In 2006 I decided I needed a little laptop to tool around with. I ordered one from Dell and was talked into financing it through Dell Financial Services. I was offered no interest for 18 months with a $1500 limit. The Laptop I purchased was no more than $700. I didnt need anything special. The first payment came up and I went ahead and dropped double the ammount due. No biggie... The second month I did the same thing. When I logged on the 3rd month to make my payment the online system told me there was an error processing my payment. This was on a Saturday. I tried to reach a rep via the provided phone numbers but to no avail. So I called back on Monday and made my usual double payment. I didnt think much of it then. Turns out. Because of their system being "Down" my payment was late by 48 hours which took my interest rate up to 29.9%. The next month I received a bill stating that I now owed just over $1200. I called Dell multiple times and got the run around each time. I finally ended up making a payment of $500 (online oddly enough. Seems the system was working fine then). Every month I slung money at this thing and the principal just would not drop. At that point in time I had paid in over $800 on a $700 laptop and my bill was saying I still owed $600. Frustrated, I called Dell again, no help. I finally just stopped making payments. About 5 months down the road I see my credit report. Dell had transfered my account to a collections agency for the ammount of $1600. I called the agency and agreed to pay out $1200 to have the problem taken care of. Sure enough, the next month the collection was off of my credit and the world was peachy. Two months later however, DFS started reporting a charge off with a $0 balance on my credit report. It has been reporting for 4 years now and they wont take it off. I call them constantly and every time Im givin a case number. I call back to follow up and they tell me that such a case number doesnt exist. Before this, I had outstanding credit. When this started I could walk into a car dealership/bank/mortgage company and walk out with the best of rates and pretty much anything I wanted. Now id be lucky to be able to finance a stick of gum. I have no other negative remarks on my credit. Ive bought and paid for 5 cars. I have 3 credit cards that are in great standing. Ive had loans ammounting up to $75k that were paid in good standing. Yet because of this my credit score has dropped nearly 200 points in the last 4 years and they wont remove it though they say they will. They have promised me this verbally and I have asked for it in writing. I am told that it takes 24-48 hours to process and I should receive a confirmation email with all of this laid out in english. Ive been through this same process 3 times and I have never gotten an email nor has it been removed from my credit.
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