I was the agent of a large collection agency - one of my many past lives.
If you owe money , they do not require authorization from you to

collect - no one would ever give such authorization.
Provinces limit when calls can be met but haraasment would have to be proved to be beyond a reasonable course of action.
GENERAL RULES
To avoid most action beyond the first nasty letter or call:
1) meet with the agency
2) offer some payment over time
3) it is easier to do that by mailing in a ( POLITE) letter stating your circumstances only permit $... per month and enclosed are twelve post dated cheques.
4) The agency I worked for always tried to get it all in one payment - but after a lot of bluster ALWAYS accepted a reasonable offer .
The collection agency gets paid for money received , so a reasonable offer allows them to set your file aside and concentrate on people who refuse to answer /pay .

Tara270,
What you should do is get a copy of the original contract which started the debt...
See if there is any clause that authorizes President's Choice to use a collection agency., etc...

I always contend that the creditor , by PIPEDA is allowed to disclose your personal information to a collection agency. I'm not sure that PIPEDA allows the collection agency to disclose your personal information to anybody else, IE the courts.

PIPEDA is found at http://www.privcom.gc.ca

They need to have your permission to do this.

It would be good for you to study your contract to see actually what you authorized the creditor - Presidenet's Choice Mastercard to do.

I called the courthouse and it is legitimate. I am contacting a lawyer and going to discuss my options to see if I have a case against the collection agency for harassment. I will keep you updated.

It was sent to me by regular mail, and I still never got a letter from them stating the debt, or the letter I requested that said they were allowed to take this to court.

I am going to call the courthouse to verify if its real or not. I will let you know what they tell me.

Hey Tara270 and angella,

I uploaded the small claims document here:
cdr_small_claims_1.pdf
cdr_small_claims_2.pdf
cdr_small_claims_3.pdf

http://www.canadian-money-advisor.ca/album/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=1

Plaintiff:
President's Choice Mastercard

Agent:
Canadian Debt Recovery Ltd
80F Centurian Dr
Suite 207 Centurian Dr
Markham, ON
L3R 8C1
PH: 905-948-8686
FAX: 905-948-0812

Defendent
Deleted as requested!!

This is a good exercise for us to be able to see a real FORM 7A and to discuss it.

IMPORTANT:
I deleted the Claim Number as requested , however, I would recommend that you call the small claims office in order to verify that number. If it's a real claim number (which it more than likely is in this case) I would take the situation very seriously.

I can't imagine that Canadian Debt Recovery Ltd would mess around with this if Presidents Choice Mastercard is their client.

Tara... how was this sent to you?

It's got a file number and a signature on the clerk of the court line - in Alberta there'd be a court stamp to, so call the courthouse with the file number and doublecheck in the morning, but it looks legitimate.

File your statement of defense and go from there.

You may, in your statement of defense, try filing a counterclaim for the harassment you speak of. It may help offset this. If you kept all copies of your offer to try and settle with them, you should be OK in front of a judge.

Raymond might have more ideas.... he's from your province.

where do I send it to then?

hey Tara270...

Please do scan that and send it over...
That will help us to better understand what you're up against.

I don't see a court stamp on it, all I see is Superior Court of Justice: Plaintiffs Claim

I could scan it and have you look at it, if you want to see if its real or if they are just trying to scare me.