J. Haas Group, LLC

I have two credit cards from Capital One that I've been paying regularly with minimum required. I went to J. Haas Group to settle both accounts for less and was put to an 18-month program where money was automatically deducted from my bank account. During the course of 18 months, I forwarded all letters from collection agencies to J Haas Group. They told me not to talk to collection agency, because their so-called "trained negotiator" will handle it for me.

To make the story short, they did not settle my account with Capital One. I can't get hold of J. Hass Group. Calls are screened and directed to a call center somewhere outside the USA.

The collection agency was able to get a judgement against me at about three times the amount I originally owe to the credit card company. I now have more serious problem on how to pay the judgement against me. I can't even get the money I paid to JHaas Group. Very bad and expensive experience with J. Haas Group.

I contacted J. Haas group in August 2010. They set up my account, said paying $383 a month for 2 years would take care of everything. They would set it up that Noteworld would withdraw the money monthly. In Oct 2011, I was notified that Noteworld will no longer be handling it so that it was up to me to save the money for the settlements. I have been notified that I am going to garnishment from one of the accounts they are handling. After 15 months, they have not settled any of my 3 accounts and I was only reimbursed $1800 after paying for 13 months and no settlements. This isn't even enough money to settle any of the accounts. I am not sure how they could think, after 2 years, there would have been enough money to pay them all off. I am thinking I just need to file Chapter 7 and be done. They are worthless and you can't speak to anyone that speaks clear English.

This caused legal garnishment that I took care of recently. It pulled my IRA and I lost money when I had a contract. J. Hass is a bunch of thieves!

I had a credit card account with Capitol One. I was paying it, life was good. Enter 2008, the bank caused financial crisis. I lost a good paying job without warning or reason given. Suddenly Capitol One sends me a letter telling me to either accept a 29.99% interest rate or close my account. Needless to say, I closed my account. They transferred the balance with 29.99% interest anyway. I told them to go to ** and went to JHass for help. I paid off the JHass settlement requirement 2 years ahead of schedule, they charged me the fees, put my money in noteworld and have been unable to settle with Capitol One. At first they seemed like a reputable company but a year later they had farmed all the work to foreigners and are unable to settle my account. In all fairness they do call me monthly and tell me that they are working on it, but they've not resolved it yet.

In the meantime Capitol One continues to add junk charges on my account. I am seeking legal advice before these ** try to sue me.

When I first came into the program, I did have 9 cards and they did the first 5. Now I cannot get any help on the last 4. Then they tell me at the end of the program that if there is not enough money in the savings, I must pay them more. I really should have listened to my family who said do the chapter 7. Now I am even more behind on everything. You cant get a hold of anyone who can speak English.

We paid J. Haas $446.05 for 15 months. They never negotiated my debt and simply took my fees. Now that a judgment has been formed against me in court, they won't reimburse me for the money that they took and didn't work for. My only course of action will be to sue them.

I could kick myself after reading everyone else's complaints with this company. Since May of 2010, I have been paying them $369.00 per month until July of this year, only to find out that they had done nothing. I have two creditors I owe monies to, totaling under $10,000. They told me that they would be contacting them to arrange to pay them off. Again, nothing! I feel like I'm speaking with a bunch of 'Peggys' (from the Discovery commercial) every time I call. It's either I can't understand what they are saying or they transfer me to other people who also can't speak English very well! I can't even speak with a supervisor because they insist on me telling them why I want to speak with one.

I have contacted JHass Group since 2/18/11, at least two times a month, until now (August) I am still trying to get a payoff amount for my account. I have spent hours and hours on the phone, talking to people spanning India to Mexico, trying to get that information but they always say that someone in the accounting department must call me back and give me the amount. After 7 months, you can guess that not one single call has come.

I have requested my account to be canceled 3 times, yet every month they take the fees out of my account. I then tried to just stop the fees since they would not cancel my account but, nope, fees are still coming out. The only way I have been able to get the fees to stop is by doing a temporary hold for 1 month but they said I was only allowed two per year and so they are back debiting.

They used to be a great company and have paid off 3 credit cards for me but once they started outsourcing they have gone to crap and have not paid a single credit card off. Also, on Thursday, 12/3/2010 they kept sending my payments back and then canceling my account due to their own error in the NoteWorld department (their auto debit department). On hindsight, I should have just let them cancel it! They have also lied to me. They told me that when they negotiated an account it would show as paid in full or paid but, nope, it shows settled. That is still a negative on credit report!

I am sick and tired of trying to reach anyone that speaks English and sick and tired of trying to speak to the illusive accounting department that has to call me. They cannot transfer calls to that department nor can you call it. One day, in desperation, I did call and start dialing extension numbers until I found someone in the American office at extension 5001. When she answered I started telling her why I was calling and before I could get the whole sentence out she hung up on me! I was not yelling, cursing, or anything.

I paid J Hass group $390 per month from September 2010 to March 2011. They helped me with none of my debts being settled. I received a wage garnishment and called them several times to advocate for me. I called them and spoke to a random customer service representative as they said they don't have any specific person assigned to my account. They informed me that I'd need to pay into this for another year before they could help me. This was on March 7th 2011. I asked for a refund since they couldn't help me and have yet to help me at all.

This was very upsetting to me because either way, getting 30% of my wages garnished should cause J Hass group to understand that I now can't participate in this program and cannot afford anything at all. I called several times that week in frustration and talked to random people who didn't care much about my situation. I paid $2730 to them and received nothing. They refunded me $700 of the $2,730 that I paid them. I have asked for my money back and was denied.

In March of 2010, I contacted them for debt relief for three credit cards, since the companies would not work with me to settle something--being that my husband's hours had been cut at work. J Hass Group said that they would have me completely out of debt in three years, with a monthly payments. They said that they would negotiate with the credit card companies and I should not talk to them or make any more payments to them. Doing as they said, I received summons and they told me that they would take care of it. I recently received a court paper stating that the lawyer for the credit card showed up, but nobody was there for me. I was not told that I was on my own for this.

They did not negotiate anything for this account, but continued to get their monthly monies. I have recently received a garnishee disclosure, that they went directly after my bank account. I have no money in there, and possibly have bounced checks out there. I have another summon from another credit card and cannot get any answers from J Hass Group. Emails are not answered nor are my phone calls. I get someone who tells me that they are busy and will get back with me as soon as they are off the phone. I am still waiting. Now that there is no money in the bank, they will not get their monthly payment from me.

As the others here, I joined the J.Haas Group in October 2009 in the hopes of settling outstanding debt on several credit cards. As the others, I have been paying the monthly fee (660.00) for the past 10 months and getting virtually no service. I called today, after receiving a summons that I am being sued by Citibank for one of my credit card accounts and received a run around that J. Haas is on my side and that they would assign a 'priority negotiator' to this account today. I faxed in all correspondence from my creditors to them and faxed a letter to them on 6/18 from a law firm that was collecting for Citibank, stating that I had 30 days to dispute the balance due before Citibank would authorize them to sue me.

I don't dispute the balance due, I just could not pay them. I am working now but had been out of work for 8 months prior and I am now making less than half of what I made before. I just could not keep up with all of the accounts so I thought that by joining J.Haas I would take some responsibility to pay my debts. I advise anyone thinking of debt settlement to search for a reputable company. I thought this company was a good one but I was wrong. Stay clear of J. Haas Group. After speaking with this rep. today, I am closing my Note World account and will try to settle the debts the best way I can. Do not join this program!

I am sure that none of these phone numbers work anymore after reading everyone's comments here. I feel so incredibly stupid right now. I fell for J Hass Group too. After having a baby 2 months early, with my mother-in-law having a nervous breakdown and covering many of her expenses and then, having my husband laid off for a short period, I fell very behind on many of my payments. I contacted them, looking for help and in tears, and they totally took advantage of me! I was told to stop contacting my two creditors and that if I did, I would be breaking my contract with them.

Today, I went to court and got sued by one of my creditors when this entire time I was told everything was taken care of and I would stop receiving calls because the payments were set up and I would be paid off within 48 months! What a joke! I am just thankful that the creditor did sue me so I could see through their scam before they took me for any more. Currently, I'm trying to dispute at least the last two withdrawals from my account with my credit union and they are working on it for me. Anyone wants to sue them? I am totally in and very serious about this!

I now have to claim bankruptcy and when I talked to them, they tried to talk over me and also tried to hang up me. Eventually, they did after I let them know I wanted my money back! I currently have a saved message on my phone where the gentleman (and I use this word loosely) left me a very mean message after I told him off! I may look into posting this somewhere so everyone can hear it! This needs to be stopped and the sooner the better! I plan on sending a letter to my local papers as well to warn everyone in my location about these people. Do not fall for it! Get out as soon as you can because these people will not help you!

I signed up with the J. Hass group in the belief that they were licensed and had the ability to help me resolve my debt issues. I was approximately $11,400 in debt and wanted to get out of debt faster. I contacted the J. Hass group in an effort to assist me with this effort. I spoke to a telephone representative at J. Hass who assured me that the J. Hass group would work directly with my creditors and that the accounts would be settled and brought down to a zero balance over the course of a 30 month program. The electronic contract I signed stated that J. Hass Group did not recommend that the client stop making payments to their creditors. It stated that it was our decision whether or not to stop making payments. However, I was specifically advised by a J. Hass representative in my initial meeting to stop making payments to my creditors in order to participate in the program. Instead, I was told to make payments to a savings account from which they would make payments to settle my debt.

After making 9 months of payments ($258 monthly) and erroneously thinking that these payments were being distributed to my creditors in an effort to pay down my credit card balances, I began noticing a severe drop in my credit score. I contacted the J. Hass group on several occasions, and each time I was assured by the J. Hass telephone representative that the accounts were being handled that I didn't need to worry at all. I was assured that as long as my monthly payments were made to the J. Hass group, all of my accounts would be settled within the 30 month period with no problems. Feeling uneasy, I decided to re-read the electronic contract, and I realized that the telephone representatives were leaving out important information in an attempt to mislead me.

The contract stated that J. Hass offers no guarantee that the accounts would actually be settled within the 30 month time frame (although settlement was verbally guaranteed on several occasions by J. Hass representatives). The contract also stated that there was a significant risk that the credit card companies would refuse to settle; if this happened I could (and probably would) be sued by my creditors for the balances on the accounts (plus any applicable interest, fees, etc.). None of the risks were explained to me when i signed up for the program. I been aware that this was how the program worked, I certainly would not have signed up for it.

I contacted my creditors directly (even though the J.Hass group advised against this), and was horrified to discover that the J. Hass group lied when they said they were handling the accounts on my behalf. All three of my creditors (Chase, Citicards, and American Express) informed me that they had received absolutely no contact from the J. Hass group whatsoever. All of the accounts had gone into default. Furthermore, I discovered that (contrary to what the J. Hass representatives told me on several occasions); none of my creditors actually work with the J. Hass group because of their shady business practices. All of my accounts had been sent to collection agencies and all three companies were beginning to file the paperwork necessary to sue me. Had this occurred, my financial future would have been destroyed.

Luckily I was able to get a loan from my parents to settle the accounts by myself. J. Hass did absolutely nothing to handle these accounts, yet they still want to keep $1610 of my money that was paid to them to handle these accounts. Since October, I have paid a total of $2322 to the J. Hass group. When I requested a refund of my money, I was told that only $712 of this money would be refunded to me. The other $1610 was for "lawyer fees" associated with settling the accounts. Since I settled these accounts directly with my creditors (with absolutely no help from the J. Hass Group). I do not believe that they should be allowed to keep any of my money.

I have filed complaints with the Delaware Attorney General's Office, Arizona Attorney General's Office, Better Business Bureau, Department of Consumer Affairs, and RipoffReport.com in an attempt to bring attention to the scam that this company is doing and to help others out there that may be thinking of working with this company. Don't do it!

I signed up with them 1/09 but after 7 months into the program, I noticed that they were giving me the run around whenever I called them. I finally withdraw from the program after 7 months. I hired a lawyer who tried to contact them but to no avail. J. Haas Group send me the original letter my lawyer sent to them. Isn't that ironic

In Sept. 2009, I contacted J. Hass Group to settle two of my credit card debts totaling close to $10,000. I was told it would take approximately two years at $307.46 a month. Six months went by (and over $1,800) and they have not done anything for me. Out of frustration, I finally contacted my creditors and was able to settle/make arrangements.

I immediately contacted NoteWorld who was assigned as a third party servicing company and asked that my account be closed and to refund my money. I received a refund of $270.14! They have stolen over $1,500 of my money which I could use right now to pay off one of my credit cards. Unbelievable! I am in the process of contacting them (via certified letter) and asking them to explain themselves and why they think they are entitled to $1500 of my money for something they did not deliver on. This company misrepresents themselves in order to con people out of their money.

I fell for these guys. Don't you! They do absolutely nothing that you couldn't do yourself. I have been paying for eight months now. They have settled one account, refused to settle three others even though offers of paying 60% to settle have come in. Now, I have been served and they conveniently have that account not in their system. I strongly encourage anyone looking into this type of service, just do it yourself. I could have had over half my creditors dealt with had I done that. I was assured over and over again before I signed up that the fees would only be $43/mo. They are way more than that. I believe not only does J Haas lie, they completely misrepresent themselves. Like others, if there is a call for a class action, I will gladly participate.

J Hass Group is a rip off. They promise to pay your debts and do absolutely nothing. They tell you to not talk to the creditors that they will do it for you. When it all boils down, apparently they did not talk to the creditors either. You are hit with over the limit fees and late fees which adds up. Now I am in the process of being sued. When I contacted J Hass Group, they told me that I could contact the creditor and work out an agreement to settle this dept.

I signed up in November 2008. I have received no service. I have paid and paid. Today, I received a summons to appear in court. I don't even know what to do anymore. Am I being lied to? Should I stop paying them? Are they hoping that I stop paying them and try to do this on my own so they can keep the several thousands of dollars for doing nothing?

I entered into a contract with JD Haas to settle three debts for me. I would pay them $415.71 a month for thirty months and they would take over $3000 for their fees as well as another $39 a month for servicing fees and would use the remaining money to settle my debts by speaking with creditors and offering to pay in a lump sum. After 16 months in the program and approving two settlements, I found out that none of my creditors had been paid and that JD Haas had taken their fees for work that was never completed.

In the contract, it says that disputes will be settled by NAF, a company who the Minnesota Attorney General has found to be financially involved with the debt settlement companies and makes decisions for their benefit. NAF is supposed to be a neutral arbitration company. I have now paid out for services that were never rendered. I have paid out over $6000 over the past year and a half to settle debts. I am now being sued by one of the companies for the debt and the other two debts that were supposed to be paid by JD Haas, are still outstanding.

We have been with this company since November of 2008. We have several lawsuits filed against us. One, just received yesterday for a court appearance in Feb for deed of trust to our house and any other property owned unless we pay the amount. After several calls to the court, and the attorney for the collection company filing the suit, we found out that the J. Hass Group did not follow up with a phone call to this collection agency so they had no recourse but to file against us. I tried to call J. Hass Group with the same number shown above, and on their web site and it says that it is not a recognizable number, or that I need some kind of access code to call it. So I emailed them and asked for a response and as of yet (almost 24 hours), I still have heard nothing. I forgot to mention that, yes, they take the first 3 months payments upfront, but what we were not aware of was that the next 24 months, 1/3 of the payment goes towards your creditors bills and the other 2/3 goes to them until their fees are paid (figured upon the debts being settled.)

So, for another year, they are getting all of their money and trying to settle all of our debts with 1/3 of our payment to them. Anyone else find this with their payments? When my husband lost his job right before Christmas. We called them (we were able to get through to them at that time on the above phone number) and told them about the job loss, and asked for advise as to what to do. The gentleman said something to the effect of, "Oh my goodness, I will have to flag all the creditors and let them know." We asked them to call us back and let us know what we can do and that was the last we were able to get in touch with them on the above phone number. And yes, we were told to stop making payments to the creditors that we entrusted to them. They informed us that we would get calls from them wanting their payment, but ignore them.

When the calls became threatening for collection, I would call them and get the same response. We were to be patient, that if they start harassing or threatening us that we could have the calls forwarded to them by a special device to put into our phone line to re-route those calls. We were even hand-delivered a subpoena and were told that they would handle it. Every letter of threat or collection was faxed to J. Hass Group. To this date, as far as we know, (because we cannot reach them) only one Creditor has been settled. The last time I was able to talk to them, we asked for an update on our account, and nothing was received.

At this point, it doesn't appear they have done anything on our behalf other than take our money. We have since learned more about our situation and the remedies that are available to us without this company. In addition, we have learned that the company is not licensed and that according to Ariz. Rev. Statute 6-133 (2008) (criminalizing as a felony, violations of Ariz. Rev. Stat. 6-703 & 6-715 (2008) (prohibiting unlicensed debt management), with "each day of violation [consulting] a separate offense").

In the complaint that we filed with the Arizona attorney general's office we noted the following: As above, in the belief that this company was licensed, and it clearly not, we would like to see if there is any possibility of getting the money they have taken returned. As you will see in the contract we are including with this complaint, we paid $362. 56 for four months. They took the first three months in total and then deposited $151 of the next payment in the savings account they set up with note world. Even that amount was less than they indicated would be deposited. So, we would like to see if we might get back $1299 which they took and apparently did absolutely nothing on our behalf.

We are listing the J Hass Group web site so that you may see exactly what they are telling people. Please note that this company has litigation pending in the state of Florida. The information we found is as follows: TAMPA, Florida - It's a situation most families face at one point or another: trying to find the best way to pay off debt.

Unfortunately, for more and more Americans, their choices are proving to be counter-productive as more and more rip-off schemes are popping up to take advantage of the desperation. The Florida Attorney General and Florida Bar Association both say they've had their hands full recently with debt-settlement companies advertising their services in Florida and charging customers crazy fees for negotiating down their debt - or in some situations - not even contacting a customers' creditors.

The Attorney General's office has filed suit against five different debt-settlement companies in recent years, while its Economic Crimes division took action against multiple others. One firm they investigated was the Law Office of J. D. Hass, an Arizona-based attorney who solicited clients in Florida for debt-settlement services.

Should there ever be any interest in any sort of a class action proceeding against this bunch, we would certainly be willing to participate. Should you or others have any questions or require further information, we will be pleased to respond. We have severed our relationship with the J. Hass Group. As a result of their advice to not talk with or have any contact with creditors interest rates and late fees have exacerbated our situation.