Palmer, Reifler & Associates review: Threatened to sue if I didn't pay 38

It sounds like Mica1755 may work for this fraudulent company. He needs to pull his head out of his @#*

I went to a lawyer and he said that they are not allowed to contact u 1st of all because u dont live in Florida and 2nd of all if u tell them to stop contacting...change ur phone number and if they keep calling u take them to court for harassing u

I received a letter from these people and I had not idea what they were talking about, so following was my response to them, as my husband had been deceased for FIVE years!
____________________________________________________
To Whom It May Concern,

Imagine my surprise when I received your letter of a "settlement offer". Upon opening the enclosed letter, addressed to my LATE husband •••••••••••••• I couldn't help but think that you guys are scammers and that you should be ashamed of yourselves. I have therefor reported your company for fraud.

By the way, I am well aware that this letter was addressed to ••••••••••••• on behalf of HOME DEPOT, but as his widow I have the right to open his mail. Of course, this is only because his cremated remains are unable to do so.

I am extremely upset as I don't know what in the world you are implying in this letter. I can only deduct from the information and your tone of said letter, that Home Depot is requesting "restitution". Well, you are more than a day late and a few dollars short, and I am extremely upset about this letter. The fact that it also comes from Florida speaks volumes.

My husband passed away November 26, 2005 and to be reminded of that fact by this letter and threatening tone, is most disheartening and distressing. He was shot and killed in our home, the murderer never found. I can only deduct that this is some kind of extortion plan in an attempt to get money out of a widow. Almost five years have passed, you have to be bloody kidding!

My husband is deceased and I have not idea what you are after. I am sure this is a case of fraud, a Nigerian letter of sorts. Now days one can't be too careful. Mind you, each person who attempt to distort money from me and family receives a letter noting my displeasure. Please refrain from contacting me again as I will contact the appropriate authorities to deal with you personally. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Please, know that I will not tolerate this kind of communique and will notify the police in this matter if I have to.

Sincerely pissed off,
______________________________________________________
I have no idea what issue my late husband had with THE HOME DEPOT! Then on top of that, FIVE YEARS LATER, WTF!

Same thing happened with me and Officemax. I wasn't actually fired I ended up quitting (they even asked me if I wanted to finish out the week) and that was that. I'd get into the details of it but it's been over 4 years now since the incident so my memory of how it went down is a blur. Basically it started with a misunderstanding with return items, one was not put back in the proper place and somehow it was assumed I stole it or something. I got very very angry when I was approached about it. The item was later found misplaced which was absolutely insane to me.

Once I explained myself, the situation and talked to some theft manager about it I realized people had assumed I stole something and people were talking behind my back for about a week. It seemed more of a ploy to get me out of there as I had been working there for a long time. So instead of continuing to work with a disrespectful crew who can't be honest with me I ended up quitting. They asked if I wanted to continue working till the end of the week (the incident happened on a Tuesday) I said no.

No criminal charges or anything were processed, simply the incident ended and I was done. A month later I received a letter from Palmer Reifler saying I owed $300+ for civil damages. I instantly went to an attorney about it the advice I got was to ignore the letter because the firm was attempting to bully me to giving them money because officemax gave them my information. Pretty soon they got my number as well, kept calling me with auto messages, people who I were connected didn't know any relationship to the real incident, they just have a set amount ($300) and hope they collect some money in the process. Only if they follow up and try to take me to court then I should take the incident seriously, attorney also told me the chances of this are slim to none.

I lost all respect for officemax after this happened, I didn't do anything wrong and when a misunderstanding happens with one product they instantly assume theft and don't even give their employees a chance to explain what happened. My advice is if anyone goes through an experience like this don't ever let your guard down. If you did not steal and are being harassed to pay a fine of some sort, never do it. Palmer Reifler deals with thousands of 'clients' sent from various companies to try to make some money, or as they say to make up for money lost due to theft. The problem is the victims who are completely innocent but information is sold to them and their auto system. For the longest time no matter how many times I told them about the incident everyone who I talked to didn't know any details on what happened.

They just said give them money and that was that. I did not give them money because I did not do anything wrong. The issue is over now but once in a while I check the internet to see if anyone has gone through the same thing as me. It caused me a lot of grief for a year, but the more I learned about my rights the more confident I got that I will be ok. If you are innocent then you have nothing to worry about and owe no one anything. Good luck.

-Fred

Fred,

Thank you for input. I have no idea what these idiot are talking about, as I was never aware of my late husband getting "arrested" by Home Depot or anyone else for that matter.

For all I care they can all go to hell as I will not be intimidated or have some legal group try and extort money from me. They sent me another form letter and I just faxed the same letter in response. My next stop is the attorney generals office and we'll go on from there!

Mica1755, No problem, I did not take what you said to lawguru personally. I think that person works for this company anyway. I am so tired of the flim flam companies that are out there trying to get money out of you, me, or anyone. I am sick to death of it and have told some people I would be glad to put the phone on the box of ashes for them so that they can talk to my dead husband. More power to them if they can get some money out of him.

We too, have been receiving these demand letters from Palmer, Reifler, & Ass0c. after my 16 year old daughter was falsely accussed of shoplifting at Wal-Mart. Security accussed her of taking two tubes of mascara, which she did not do and had absolutely no merchandise whatsoever in her possession. After holding her for more than one hour trying to get her to confess to taking something that she didn't take, the security personnel sent her with a polic office to the city jail! She was not charged, but had to wait there for me, her mother, to go pick her up. Aside from the humiliation of this incident, she and I had to attend a meeting with an intake officer at the courthouse. After hearing our account, and realizing that my daughter has never been in trouble, and is an AP/Honors student in high school with no criminal record or such, he immediately dismissed the incident as needing any sort of investigation and sent us on our way. Fast forward a few more weeks, and we are suddenly being harassed by this law firm with threatening letters and phone calls. The best part is that the listed value of merchandise or damages is $0.00! But the civil damand is in the amount of over $300. Over my dead body. They will never see one red cent from us. What perplexes me most is how this telephone harassment is even legal, or any of it for that matter. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that when my daughter requested to review the security tape that they claimed they had, to prove that she did nothing, the Wal-Mart staff refused.

This company contacted me for the same thing, i quit my job at gordmans and now palmer is trying to get me to pay 375.00 they can kiss my white [censor] because i am not paying one cent to this scam. I am on the phone waiting to speak my choice words letting them know that if they want to "sue" me they can take my [censor] to court because my lawyer will be along side of me defending my rights and going against telocomunication harrasment of a business burreua even though is is not a business it is a scam trying to get money out of innocent people who didn't do [censor]. I just got off the phone with these fraud losers and they said ok we will not notify you anymore. Then they started speaking spanish after i clearly spoke up and told her i was AMERICAN and WILL take them to court if they further contact me.

I too worked for officemax and now four months after I QUIT because the LP manager was trying to get me to confess stealing from the register and safe. I am demanded to pay 808.52 really? I laughed because I know I am not guilty of stealing. And I had been seen by the LP manager 5 times in one week after being harassed I quit and she told me she would be calling the towns PD and if I didn't wait for them they would meet me at my house I said send them then because I'll save myself the non needed humiliation...well they never showed up. But if they had evidence I had comited a crime they would have had me arrested as I have seen them do with many other employees that did in fact steal. After reading many articles on this law firm I know to just ignore it and move on with my life. Thank you!

Guys, if so many of us have been spammed by the same people for roughly the same reasons, why're we posting all of this and complaining instead of joining together and legally bringing them down? I have a check that's been cashed by them.. which means it has their signatures.. I have letters and bank statements.. we're all witnesses and there's so many of us, we can do this. please.

My name is Trina Carter and I have to pay Kmart money for theft. I use to work at Kmart in Harrahn, Louisiana, I received a letter from this company I think and I seem to have miss placed it. If this is the right company please send me the letter again. I tried calling the company but could not get through. I received the number from Kmart Loss Prevention I don't know my account number. Please feel free to email me the information or another letter in the mail. Thanks Trina Carter

I did get caught stealing at walmart at 2 months ago. walmart said that they were going to send me a letter telling them to pay for the damages i then received a letter from palmers and associates. telling me to pay 575$ do you guys think i should pay it?

DONT PAY [censor] ITS A SCAM. THEY WONT TAKE YOU TO COURT ITS AN AUTOMATIVE SCAM. EITHER YELL AT THEM OR IGNORE THEM AND THEY WILL JUST MOVE ON.

I got caught stealing a month ago from walmart $63.04 worth of stuff.. they kept it and called the cops.. I went to jail and now i have court tomarrow.. I got a lettr from the Palmer.. for $200?! When they kept everything and i went to jail.. i didnt pay and now I got another leter requesting $550.. can they really take me to court however?

I have also just received a letter from Palmer, Reifler & Assoc, P.A. stating that they represent H & M Retail Store where my 13 year old daughter was caught stealing for the first (AND LAST!) time. The item in question was a $20 purse. They are "strongly encouraging" me to pay a $500 "Civil Damages" fee. There were no charges filed and my daughter was released to me at the store. No police were involved whatsoever. The threat is if I don't pay the may "consider filing a lawsuit". I am just now getting ready to sit down and compose a letter to them stating that if they want to take me to court, GO AHEAD! I cannot imagine them going to the trouble of instigating a lawsuit over a $20 purse that my 13 year old stole! I wont be paying them ANYTHING!

This was the SAME Law firm that I had to deal with regarding SEARS. The ### who were behind SEARS and CITI-BANK were cutthroat in regarding to a credit card bill that was in the amount of $3, 335.60. They HAVEN'T CALL ME back since. Why? I reported them to the FTC and the FBI for fraudulent charges and harassment.

i got a third settlement offer from palmer, reifler& Associates. its says that i stole somthing at claries (but i didnt) and it told the date, it was on a tuesday and i had school on that day. they got my name wrong but my adddress coreect, idk, what should i do now ?

will this go on your record? can it affect you on getting jobs or future carreers?

My daughter was caught shoplifting from H&M 3 months ago, the manager let her go, they have the merchandise, just told her to never step foot in their stores again. She tried to take something of less than $40 value. Last week she received one of those letters, requesting she pay $500. She's afraid to not pay it so she called them. They told her to pay $250 then $50 a month. She can't afford it, she's in college and has no job. She's applying everywhere. Since she's of age and indeed guilty, I haven't stepped in but I hate to see her give $500 to a bully tactic company. I wish the store itself had fined her instead. Any advice? Thanks!

Anyone can file a civil lawsuit and sue for whatever reason. However, it is a very costly process. When you make contact with these people, you are acknowledging receipt of their civil demand. Avoid contact. If you are innocent, there is absolutely nothing to worry about anyway. Do not pay their demand amount. In our case, I blocked the phone numbers and did not pay their ridiculous demand for an accusation of something that never even happened. It is not on my credit report and they did not pursue it further, because it would have only cost them money. There is no way they would have won. If you are guilty, it's a gamble. But if the merchandise amount was small, I would not pay. More likely than not, they don't have the time, manpower, or extra money to move forward with the demand. It is just that, a demand. Bully tactic. Ignore. Ignore. Ignore.

I also received a letter from them that i needed to pay for damages. I was working at Rite Aid company, the LP claimed that I stoled $3 ice cream how this happened was due to the fact that my supervisor didn't ring up the ice cream and that i was not aware of this happening. I didn't know this even happened. When she rang me up I already clock out and we were already closing to go home. At that time i was not on the clock but to there understanding I should always check my receipt. I was treated like a thief. The LP force me to sing and, if I didn't sing that I was going to jail. I trusted that that supervisor was doing her job and now bcuz of her I need to pay from $375 to 500. I got scared and started making payments but now this is to much. I know I was not wrong and being accused of something I didn't do or even had control of the situation. What should i do I'm not working and I'm a single parent.I'm scared that this is going to be on my record. They said if I dont pay that they are going to pursued chargers against me. I tried negotiating with the company directly but they said is out of there hands that i need to arranged something with Palmer directly. Can somebody please let me know what should I do?

We live in King County, WA ( Washington State, Today our 19 year old Son received a letter from Palmer, Reifler & Associated threatening to sue him if he doesnt not pay them $200 for an alleged something with WalMart. The date they say it happened my Son was on the clock at work! We cannot afford an Attorney. Can someone please help? We cant have this hanging over his head or hurting his credit at such a youn age! I have worried sick all eve about this to the point of vomiting. We are smart enought not to contact the senders of the letter, but where can I turn now to get them to stop contact? PLEASE HELP!

additional remarks regarding our Son in King Co, WA ( he was looking at some headphones with his girlfriend and they didnt buy anything but loss prevention followed them out and accused them of taking them so my Son said " we didnt take anything you can search us or call the cops" The store employee then said " well I need your name, address and phone # ". Our son gave it because he was thinking the guy would call the cops to show them he didnt take them, The loss prevention guy then said " well you may be getting a letter in the mail saying you owe $100 or so for attempted theft" My Son then said "you have no right to keep me here as I did not commit a crime" This was on July 3, 2013. The letter was sent out to us on July 8. We received it today. Sounds like Walmart, H&M & JCPenneys need to be reported to the media. Their loss prevention sounds like they are the ones that need to be watched. Sounds like an elaborate inside scam being sponsored by these retailers!. What can we all do on a larger scale?

They contact me up 5 times a day looking for different people telling me I need to pay for them. Major scam artists. Besides what American Company hires out to the United Kingdom for some sort of debt collection. I think not and anyone believing so is a fool. I don't care if you live in Florida, it's much cheaper to use an India out source calling before a UK one. This company is based in the UK and has nothing to do with America other than they get a call sheet of some kind. Kind of like a spam list.

My wife received a letter from them demanding $900 for a civil complaint from Michael's. She did work at Michael's but gave a two week notice to take another job. So we have no idea how she fell on their list... But I did some research on Palmer, Reifler & Associates and found they where sued by the State of Florida for their practices in 2008. Another site said if you are contacted by them to file a complaint with The Florida Bar Attorney Consumer Assistant Program... I'm sure if they get enough calls maybe they'll get sued again! Haha I'm calling Monday!

My fiancé got the same letter saying he "allegedly stole merchandise from Walmart. He did not. The police were called but found nothing in his possession. We have the police report stating this. There is no way we are paying this. We are leaving the country so will not even bother contacting them but I would like to threaten them with false accusations and take them to court. My guess is that this is an automated system that pulls up details from incidences involving stores but no actual investigation has been done on the part of this law office. If you have settled with the store and or police etc then you probably have nothing at all to worry about. You could seek free legal advice if you are unsure but do not pay them before you have sought advice.

Calls me all hours of the night and day for someone I don't even know. I have called on several occasions to let them know but it's nothing more than an automated operated and they never answers. I even filed with the FCC and they could not contact them.

Scam company.

My son was fired from Lids (here in Canada) after he was accused of stealing. He was told by his manager at the time that he COULD wear hats out of the store...good advertising. He did this on probably 5 or 6 occasions but ALWAYS returned them to the shelf for sale. He admitted to this and was fired. A month later he received a call from their Loss Prevention manager demanding payment of $950 with the hour "to make it go away". My son refused and told the guy he would contact his lawyer and have him contact Lids directly. He then called back several times, sometimes using a Magic Jack number threatening my son. He refused to give my son his name, however we traced it and found out his name.

My son contacted Lids himself to report this guy for harassment, but they never returned his call.

Today, he received a letter from Palmer, Reifler & Associates demanding payment of $1440 within 30 days.

I just received the same type of letter everyone in this forum is talking about and the first thing I told myself was this was a scam because I had absolutely no idea what these people or Wal-Mart was talking about. The letter accused me of stealing and said I could settle with them for $300. I'm so happy I decided to look into this further before I contacted them or else they would probably harass me too. I'm going to ignore the letter as my instincts about it was right all along. From what I've read here I don't believe I'll be receiving anymore in the future.

An aquaintance of mine was caught trying to shoplift a can of spray paint and some candy. He states this is his first offence, and I believe him. He is an adult. He has a court date in a few days. The merchandise was kept by the store, undamaged. Yesterday he got a letter demanding $200, similar to what everyone else got. There were no details in the letter of the offence, just the date of the offence and where, which is public police record.
He is panicked. He is on disability, and has no money, no savings. He asked me what to do. I told him I suspect a scam, and that I would look this up. This site is what I found. I told him to just go to court and let the judge decide what will happen. But after reading these comments, I will also advise him to ignore the letters, as he was going to call them Monday. This person has serious health issues, and was in the hospital w/high blood pressure. He actually passed out when someone took him to the emergency room last week. This kind of stress can kill someone, as he also has heart stents and a psychiatric diagnosis. Thank you all for your input. I will pass this along to him.

Don't pay - its a scam, a collections agency, they have never sued anyone. Yes, they do have Sr. internet trolls on here challenging us, trying to prey on our shame & fear to pay them. We don't owe them anything. Wait it out, i t will go away. They send 3 letters & make automated calls. Its all smoke & mirrors. WAIT they use the list of folks who pay to monitor you for the rest of your life! Retailers watch you forever.

What ever you do DON'T Pay! Block the calls, never respond. They're counting on your shame & fear to pay.
SO - you made a mistake - DON'T MAKE ANOTHER!

Mid November I worked for Dicks Sporting Goods and found a gift card laying on the floor. I worked at the register so I made an inquiry on it and there was $50 left on it. I kept the gift card. Then weeks later I was terminated due to "theft" because of keeping said gift card. Instead of filing a lawsuit against me they asked me to pay the $50 back, so two days later I mailed a $50 check to the address they had given me (Palmer Reifler & Associates) with my name, the company, and intentional misappropriation written on it. About 1-2 weeks later the check was cashed, documented in my transaction history on my bank website. And now two months later I am receiving calls from PR&A saying i had broken the payment agreement and that if i do not act immediately they will contact their "client" and may take civil action. Not sure what to do? I'm 18, Im a college student and have multiple payments to be made and can't go on handing out $50 to some company that is said to be no good. ESPECIALLY since I already made the payment. What should i do?

Do nothing. Because you paid something they will be more aggressive in their threats to you. Your name is on their dumb ### list now.
Block the calls, keep the letters in case someone files suit later & you want to be part of it. Wait, it will stop. It may take a year as they
know they can frighten you so expect more threats. Don't pay. Change your phone number if you can't block the calls. Ignore it,
forget about it. Yes, you made a mistake, Don't make another. Move on. They have never sued a single person, ever. This is a lucrative
collections scheme nothing more, all bark, no bite. These are sleazy bottom feeders, professional collections people. All they do all day is make
threats. You owe nothing.

Do nothing. Ignore it. They will not sue you, they have never sued anyone. They are a bottom feeder collection agency, all they do is make threats.
Change your phone number if you can't block them. You made one mistake, don't make another.

http://www.palmerreiflerlaw.com/litigation/ If you dispute whether you stole from the store where you worked, please submit that dispute in writing and we will pass that information on to the store and have it reviewed.

Palmer Reifler SCAM in a nut shell
PRA are sleazy bottom feeder lawyers who've created a business based on extortion.
Their practices are marginally legal. Their ethics are despicable.
Don't pay, you owe nothing. If you pay it will be worse for you. You will be followed in retail stores
for the rest of your life. This information will follow you into job interviews. Whatever you do, DONT PAY! The calls &letters will go away. Block them, get a new phone & forget about it.

PRA are SO much bigger than just shoplifting. They have never sued a single person, they don't have to
because dupes like us send them money!

Retailers LOVE PRA because its free revenue for them. They provide PRA with names.
PRA control the curriculum of DOC theft classes.

The reason this information is not all over the internet is because PRA trolls scour the internet &
corrupt all the files they don't like. PRA's golden goose is worth hundreds of millions.

Be smart, don't make another stupid expensive mistake.

I have personally filed lawsuits for our law firm and we also refer matters out to referral counsel for litigation as well. You may think it is ok to disparage a legitimate business by expressing your opinions when you most likely have not fully researched the law but instead have relied on "first time" articles and message boards to form those opinions. For example, our law firm won the Kelly law suit although if you read the initial articles posted about the suit, you might think we had don't something wrong. It is not acceptable to publish false statements about a business and when you say that we have never sued a single person, you are WRONG. Please do not publish false information about us anymore. We are allowed to make requests on behalf of our clients to recover losses admitted by former employees as well as statutory civil damages when people engage in shoplifting and we have and do file civil lawsuits regarding theft cases on behalf of retailers. We also work with attorneys that are licensed in various jurisdictions in the US so please look at the name of the attorney that signed the initial civil settlement offer letter before making assumptions about whether it is "ok" for the firm to send a letter into another state etc. Thank you. http://www.palmerreiflerlaw.com/litigation/

### them. if they send me any letter they're not getting a ###. i was told today i changed a price tag. i paid for the ###ing merchandise and i was still accused of shoplifting. i just got nervous and didn't know what to do. after reading all these, if that ###ing "officer" shows up in front of my face i will ###ing knock him out.