Mary Meinert of Waynesboro, a disabled elderly woman, says she got ripped off by a Texas company that sells debt-management plans.

She owed about $10,000 to credit-card companies in 2001. One day, she saw a television ad promising to help her wade out from beneath that debt.

She telephoned the company, then called Risk Management Limited, now Risk Management Partners Ltd., in Irving, Texas, and paid a $399 management fee to enroll in its debt-management program.

The deal called for the company to deduct $200 a month from her husband's bank account to pay off her debts.

"When I started out, they did real good," Meinert said. "They paid off four credit cards. After that, they just stopped, but we were steadily paying them. It was 7,000-some odd dollars that we paid in."

In November 2005, Meinert decided to cancel the program and she asked for a refund. The company still had about $4,700 of her money.

According to terms of the contract, if she canceled before her debts were paid, the company would get to keep about $250. That still would leave her $4,450 to pay off debts.

Meinert filed complaints with several government agencies and with the Better Business Bureau.

On Nov. 22, the company wrote her a letter promising a refund in three to six weeks. But she never received it and now is unable to get through to them.

She said she is hounded by debt collectors who are threatening to sue her. With interest accruals and late fees, her debt is back up to about $9,000.

The Texas Attorney General's Office said it has received 34 complaints against Risk Management Partners. Other consumers have sounded off on Internet complaint sites.

The attorney general's office and Federal Trade Commission's regional office in Texas declined to say if they are investigating or taking action against the company.

Eight attempts to reach Risk Management's owner, Hyla Stanton, were unsuccessful.

The company has an unsatisfactory record at the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Dallas because of unanswered complaints.

The BBB has processed 64 complaints within the past 36 months about the company, which operated in different states under the names Miracle Management, Risk Management Limited and Jubilee. Some complaints were resolved, the BBB said.

"Those guys are bad news," said David Jones, president of the Association of Independent Consumer Counseling Agencies in Fairfax. "We have heard a lot about them."