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Monday, March 13, 2006

The 2/27/06 settlement conference with Target, Cap One and Equifax

Been so busy, almost forgot to post about this event.  Snell & Willmer, the Target attorneys, provided conference rooms in their Phoenix office. 

Capital One was first.

According to their local counsel, they weren’t interested in settling only the remaining claims aside from the order regarding the credit limits, which I will appeal.  So that took only a couple minutes.

Then I talked with Lewis Perling on the phone regarding Equifax.

It was obvious that he had NO idea what my claims are and he hadn’t looked at my discovery requests.  I started by asking for a complete and correct report.  Still don’t have the Cap One limits and my mortgage and auto loan had been prematurely deleted.  Mr. Perling advised that Equifax is NOT required to report anything.  Of course that’s BS.  Apparently he doesn’t know the meaning of “complete” either.  We didn’t discuss it further, he said he’d look into it.

I mentioned that I didn’t know where to begin with my claims, there are so many.  So Mr. Perling suggested to just settle everything for a lump sum.  I told him that I want $100,000, he said he *might* get Equifax to pay me $1,000.  That was the end of those negotiations.

Target claimed that senior counsel Robert Foehl flew in from MN just for this settlement conference.

Target also did not want to settle the remaining claim regarding the adverse action letter aside from the order that I’ll appeal.  But we ended up talking for about an hour.

Attorney Foehl hadn’t been to my websites and didn’t care about anything I do, he was simply not interested.  Bad start!  A good negotiator always wants to know as much as possibly about the opposing parties and their goals.  That’s what I loved about real estate, making deals work.  The idiots think it’s all about money!  There are so many ways to come to an agreement that works for all parties.

Obviously, attorney Foehl is NOT a skilled negotiator and I doubt that he flew to Phoenix for this settlement conference.  He had no interest at all in the issues and in settling anything.  For over 1.5 years I’ve attached my press releases to my filings and made it clear to the Target local counsel Jennifer Dioguardi that this is not about a few bucks for me, but about the issues and changes for the better to benefit all Target account holders.

I explained to Mr. Foehl how the B/L ratio is calculated and how the missing credit limits devastate the FICO scores for people with few or no other accounts and that any time an account appears maxed out it is impacting negatively on FICO scores.

I must have asked him about 15 times why he won’t take 2 minutes to send a quick e-mail to Equifax counsel Perling and ask WHY the credit limits Target claims to report to Equifax are NOT on my and my clients’ Equifax reports.  I got different answers, from “the court ruled that limits are not required” to just a smirk.

If you own a store and you spend many millions to advertise your products and to project a positive image, why would you ignore that many of your customers are suffering serious damages to their credit rating because of that mysteriously disappearing Target Guest card credit limit?

Of course the most logical answer is that the Target customers’ losses are Target’s gains

And that a) they don’t report the limits at all and lied or b) they’re happy that their customers can’t get credit elsewhere and have to pay 23% interest to Target.

Mr. Foehl thinks that the financial system is working very well (yeah, for him, an overpaid lawyer with no conscience!) and that creditors might not want to offer credit to almost anyone (I had told him that I’ve been recommending the Target Guest card to re-establish credit) when they run the risk of getting sued (by people like me).  He apparently feels that people with bad credit ought to shut up and be grateful for any credit regardless of the devastating impact on their credit scores and that the disadvantaged deserve to be exploited.

The conference ended shortly after I pointed out that Target knowingly advertises products online that it is NOT shipping and it did nothing to correct its mistakes and continued the false advertising—despite 7 written customer complaints prominently posted on the Target website.

Mr. Foehl was NOT interested in specifics so that he could finally correct the advertising.

To date, Target has not contacted me about this.  Target is scum.

And, they sent me a settlement offer last week EXCLUDING the order I want to appeal - more on that tomorrow.

Summary:

This was a total waste of time.  Equifax was not at all prepared, Capital One couldn’t have cared less and I don’t know what they’re smoking at Target, but they’re definitely not very bright.  Putting me in one room with a selfcentered arrogant yuppie attorney with no conscience is unlikely to result in a settlement.

Usually these conferences are held by a magistrate judge and that might have been more productive.  I could have just the same stayed at home and talked to the defendants’ lawyers on the phone.  Maybe they cooked this up because they thought I wouldn’t want to drive to Phoenix.  Think again.

Fortunately, the scheduling hearing for my 2003 suit was scheduled that afternoon.  While judge Broomfield always gave me permission to attend by phone, it was good to show up in person.

I talked with MIS (Credit Data Southwest, the former Experian affiliate) attorney John Fry after the hearing.

I had been very upset after MIS had sent the offer for $0 2 years ago with its motion for summary judgment.  And I had actually forgotten that they had sent me a new offer last December, it was nothing to get excited over. 

Mr. Fry is a real nice guy.  He encouraged me to send a counter and I had 5 hours to think about it on my way home from Phoenix.  They sold to Experian in 2003 and I wouldn’t be able to get any current info on credit reporting from them.  We settled last Friday, but with a confidentiality clause, so I can’t say anything else.

I’m sure I learned a lot that day and it was worth the trip to Phoenix.  One of those things you ought to do once in your life.  And as pissed off as I was at MIS over that $0 offer, an attorney’s personality goes a long way.  Most just try to offend me.  I don’t know if it’s because they enjoy my filings or to rack up hours or what - it certainly doesn’t help with settlements when they’re obnoxious.