Last year, our United Way non profit child care center received a call "confirming our telephone information". Our secretary, who was new to the position answered their questions, and then was informed what our bill would be. I overheard the conversation, and when she hung up, asked what it was about. Our program is 73 years old and since we stay at capacity, have never advertised in the local yellow pages. I instructed her to call back and cancel, which she did. She was advised she must write a letter, to which I told her we would not do, that only 3 minutes had transpired since the call and we did not want their service. I thought no more about it, until we began to get bills, which I ignored at first, because we had instructed them we did not want the service. Then, we started receiving threatening letters, then threatening phone calls. Each time, I advised the representative that we had not initiated the call, and that we had advised them repeatedly that we did not want the yellow page listing. I have been threatened with bad credit reporting, legal action, and so on. Today, I received a call on my personal cell phone (I have no idea how they got that number!) telling me that unless I agreed to a settlement amount, we would be taken to court. The woman calling said they had no record that I had ever told them we didn't want the service or to cancel it, and that because they had listed us, we were required to pay them.
I told her that I had witness to the many conversations I have had, and would take my day in court. She asked if I would settle for an amount around $300 and I said absolutely not. We depend on the generosity of oru community through the United Way for much of our operating expenses, and I don't feel I would be a good steward of those funds to pay for something we did not order. She asked what amount I would consider, and I said I might consider $50 just to get them off my back. She said they would see me in court. My secretary, who had overheard the many conversations, stated that even since the initial ruse this company used, they had called back using the same technique on our other line.
I would welcome facing off with them in court but am concerned that if I lose, my program would have a judgement against its credit. These deceptive practices need to stop! Can anyone advise me?
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