I hired York, Whitman & Associates to collect an overdue debt from a general contractor who had not paid their bill. I am an electrical contractor in Houston Texas. I was initially contacted by Ashton Michaels and he explained that he would be handling my case. I gave him all the information about the situation and he said he would get to work on it. A few days later I was contacted by Edward York, the supposed head of the company. He informed me that his firm had two other claimants that were also trying to collect from this general contractor. He wanted to know if I would entertain joining them in a group and pooling our resources into one case against this contractor. I agree to take this route as I knew the other two claimants. Several weeks passed and I called to check on the progress of the case. I was informed that Ashton Michaels was no longer a member of the firm and I was put over to Ed York who informed me that an agreement had been reached and that payment was forthcoming. Several weeks later I received a legal document to sign, agreeing to the terms of the collection case and the amount that I would receive after their 25% fee. I signed the document and was given a small check which amounted to about one tenth of the amount owed. The next month I received another check and another check the following month. So after I had received three checks, The firm said that the contractor had stopped making payments and they were going to move to a more aggressive stage in order to collect the remaining amount. After a few months a settlement was reached with the contractor, I was called to their office to sign the new agreement. I was also informed at that time that one of the other claimants had backed out of the deal, not willing to settle for a lower amount, he was going to pursue other avenue's of collection. So it was just down to the two of us and I was the lesser owed party in the case. A month passed and the other claimant called me and asked if I had heard anything, he was not happy with the time it was taking and wanted to either pull out of the deal or do something to speed things up. I placed a call to Ed York who informed me that they had received the first payment of the settlement and was waiting for the check to clear before they would make a payout to us. Several days later Ed called and requested a meeting to make a payout. But, they had moved offices and he gave me the new address as in Pearland Texas. When I arrived I found the location to be a house in a residential neighborhood. I was told that the partnership in the firm had dissolved and they no longer had the offices that I had been visiting. Ed assured me that he was going to handle the case personally and everything would be fine. I got the impression from Ed that he was the one in charge and I presumed that he owned the firm now. That meeting yielded a check that his assistant and I took to the bank and cashed at the teller. At this point I had been paid everything except a final payment of $2,500.00 and they had been working on the case for about six months. A month later I hadn't received any word about the last check from Ed. A week later I got a call from the other claimant asking if I got my final check. I told him that I hadn't heard anything from Ed in 5 weeks. He told me that they called him last week to pick up his final check and he saw my check already made out and sitting there waiting for me to pick it up. I immediately called Ed, I got no response. I spent the next week trying to contact someone with the firm only to get a bunch of disconnected numbers and voice mails. Finally Ed called me back and informed me that he was no longer a part of the firm and I needed to collect my check from Sean Emesh as he was the owner of the firm and Ed just worked for him. He gave me a few phone numbers that went unanswered. One day I happened to be in Pearland so I dropped by the house on . A girl was coming out of the house and I asked her if Sean was there. She said that he was the landlord, she was renting the house. So I went to the Ft. Bend County Tax Office website and looked him up to see if he owned any other properties in Pearland, Sure enough there was another property listed at . So I headed over there. When I got there it was a gated community so I waited until someone came along to get in and I just slipped in behind them before the gate closed. I went to the house and knocked on the door and Sean answered, he was very surprised to see me, shocked would better describe his reaction to seeing me on his front porch. Now this was a very nice house and it was lavishly decorated, there was a Mercedes and a Saleen sitting in the driveway. I was asked in and ushered to the study and offered a seat. I asked him what was up with the case and why hadn't I been given my final check and why did I have to hunt him down to get an answer. Sean told me that the day after he had given the other claimant his check the bank took back a 200k deposit from their account leaving them with nothing and they had to close the firm. He said he had filed paperwork to get his money back but that it might take years to get it back under the circumstances. He couldn't send me a hot check so he never sent it to me. He said that Ed York was supposed to contact me and explain all of this to me. He told me that there was nothing he could do about getting me my final payment. So, that is how I got screwed. Were they dishonest? I don’t think so unless the whole story is a load of hockey. I did receive four payments, for $4,300.00 total and was left being owed the final $2,500.00. I talked to the contractor and he had proof that he made the final payment to York, Whitman & Associates as per his agreement. I also talked to the other claimant, he cashed his check at the bank the hour he picked it up from Ed York, allegedly the day before the bank reversed the large deposit in their account, if I had known to pick up my check that day I would have gotten my money but someone dropped the ball and neglected to call me that the check was ready.
York, Whitman and Associates Reviews
I hired York, Whitman & Associates to collect an overdue debt from a general contractor who had not paid their bill. I am an electrical contractor in Houston Texas. I was initially contacted by Ashton Michaels and he explained that he would be handling my case. I gave him all the information about the situation and he said he would get to work on it. A few days later I was contacted by Edward York, the supposed head of the company. He informed me that his firm had two other claimants that were also trying to collect from this general contractor. He wanted to know if I would entertain joining them in a group and pooling our resources into one case against this contractor. I agree to take this route as I knew the other two claimants. Several weeks passed and I called to check on the progress of the case. I was informed that Ashton Michaels was no longer a member of the firm and I was put over to Ed York who informed me that an agreement had been reached and that payment was forthcoming. Several weeks later I received a legal document to sign, agreeing to the terms of the collection case and the amount that I would receive after their 25% fee. I signed the document and was given a small check which amounted to about one tenth of the amount owed. The next month I received another check and another check the following month. So after I had received three checks, The firm said that the contractor had stopped making payments and they were going to move to a more aggressive stage in order to collect the remaining amount. After a few months a settlement was reached with the contractor, I was called to their office to sign the new agreement. I was also informed at that time that one of the other claimants had backed out of the deal, not willing to settle for a lower amount, he was going to pursue other avenue's of collection. So it was just down to the two of us and I was the lesser owed party in the case. A month passed and the other claimant called me and asked if I had heard anything, he was not happy with the time it was taking and wanted to either pull out of the deal or do something to speed things up. I placed a call to Ed York who informed me that they had received the first payment of the settlement and was waiting for the check to clear before they would make a payout to us. Several days later Ed called and requested a meeting to make a payout. But, they had moved offices and he gave me the new address as in Pearland Texas. When I arrived I found the location to be a house in a residential neighborhood. I was told that the partnership in the firm had dissolved and they no longer had the offices that I had been visiting. Ed assured me that he was going to handle the case personally and everything would be fine. I got the impression from Ed that he was the one in charge and I presumed that he owned the firm now. That meeting yielded a check that his assistant and I took to the bank and cashed at the teller. At this point I had been paid everything except a final payment of $2,500.00 and they had been working on the case for about six months. A month later I hadn't received any word about the last check from Ed. A week later I got a call from the other claimant asking if I got my final check. I told him that I hadn't heard anything from Ed in 5 weeks. He told me that they called him last week to pick up his final check and he saw my check already made out and sitting there waiting for me to pick it up. I immediately called Ed, I got no response. I spent the next week trying to contact someone with the firm only to get a bunch of disconnected numbers and voice mails. Finally Ed called me back and informed me that he was no longer a part of the firm and I needed to collect my check from Sean Emesh as he was the owner of the firm and Ed just worked for him. He gave me a few phone numbers that went unanswered. One day I happened to be in Pearland so I dropped by the house on . A girl was coming out of the house and I asked her if Sean was there. She said that he was the landlord, she was renting the house. So I went to the Ft. Bend County Tax Office website and looked him up to see if he owned any other properties in Pearland, Sure enough there was another property listed at . So I headed over there. When I got there it was a gated community so I waited until someone came along to get in and I just slipped in behind them before the gate closed. I went to the house and knocked on the door and Sean answered, he was very surprised to see me, shocked would better describe his reaction to seeing me on his front porch. Now this was a very nice house and it was lavishly decorated, there was a Mercedes and a Saleen sitting in the driveway. I was asked in and ushered to the study and offered a seat. I asked him what was up with the case and why hadn't I been given my final check and why did I have to hunt him down to get an answer. Sean told me that the day after he had given the other claimant his check the bank took back a 200k deposit from their account leaving them with nothing and they had to close the firm. He said he had filed paperwork to get his money back but that it might take years to get it back under the circumstances. He couldn't send me a hot check so he never sent it to me. He said that Ed York was supposed to contact me and explain all of this to me. He told me that there was nothing he could do about getting me my final payment. So, that is how I got screwed. Were they dishonest? I don’t think so unless the whole story is a load of hockey. I did receive four payments, for $4,300.00 total and was left being owed the final $2,500.00. I talked to the contractor and he had proof that he made the final payment to York, Whitman & Associates as per his agreement. I also talked to the other claimant, he cashed his check at the bank the hour he picked it up from Ed York, allegedly the day before the bank reversed the large deposit in their account, if I had known to pick up my check that day I would have gotten my money but someone dropped the ball and neglected to call me that the check was ready.