In November 1999 I terminated a cellular phone plan that I had with Cellular One. In Cellular One sold out to AT&T and apparently transferred everything in their system, because early 2000 I began to receive bills from AT&T. My phone was terminated and couldn't be used if I had to. There was no airtime showing on these bills, only monthly service charges. After repeated calls to AT&T I received a notice that the account was referred to collections.
I spoke to "Karen" at AT&T on 4/12, who verified that there has been no activity on the account for almost 6 months and that it was sent to collections in error. I obtained the name of the collection agency and a contact person who verified that the account had been returned to AT&T. Since that time I have received a collection notice, yearly and each time submit a dispute, certified mail, return receipt asking for written verification of the debt. Each time I receive no response. In August I received a letter from TxCollect, Inc and Palisade Collection, LLC.
Again I disputed the validity of the debt in writing, certified mail, return receipt within 30 days of receipt. They reported this debt to all 3 credit bureaus 10 days prior to receiving my letter, which is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. My FICO score dropped 150 points practically overnight and I went from having excellent credit to fair credit. I disputed this online with Experian. They sent me an email saying that the charges will remain and to contact AT&T directly.
On 11/8, Wendy in accounts receivable management at AT&T told me that I have to deal directly with the collection agency and that she "is not going to sit there and listen to me". I called TxCollect and was told to "just pay it" and get it over with. I have to deal I have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. It is impossible to resolve this with AT&T or the collection agencies and I do not feel it is acceptable to "just pay" for services that were never provided.
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