How to sue CIBI

Hi everyone,

I am a new member here. I think it will be more work to take class of action against CIBC because everyone has different situation. 

I like to bring CIBC Student Loan Centre to court because they messed up my credit.  Anyone here please tell me what step I should do.

Thank you.

Successful plaintiffs cannot be awarded punitive damages by the courts from the defending government.  Most lawyers are hesitant to take on the government because there is not much money in the cause.  Class action seems to be the only way to go.  But we need evidence, and it is mounting all the time. 

How did your credit get messed up?  Don't be afraid to post a long story, I'm used to reading them here.   

 

I have been trying to resolve my student loan maladministration problems with both CIBC and Royal Bank through the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Provinve of Nova Scoti'a Service Nova Scoti and Conumer Complaints since the year 2001.

Both complaints involve libellous credit reporting and harrassment of myself and my family by the CIBC and Royal banks and their agents. I have a full record of AALL my dealings with these bank entitiesand it seems to make little difference when their staff are caught in lies.

For example, the Royal Bank sent police to my parents home, in December,2002, late at night to deliver a letter from a law firm in Halifax, Stewart McElvies, oredering me to stay away from their office, not once, but twice in two days. One letter was from a senior lawyer of the firm named George Caines, the other was from a lawyer named Grant Machum. I have never met these lawyers, and would not visit their office without a lawyer. They alleged that I threatened them in a fax when I did no such thing. The Lawyer/police incident occrred just after I could no longer afford a lawyer,I am getting nowhere with the Privacy Commissioner or the Provincial Conumer complaint.I still retain all my correspondence since the first incidents in the year 2000.

Below is a chrono;gy of my CIBC maladministration and harrassment poroblem. I have a similar chronology for the Royal Bank:

CIBC Maladministration Problem

Chronological Facts

1. I received a letter dated September 5, 2001, from Errol Campbell, my assigned personal banker at the CIBC branch in the Bayers Road Shopping Centre, Halifax, stating in part that:

‘…as a result of your current credit situation, past credit history, and the fact that you are now over your approved limit, your line of credit privileges have been cancelled effective immediately. The account has been placed on deposit only….

CIBC would prefer that you and Alexander (note: my father, cosigner on the unsecured CIBC PLC) make arrangements to pay the balance in full at your earliest convenience.’

2. No notice of the demand for payment in full sent to me by CIBC’s Campbell was sent to my cosigner about this matter, nor did Campbell contact me by telephone prior to sending the payout demand for any information.

3. There was no prior notice of the demand, nor were there any unarranged payments on my PLC due at the time of the receipt of CIBC’s Campbell’s demand letter of September 5, 2001.

4. My last and only discussion about my CIBC PLC with CIBC’s Campbell was in January, 2001, when I called him for approval to have a payment on my PLC held to month end.

5. I received a letter date September 14, 2001 from CIBC Visa’s Celine Guerrette stating in part:

‘Use of your Visa card and Visa account have been temporarily suspended …’

My CIBC Visa rate was increased from 18 % APR to 23%, without notice, and left for me to discover on the December, 2002 Visa statement.


5. On review of my files, I noted that Trans Canada Credit had declined a short term loan that I applied for in December, 2000 due to derogatory credit ratings of my student loan accounts, held by CIBC and the Royal Bank of Canada.

6. On further inquiry with the CIBC in September, 2001, after I received CIBC’s Campbell’s demand letter of September 5, 2001, and the CIBC Visa letter of September 14, 2001, the CIBC’s ‘customer care’ department in Toronto advised that in August of 2001, the CIBC’s ‘credit risk’ department in Toronto performed an annual confidential credit review on my credit files during August, 2001, and they discovered derogatory credit information on my file.

7. On November 22, 2001, I called the Equifax and Trans Union credit reporting agencies about my derogatory credit files, and was given verbal information. I was informed that there was an ‘I-9’ or ‘write off’ credit rating on my CIBC Canada Student Loan, and the rating had been on their file since April, 2001.

8. The other items on my credit report referred to my business purpose CIBC Visa, rated ‘I-1’ or paid as agreed, my business purpose CIBC Personal Line of Credit, rated ‘I-1’, or paid as agreed, and my Royal Bank Provincial Student loan, which was approved under the ‘student loan interest relief’ program and contained derogatory ratings, although on both student loan accounts, did not require installment payments by myself, by agreement of the student loan interest relief program.

9. There was a ‘minor’ delinquency, the credit reporting agencies words, in April and January, 2001, otherwise, the only derogatory credit ratings referred to both my student loan accounts, from CIBC and the Royal Bank, which were continually either approved for student loan interest relief, or in the process of being approved, yet these student loan accounts were still given derogatory installment ratings, although no installments were actually due, and there was no derogatory behaviour by myself.

10. From March, 2000, onwards, there were many bank processing delays of my student loan interest relief applications to the banks, which automatically triggered collection activity by both banks collection agents, while at the same time the banks were processing my student loan interest relief applications.

11. Since graduation from my graduate program, in October, 1999, I had continuously applied for student loan interest relief, while establishing and building my sole practitioner, urban planning and design business, and I had been continuously approved for student loan ‘interest relief’ by both the CIBC and Royal Bank student loans centers, as my income largely was used for my business expenses, including my CIBC Visa and my CIBC Personal Line of Credit.

12. My tax return statements are available, as are my business records, and my federal HST records to confirm my cash flows and deposits.

13. Throughout my student loan interest relief application processes from March, 2000, onward, both CIBC and Royal Bank had ‘automatically and electronically’ reported derogatory credit ratings on my file to Equifax and Trans Union credit reporting companies, via both banks’ computerized reporting programs which are used by the banks to share information with the credit reporting agencies computers. In this manner, my credit information from both banks’ computers was provided to the credit reporting agencies’ computers.

14. After receiving the demand letter of September 5, 2001 sent by CIBC’s Campbell, my personal banker at CIBC Bayers Road branch, Halifax, I immediately phoned CIBC’s Campbell for an explanation of the demand to pay off my business credit line, the unsecured Personal Line of Credit, cosigned by my father. CIBC’s Campbell referred me to the CIBC ‘customer care’ process in Toronto.

15. During the period between September, 2001 and the end of November, 2001, I was corresponding with Gail Sparks, Manager, CIBC Customer Care, by e-mail, telephone and facsimile, in order to repair the damage the CIBC had caused my credit files held at Equifax and Trans Union credit reporting agencies.

16. On November 24, 2001, CIBC’s Sparks advised me by telephone that my CIBC would be re-instated only if my cosigner, my father, and I attended the CIBC branch office on Bayers Road to have a new Personal Line of Credit agreement signed for CIBC’s Campbell, who was my personal banker, and to whom I understood that I was to refer for direction regarding all banking product inquiries and complaints, when I signed the CIBC’s documents for the CIBC Visa, and Personal Line of credit in July, 2000

17. I refused to re-sign a new CIBC PLC agreement, advising CIBC’s Sparks that the credit history was in error, and their own internal records did not agree with mine, and further that the CIBC review of my files by their Toronto ‘credit risk’ department was full of internal errors, and still further that these serious errors were being reported to Equifax and Trans Union credit reporting agencies and further had caused me delays, frustration and annoyance, and had in December, 2000, resulted in a credit reject by another lender. I advised CIBC’s Sparks that I would be calculating my damages in this matter

18. On November 28, 2001, I received a letter from CIBC Customer Care, Toronto, signed by Sparks replying to my e-mail of November 24, 2001, and states in part:

‘I am writing to fully respond to the concerns you have outlined in your e-mail of November 24, 2001.

As you are already aware, the CIBC Student Loan Centre reported information regarding your Federal Loan to the credit reporting agencies. This error was corrected on November 21, 2001. We have confirmed on Nov. 27, 2001 that both Equifax and Tran Union have amended their records as per the request of CIBC National Student Loan Centre.

The incorrect information reported by the Canada Student Loan Centre (note: this is the CIBC student loan centre) was considered in our decision to freeze your line of credit.

….and on November 27, 2001 your line of credit was reinstated with the same terms and conditions as were previously in effect.’

19. The CIBC customer care letter of November 28, 2001, (see item 16) did not mention anything about the Visa, and I was left on my own to discover that the CIBC Visa ‘credit risk’ department raised my Visa rate from 18% to 23%, as a result of the CIBC reporting errors, and I was unaware of this rate increase until I received the December, 2001 Visa statement and made payment on December 17, 2001. I simply didn’t notice the rate increase, and it was not explained on the Visa statement.

20. In December, 2001, I sent correspondence to the CIBC Customer Center in Toronto, and the CIBC V.P. Regional V.P. Retail, Atlantic Region in Halifax, thanking CIBC for resolving the credit errors the CIBC caused, and requested a reference for a client, Halifax Regional Municipality, where I was competing for more contract project work.

20. On January 2, 2002, the CIBC Bayers Road Branch Manager, David Riley, faxed the following statement to Halifax Regional Municipality:

‘Mr. Ewert has been a client of CIBC for 10+ years (note: I have been a client of CIBC Bayers Road since 1956, when my parents opened a savings account for me). He has investment, borrowing, and transaction business with our branch. All accounts are in good standing.’

20. At this point, I was not aware of the CIBC Visa rate increase (see line 19), and I considered the errors caused by CIBC resolved, and I took no further action against the CIBC.

21. When I discovered the CIBC Visa rate increase, I complained through the CIBC Customer Care. Subsequently, on advice of Gary Armsworthy, my Solicitor, I continued to make monthly Visa payments. My complaint about the Visa rate increase, and my demand to restore the CIBC Visa rate to the status prior to September, 2001, was refused in correspondence with CIBC Customer Care’s manager, Sparks.

22. On January 5, 2003, I applied through a dealer for conditional sales financing of some office computer equipment, and the application was turned down. When I telephoned the credit company, I was told that the offering was rejected due to bad credit on my credit report.

23. On March 18, 2002, I was turned down for a low-rate product package offered by CIBC, in an effort to reduce my Visa interest rate 10%. Further, I have a file of rejects from various credit card companies, all rejecting my applications due to poor credit ratings by CIBC and Royal Banks.

24. In a letter dated April 15, 2002, I was turned down by Americas Express in an application to pay off the CIBC Visa balance, on the basis of a Trans Union credit report they drew on me.

25. in a letter dated April 17,2002n my Solicitor,   Mr. Armsworthy inquired about the records CIBC had regarding my credit history errors, and CIBC rejected credit applications (see items 23 and 24).

26. On April 19, 2002, I called CIBC Telephone Banking, and a CIBC telephone banking representative, ‘Peter’, referred Visa complaint to CIBC supervisor ‘Mike”. I demanded that the original rate of interest on my Visa be restored, further that my application for a low rate CIBC Visa package, dated March 28, 2002, be reconsidered, and that all credit history errors caused by CIBC to my internal and external credit files be corrected by the end of business on even date. Supervisor staff ‘Mike’ advised that my demands would be acknowledged by fax or telephone. CIBC has not sent me their records of the several conversations that I asked to be noted by the said CIBC Telephone Call Centre employees, as I requested in my “PIPED’ Act statutory demand.

27. On April 19, I at 5:27 PM, I was telephoned by a ‘Clarence Layne’, a CIBC customer care manager of the CIBC Customer Care’s Directors Office. I advised CIBC’s Layne that I had taken my Visa rate increase complaint through CIBC customer care, that the CIBC Visa rate increased in error on my account had not been adjusted, as I understood it would be from my correspondence with CIBC customer Care, and that I was assessing my damages caused by the CIBC, and would I be discussing the matter with my Solicitor.

28. In a fax to Trans Union credit reporting agency dated April 24, 2002, I requested that Trans Union correct my credit information, and I was notifying my solicitor, Mr. Armsworthy.

29. In April , 2002, I requested by fax with a copy to CIBC Bayers Road, Halifax, and received in May, 2002, from Equifax credit reporting, a copy of my credit file information, as of April 29, 2004. This credit file that I received from Equifax continued to show the derogatory credit references regarding the CIBC student loan showing derogatory student loan credit ratings which I understood from the correspondence with CIBC’s Customer Care manager, Sparks, had been removed from my Equifax and Trans Union reporting agencies files, on instruction of CIBC, as reported by CIBC in previous correspondence.


30. On April 17, 2002, I attended the office of Gary Armsworthy, my Solicitor for legal advice

31. On August 24, 2004, I attended the office of Gary Armsworthy, my Solicitor for legal advice on commencing actions in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, preparation, presentation and service of notices of actions. I would have to represent myself and am not ready to take this step.



Note: Both derogatory student loan ‘credit ratings’ remain in dispute, and I filed complaints with the federal Office of the Privacy Commissioner in 2002, and the provincial Service Nova Scotia consumer complaints division in October, 2003.

The Privacy Officer’s review of both banks behaviour under the Federal ‘PIPED” Act is not complete, and usually takes a year for their review and decision as to whether the complaint is ‘well founded’ and whether to proceed with action in Federal Court. This is a separate process from my legal actions. This complaint has still not been resolves since 2002.

Thanks for your comments, Johnny.

Let me add some further information. I have indeed been dealing, at least indirectly, with Jo ann hamilton of SNSMR. When the Provincial Ombudsman sent me back to her department, Greg Mitchell, who I have known since high school, and I believe to be an honest man, was assigned by a Greg Keefe the SNSR deputy. That was in Aug, 2004.He wanted to see a copy of the Traans Union report in addition to the Equifax report which contained false and derogotory student loan ratings.

Prior to that the SNSMR staff named Judith Light,was useless. She was actually lying to her superiors. That is when I complained to the Ombudsman and Mitchell was assigned. I should say that I also knew Mithchell when he was in charge of the OPD and I worked for a finqance company. Many of the people in government and in particular this Judith Light charactter ,do not even know how to properly analyze a credit report. T

his week I got an e-mail the a letter from a man named Brad Gibb who said that he was taking over from Greg Mitchess as Mitchell is on extended leave pending retirement.

The last I heard from Mitchell was at the end of April and he was waiting on his request to have my TUC credit report sent directly to his office. It made my skin crawl when I found our that the lawyer I mentiones this George Caines is also the TUC legal agent. He sent cops to my parents one night with a letter claiming I had threatened him in a fax, which is false. I keep all my coorespondence in these matters, and I would never go to an opposing legal firtms office without a lawyer. There is a libel case there I guess, if I could afford it.

GIBB sent a letter the same day saying that he had reviewed my file, which dates back to a 2001 harrassment complaint where an Allied collection agent was getting dirty and vicious with the telephone language. She left a filthy message on my answering machine stating in part that I have to deal with the 'sh*t load' of my student loan. She was only suspended for ten days. I regret not initiating a legal action then. This Gibb character could not have poosibly reviewed my file and I told Gibb by e-mail that I would be continuing my Ombudsman complain involving SNSMR.

The SNSMR staff have done nothing about the false credit history complaint or the harrassment complaints although both are welll documented.

My career prior to returning to university to obtain undergrad science and a grad degree was in credi. When I left university in 1969, my first job was as a collector/credit supervisor for a local oil company. I went on to manage consumer loan company branches and was employed as a loans and investment officer with trust company branches over my 20 year career.

I have twenty years in lending , and have awards for customer service all through my career.I have become fully aware of the aggressive and intimidating behaviours permitted by the banks, their agents and indeed, government, which would have been dealt with far diiferently when I was in the Financial Services industry.

I couldn't believe the letter I got from the CIBC person Errol, Campbell, now apparently retired, or the CIBC handling of my accounts based on false reporting of their own student loans. This CIBC branch refused to help me, even though I have been a CIBC customer since I was a kid, and my parents have been dealing with this branch since 1956. This meant nothing to CIBC.

I have a similar chronolgy of correspondence and diarized telephone contacts with the Royal Banks staff and agents.

I have also asked for federal ministers for help, aside from my pending complaint at the Privacy commission ongoing since 2002. I applied for status as 'financially destitute' when the government department responsible for claimed student loans seized a $300.00 taxreturn from an old annuity I hounded into allowing me to obtain the CSV.

The bank forced my parents to pay off the secured PLC and rmoved me from the agreement. I have paid my parents back about $15,000 of the money they lent me to set up my practice,which the CIBC forced on trhem, regardless of a spotless par record.I have liquidated all assets I could and gave my parents the proceeds.

I am 55 years old now, unable to obtain any responsible employment because of this mess, let alone pay a lawyer to help me.

In regards to CIBC customer service, there are people who work at low, mid and high levels at the CIBC head office who have complained about their employer's customer service. 

At the reception desk at the main branch (located in a sunlit area), there are flowers on display that are as phoney as a three-dollar bill.  I would suppose that CIBC has gone for self-parody and put these fake flowers there as a metaphor for their customer service. 

 

Esh,

 Where have you been? Are you ready to post the audio files over on my site?  

 Call me Tonight or Monday if you are around.

 Johnny

 www.cfwgroup.ca

I think that the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act might apply here.  I am not sure of any award but it used to be up to $25,000 but that may have been changed.

 

http://www.privcom.gc.ca/legislation/02_06_01_e.asp

I am interested in collecting peoples stories about their dealings with the NSLC, specifically those who believe that they were treated unethically, or illegelly.   Experiences of how CBCL and the government treated you and effected your life negatively.  You can e-mail me here (qzwxec@hotmail.com), just make shure to write something in the subject field.  I am going to try some advocacy on my own and I think the relevance of the story comes from our numbers.  To date we have been easily marginalised as we have no collective voice.  We are under the mistaken idea that the law needs to be so specific as to be able to accomodate all of the individual nuances of our cases, which is not true. We all seem to have the same problems, no avenue for legal advise or research, no money for a lawyer etc.)  There is no reason for this to continue, and I am trying to get the ball rolling by documenting some of these issues and experiences in the hope that somehting may be done.  I sincerely wish evryone the best of luck, but unless there are reprecussion that they can understand and respect this will continue, businesses will fail, relationships will be stressed, and our rights as citizens of this country will be shown for what they are, superficial.  Rights deserve to be demanded, not asked for and grumbeled about behind closed doors.  So I propose taking a minuite out of your day to e-mail me your negative experiences regarding edulinx, CBCL, NSLC whatever, as long as you feel that they didn't do business in good faith with you.  Take care, and once again good luck. (if we aren't pro-active it will be all we have!)

Thanks for the reference. Best of luck to you as well. I think that if we keep up pressure then politici snd media will respomd more specifically about government and bank maladminitration issues.
I am reaching the end of what I can do on my own, so I hope CBC Market Place does a story. I have also e-mailed my story to the PM and Minister Stronaxh, as well as the consumer advocate, Dale Goldhawk.

I have filed a statutory protest under the Noca Scotia Consumer Reprting Act about the false credit history and harrassment.

I don't look forward to representing myself in court and I think that you have to continue to mitigate the situation even though the problem was not of our making,

How bizarre government and the banks have become since I left financial services. I liked lending and investment work when I worked for trust and finance companies. The banks are getting away with far too much in poor client handling and sre using flawed technology. There is no 'effeciency' as I know it in banking and credit anymore.