It appears persistence and momentum does pay off.  WRBL News 3 finally paid attention to the Cobra Collection scam story on June 14, 2007.  However, they called it the “Cobra Collection Controversy“.  Boy, is that an understatement.  I liked WTVM’s title much better because it was more bold but also accurate.  In their broadcasts, they titled it a “business scam” and “collection scam”.

I don’t really know how the process of getting a local story on-air at all.  I have managed to stumble my way through the process a few times but it has always been a chaotic process.  But I am happy Janice Park of WRBL finally caught wind of it and decided to move on it.

She said my email sounded like I was angry with them (WRBL).  Actually, I was more frustrated because I didn’t understand why I got a poor response.  I thought there was so much put together and the client accounts of $6 million would be large enough.

I was thinking to myself, does Cobra Collections have have to blow up a building or the client accounts to reach $10 million to make the news?  If it wasn’t going to be a good story, why not? I simply wanted to know.

Anyhow, after scrambling around making calls, I provided Janice Park a list of people who would appear on camera to talk.  Steve Klemetti of Central Print & Signs and Nancy Wilhite of Dr. Jay Brodwyn’s office were both willing to help the cause.  I was grateful and they did a fantastic job.

In my interview with WRBL, I attempted to be concise.  As always, it was interesting to see what they would choose to air.  I looked like hell after standing in the sun sweating while talking to the cameraman.  But we finally came into my air-conditioned private office and knocked out the interview.

The June 14, 6pm airing was nice clocking at nearly 3 minutes, however the 11pm airing was a bit more disappointing.  Nevertheless, it was far more than we were getting before.  You could see my website CobraCollectionScam.com in the news story.

I asked Janice Park to be straight with me after I thanked her.  I said if this piece was done and did not warrant an update, I would not supply her any new information.  I had said the same thing to Zaneta Lowe of WTVM.  Fortunately, both reporters were open to updates.  So, for now, I have a direct line and email to the two reporters if there are any significant developments.

If any of you want to see the WRBL news story, you can see the video on WRBL.com and CobraCollectionScam.com.

Zaneta Lowe has quickly followed up on the heels of her June 1, 2007 story on Janice Ledden and the Cobra Collections story by doing a revisit and expansion of the original story.

In today’s story, Zaneta Lowe interviewed a previous landlord of Cobra Collections.  Additionally, she recapped the previous story while introducing my newest website, CobraCollectionScam.com.  You can view the news clip on that site.

CobraCollectionScam.com continues to grow with the surge of new reports and information coming in.  The stories has helped trigger 3 ex-employees to read the website and come forward.

Zaneta has once again done a great service to the local business community.

The onslaught of information being submitted for CobraCollectionScam.com has taken a significant amount of my time this past week.

I obviously am not required to volunteer my time to sort, organize, and report the new Cobra Collection Agency and Janice Ledden information being submitted to me.  However, I also realize very few people have the flexibility of time, the skills, the means, and the internal fortitude to commit to this course of action.

For years, I have lived and worked in Columbus, GA relatively anonymously.  And now, I find myself in a more visible position in the local area.  Not to mislead anyone to think that I am “famous” locally, but I have met and interacted with more new local people this past week than I have in 3-4 years time!

I think (and hope) I will soon hit a stopping point where I do not have to continually update information.  I believe I have captured most of the important background information but new information and stories could be submitted.

The upside to all of this is that I do not think my time is being wasted.  This new website has shot to the first page within Google on various search names and phrases within a few days.  Obviously, this blog has gathered a lot more local interest than it ever has before.

Sure, I don’t mind being better known but for leading the charge on scam-busting?  That will be an interesting title to add to my resume.

Two days ago local TV station WTVM Channel 9 got wind of the brewing Cobra Collections story here in the Columbus GA area.  Zaneta Lowe, reporter for WTVM, paid a visit to Janice Ledden and several “victimized” business customers.  I was one of those unhappy business customers.  I was informed that a fellow business associate, Lisa Mize, of Coldwell Banker Kennon, Parker, Duncan, & Key’s Rental Department, passed my name along as the keeper of the Cobra Collection Agency web page.

Zaneta Lowe left a message for me yesterday morning.  I returned her call around 1pm and she said she was doing a story that would appear at 5pm.  I thought to myself that was very quick but they were committed to doing it.  I informed Zaneta that she needed to be aware of the web page which had more complete information than any one person would know.

Initially, I did not plan to meet with her.  However, seeing as she was going to run the story, I thought I had to accommodate her.  They came over to my home and we sat discussing the situation and story.  While the cameraman was filming, the camera ran out of film which interrupted our flow.  Then, the camera ran low in battery power which caused another interruption.  I bring that up because I provided far more information than what was displayed on the aired story where I stumbled on my words.  I suppose you just never know what will make it on camera and what will be left behind.

In any case, the TV story meant that people are starting to take seriously the Cobra Collections situation I reported months ago.  Surprisingly, Janice Ledden volunteered to talk to Zaneta.  I suppose if she tried to avoid it, it would have made herself look worse.

In any case, the story was covered several times between Friday, June 1 and Saturday, June 2 on the various newscasts.  I was informed it also made it to the news FOX affiliate (and sister station) WXTX-54 broadcast at 10pm.  A good number of people I know saw the story.  I had no idea so many people watched the news.

The videos have been posted to the Cobra Collection Agency Scam website.

As I suspected, my company and I are not the only victims of this crooked collection agency.  I knew victims would eventually want to start looking for ways to take action against Cobra Collection Agency. 

Essentially, all anyone has to do is contact the Better Business Bureau in Columbus, GA to submit a complaint.  If you do a search on “Cobra Collections”, you will find all the contact information made available to the general public.

 It would appears that they confirm the address as:  3500 University Ave, Suite 4, Columbus GA 31907.  I placed a link to the Google map for anyone who wants to visit them personally.

The latest phone and FAX numbers (which were previously unknown to me) are: 706.562.2343 and 706.562.2347 respectively.  It appears I was correct in my last post.  They changed their phone numbers.  I suspect their old phone lines were simply getting “too popular”.  Imagine that.

Because I foresee more updates from various people coming out of the woodwork, I have created a new Category just for Cobra Collections Agency on this blog.  I truly hate dwelling on the negativity of it all.  But I cannot stand idly by and do nothing when it is in my power to help the situation.  By comparison, I have lost relatively little money compared to the reports coming in.

Up to this point, I have kept my personal opinions to a minimum.  But as more information comes in, I will be providing more insights as to what I think is happening.  For now, I will continue collecting and reporting information for my fellow business community members in Columbus, GA and Phenix City, AL.

 Update:  For the latest information, visit The Cobra Collection Agency Scam website.

==========================

 Matt,

    I unfortunately last year had Cobra Collections to work some delinquent accounts of mine.  You can only guess what has happened.  They have collected my monies and I in return have got nothing.  I am now going through my accounts and getting them to get me all the cleared checks so I can pursue a suit against this company.  I did make a call into a Nicole Dickerson at the attorneys number you had listed on your site.  I just wanted to say thank you for listing this info.  I would not have had any other way of knowing who to call.  I have been on the phone with the BBB and they have been very helpful.  I also wanted to give you COBRAS new number.  I have not called them because I didn’t want to scare them into changing there number again until I can get all my info together.  For your info 706-562-2343.  I may not be able to get any of my money out of them but I would like to let them  know they cannot do this to people.

   Again, thank you so much for your blog.

Jennifer xxxxx (Last name & company name deleted intentionally)

I won’t get into lots of details here but I will reveal some undeniable and absolutely verifiable information.  But there are some things I want to make absolutely clear here. 

As of December 2006, I (as president of my corporation) issued a written Cease and Desist Order to Cobra Collection Agency that we did not want to utilize their collection services any longer (verifiable through a letter I wrote). 

After months of asking for reports and payments (absolutely verifiable through a series of emails and letters), it became too problematic to work with the owner, Janice Ledden, her staff, and firm any longer.  A bad working relationship had to end.

We finally did get a report and a check.  But then that check bounces (absolutely verifiable through a copy of the NSF check).  I have charged my law firm to collect from them.  Can you imagine that?  Collecting from a collections agency?  How ironic is that?  Time will tell if I will get any money from Cobra Collection Agency at all.  If not, I will consider it a valuable lesson learned indeed.

There was a time I was friendly with Cobra Collection Agency and I volunteered to register and set up a website called cobraagency.com.  I have no ownership or management interest in the company.  The only relationship I have with them is simply as an ex-client.  I have relinquished the domain cobraagency.com back to the public.  I want nothing to do with it and regret registering it as it has been misinterpreted by others that I may have had an ownership or management interest in Cobra Collection Agency.  It is simply not true and not the case.

I have my suspicions and opinions of what is going on but I cannot publicly say it.  Nor is it really that important.  What is important to the public at large is that I issued a Cease and Desist Order in December 2006 and wished I had done it sooner.  Getting a NSF check from them only reinforced my thought that I did the right thing.

Update:  For the latest information, visit The Cobra Collections Agency Scam website.