A notice was sent to our branch office, from Allied Interstate, dated March 11. The letter stated that our UPS account (and the account number was valid) was past due for $23.21. Allied stated that they were assigned the past due account by UPS.
We were very puzzled for a number of reasons. 1) UPS bills on a weekly basis, and we pay every two weeks. If the bills are not paid promptly, UPS would have shut down our service. We have had accounts with UPS for nearly 20 years, and no interuption in service. 2) The amount in question does not represent anything that we have billed for shipping. 3) The local branches of our firm do not receive bills. All accounts are set up with by our corporate headquarters. The Allied notice was sent to a local branch. We speculated that perhaps a client had discarded a UPS envelope, and Allied representatives went through the trash and found it, hence explaining why a notice was sent to a local branch office.
Anyway, we forwarded the notice to our corporate headquarters. Their records from UPS say account paid in full.
We have subsequently received a FINAL NOTICE dated April 5, saying that "We are obligated to our client to make our best efforts to collect this account, to the full extent permitted by the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-109).in capital letters.
We again forwarded this notice to corporate headquarters. An investigator at our corporate offices attempted to contact the Columbus office for information. All he got was a rude invididual who said we had to prove the debt exists, and hung up.
What now? Do we ignor these notices? I am looking at a fax from the corporate office showing the weekly billing from UPS, and it says account paid in full. Should we do anything further?
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