grr....false collection notice

“i had my phone disconnected when i moved this time last year. i never even had a home phone hooked back up. now im getting collection notices for bills the 3 months after i moved out of my apartment.
i don't know what to do. the collection specialist at cincinnati bell told me it was an administrative mistake and she would take care of it. i asked her for documentation and never got it. now they're telling me they can't even find my account. if they can't find my account how can someone else be trying to collect on it?
i disputed it with the collector and got a bill. then i sent them a letter from the apartment complex saying i moved out at the end of april. i also sent them the final bill i received from cincinnati bell that came with a refund check of $12. that should prove to them that i was not only being billed at somewhere i don't live, but that the FINAL BILL had a credit on it. It also shows that I updated my address and this bill was being sent to the old address for 4 months. All the collector will say is Cincinnati Bell still feels that you owe this debt and they are upset that you would take advantage of them like this.
What a crock!!”

“Tel them that you're ready to pay, if they'll meet you on the 7th street overpass at midnight.”

“They "feel that you owe this debt"?

Yeah ... that will stand up in court. LOL”

“In most states you have the right to deal with your creditor directly.


That is, you DO NOT have to deal with a collection agency.

Remember. It is in their interest to collect a debt (even an erroneous one) because they are paid a percentage of collections.

Write the collection service a letter, certified, stating that you will not deal with them, that you will only deal directly with the phone company.

Go ahead and state the reason why . .. .that you don't feel that you owe the debt and are being billed in error.

then deal directly with the phone company.




It would help if you could check local law on this. But I am sure that in some states you can refuse to deal with the agency.


by getting this back in the hands of the phone company, you may more easily be able to get someone to see reason.


Good luck.


Unfortunately . .nothign replaces the time and energy that you willhave to expend.”

“" I am sure that in some states you can refuse to deal with the agency."

i worked for the collection dept of verizon for four years. never heard this. doesnt mean its not true, but it never happened. sending it to the collection agency represents the company throwing their hands up in the air and saying "i give up, i hope you have better luck getting money out of em than i did". once it was in recoup (sent to collection agency), we would refuse to deal with you. the reason being we would try for at least a couple of months after the final bill to recover money. also, the final bill might not be the final bill, there was a final bill and then a final final bill (i forget what it was called) that told what you really really owed. clear as mud now?”