed and frazzled trying to figure out things I didn’t know about any cleaning up my life for my kids and I. Jackie was so patient from the get go. I could tell she knew exactly what she was talking about and considering I was up until 2am waiting for the phone company chat rep to do their job, I’ve been getting wrong info from places all day, the last thing I was wanting to be anxious about was calling a debt collector about a school bill I didn’t know about. Jackie made sure I understood everything and verified the info, repeatedly at my request, even when I wanted to go back and fight the college she knew I’d just get sent back to her, so instead she took care of me and made sure I was good to go and worked with me so I can get it all squared away. I feel some grocery store reps don’t give that much consideration at times, and this just shows me her character and the type of people this company employs. Way to set the standard you guys! I’m a single mother, I lost my father and two family members in a month, along with any familial and friend support, my partner, my home, and a pregnancy over the past couple years, I had my finances upended and had to drop out of school to focus on my kids and animals and my health. Debt collectors can have drained employees being pushed to collect those debts, it can feel so impersonal, treating us as if we want to not be able to pay our bills, like we dreamed of struggling when we were kids. I never thought I’d be where I am today, but I know even more now that I’m gonna be okay. Jackie, you don’t even know how much your kindness, competence and compassion saved me today. I’ve been fighting giving up for the past 3 years and you telling me there’s light at the end of the tunnel and expressing how you went through single parenting too, it was motivating and I feel I have some strength to keep going. Just to show you and others and myself our efforts aren’t for nothing, you’re a good soul and it’s so obvious. Thanks for treating me like a human, in a world that hurts others so frequently. And with your own boys in the service, I’m thankful somewhere I’ve got brothers in arms raised by a good mama! People like you guys keep the world turning. I’m gonna keep on keeping on cause I feel like somewhere there’s Jackie Robinson cheering me on! You are amazing and deserve the highest of raises for your effort and proficiency, and your kindness and strength I’ll remember when I’m feeling weak. Seriously. Thank you so much, for more than you’ll ever realize! And thank you to this company for...

I had a debt from my university and I had no knowledge that it had gone to collections in march, when my university notified me I won’t lie I was terrified of the high balance & debt collectors. Having worked in collections myself I was expecting the agents to be cold, cruel and crude. This was not at all my experience, I called into Williams and fudge expecting an unrealistic payment plan and possibly a garnishment. I was met with kindness, excellent customer service and a plan that was realistic to my financial situation & re enrollment goals. The agent I spoke too was Meghan Ballantine, not only was she super sweet & informational, she helped me calculate a payment plan that would realistically allow me to re enroll in the fall as well as make sporadic large payments in between., furthermore, she helped me stay relaxed during the process with her witty jokes and stories, I was able to sign up for a payment plan that wasn’t immediate, meaning I had time to organize my finances as well as plan for future payments. I went ahead and authorized emails and calls from them, where I came into this afraid of the debt collectors, the agents at Williams and fudge are beyond helpful and I wouldn’t mind speaking to them for further planning and assistance. Meghan was absolutely excellent, I am very impressed with her customer service skills as well as her ability to help me coordinate what worked for me and not what worked for the university, she is beyond kind, super funny, helpful, organized and far more understanding than I ever was as a debt collector. I am confident that i can crush this balance and re enroll by the fall, I’m so thankful that THIS is the agency I was placed with, any other agency would’ve heard of my financial situation and struggles and made it worse. Not this company, this company will work with you within reason, this company wants to help you erase your debt and get back to school, if more agencies worked like Williams and fudge more people would be debt free with better credit. Again, thank you so much to Meghan, I know she said she had been there for a year !!! This is my official request to get this woman a 5% raise and a vacation, it’s so difficult to be kind while working in a job where people hate you, her poise showed a lot about her character and the people associated with Williams and fudge! If this company called you, CALL THEM BACK ! they want to help you...