Harassed and Slandered by Creditor

[stella119]

My question involves defamation in the state of: CA

I am a business owner. I obtained a loan a couple of years ago from a friend's family member for start-up costs. Since then, they have been harassing me with massive number of phone calls and e-mails. The loan payments are due on the 5th of each month and I have a 5 days grace period. They would start calling/e-mailing on the 4th. If I do not answer their calls or respond to e-mails, even after I made on-time payments, they would keep calling. I have made some payments late by a day or two, but I always paid the late fees.

I would not mind if they call/e-mail me only as payment reminders, but they would make personal attack comments such as I "damage" their kids if I don't make my payments on time because they would not be able to pay for after-school child care and their piano lessons. It is very annoying when they attack me with personal issue on a business agreement. Sometimes they would call multiple times a day, sometimes after 11pm.

They have been posting personal attack comments on my business review page because I have decided to ignore all their calls and e-mails since a couple of months ago, and of course I continue to make payments according to our loan agreement. I believe that I am fulfilling the agreement terms and I am not obligated to respond to them. They also started to contact my employees. I have no idea how they got the contact information.

As a business owner, reputation is extremely important. I also want them to stop harassing my employees and me. Shall I file claims against them? I have saved all copies of e-mails received and some of the voicemails saved on my phone.

Thank you very much.

[Mr. Knowitall]

How about borrowing the money from another source and paying off the loan.

[Who'sThatGuy]

Before you file an harassment claim I would call the lender and talk to them. You say "They have been posting personal attack comments on my business review page because I have decided to ignore all their calls and e-mails since a couple of months ago, and of course I continue to make payments according to our loan agreement. I believe that I am fulfilling the agreement terms and I am not obligated to respond to them".

You should try to find out why they are reaching out to you. It may just be that your behind in a payment or made a payment that hadn't arrived in time and they attached a late fee that they are tring to recover. You will not know unless you call them. I bet all this will take is a phone call.