What is the most common complaint against Stern Recovery Services, Inc.?

The most common issue consumers report about Stern Recovery Services, Inc. is "Written notification about debt", specifically "Didn't receive enough information to verify debt". This is based on 77 complaints filed with the CFPB.

Are complaints against Stern Recovery Services, Inc. increasing or decreasing?

Complaints against Stern Recovery Services, Inc. are falling. The company received 0 complaints in the last 12 months, showing improvement over prior periods.

What is Stern Recovery Services, Inc.'s reputation grade?

Stern Recovery Services, Inc. has a reputation grade of F (score: 46.6/100), PlainCollector's composite letter grade blending complaint volume, response timeliness, dispute rate, and complaint trend.

Does Stern Recovery Services, Inc. respond to consumer complaints?

Stern Recovery Services, Inc. has a 88% timely response rate to CFPB complaints.

In how many states does Stern Recovery Services, Inc. operate?

Stern Recovery Services, Inc. has received CFPB complaints from consumers in 10 states, with the most complaints from North Carolina (61 complaints).

This data comes from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database and reflects consumer complaints, not proven violations.

Stern Recovery Services, Inc. - Debt Collector Complaint Profile

CFPB complaint profile across 10 states, reputation grade F.

Compiled by PlainCollector

Written notification about debt

41
Attempts to collect debt not owed

26
False statements or representation

5
Communication tactics

2
Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly

2
Took or threatened to take negative or legal action

1

Data updated September 2026

CFPB complaint disposition

CCDB record stern-recovery-services-inc Stern Recovery Services, Inc.

Grade F · 77 CFPB filings · 88% timely · lead issue: Written notification about debt · vol #951 · compose #4437

VOL 77
GRADE F
12MO 0
STATES 10
TIMELY 88%
ISSUE Written notification about…
RANK #951
COMPOSE #4,437

Volume peers

Nearest volume peer: Adelante, Inc (77 complaints)

CFPB complaint volume neighbourhood (this collector + nearest volume peers)

Stern Recovery Services, Inc.'s 77 CFPB complaints sit next to Adelante, Inc on the volume neighbourhood; peer NAMES stay, and disposition VALUES are this collector's. Grades compare collectors to each other - a complaint is a filing, not a proven violation. How to read a complaint count →

State-heavy filing map

79.2% of Stern Recovery Services, Inc.'s CFPB filings land in North Carolina

High volume does not equal a clean composite: Stern Recovery Services, Inc. is volume #951 but composite #4,437, while North Carolina dominates the geography. Corpus placement method.

Dominant state: North Carolina 79.2%; 61 of 77 filings · 10 states touched
Spike month: 2016-06 15.7%; 8 filings that month · spiky (≥15% of series)
Divergent corpus ranks: #951 volume; #4,437 composite; Cleanest-composite ladder is 3,486 places worse than volume

How does Stern Recovery Services, Inc. compare to its peers?

How does Stern Recovery Services, Inc. compare? Versus a similar-volume peer and the national average (collectors with ≥50 total complaints), drawn from 10 collectors with a comparable complaint count

Stern Recovery Service… National average

Complaints (last 12 mo)lower is better

268

Timely-response ratehigher is better

88%

92%

91%

Consumer-dispute ratelower is better

16%

19%

Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database.

Complaint Trend (24 months)

2016-05 2019-04

Issue Detail Breakdown

Issue	Complaints
Written notification about debt	41
Attempts to collect debt not owed	26
False statements or representation	5
Communication tactics	2
Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly	2
Took or threatened to take negative or legal action	1

Where do complaints against Stern Recovery Services, Inc. come from?

Stern Recovery Services, Inc.'s own per-state count, not a national baseline.

North Carolina

61
South Carolina

4
Louisiana

2
Ohio

2
Virginia

2
California

1
Georgia

1
Michigan

1

Compare beyond geography

Nationwide peers by volume & timely response

Two PlainCollector-derived comparison paths for Stern Recovery Services, Inc.: nearest all-time CFPB complaint volume and nearest CFPB timely-response rate among collectors with at least 100 logged complaints. State breakdowns above stay geographic; these neighborhoods vary by metric.

Similar filing volume

Nearest collectors by total CFPB complaints. This record: 77.

4 peers

Know your rights before responding to Stern Recovery Services, Inc.: FDCPA rights guide · debt validation letter · rights library.

Data sourced from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCollector

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Consumer Complaint Database, 1,139,236 debt collection complaints are represented in the current PlainCollector snapshot. See our methodology for how PlainCollector computes each company's reputation grade from this data.

Every figure on PlainCollector is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.