Complaint / Review
BellSouth And CBCS Collections
Bogus collection account for service I was never billed fo

I got a credit card statement last month and hit the roof when I saw that they had jacked my interest rate up to 28.99%, even though I had never missed or been late on a payment for anything - EVER.

After contacting the CC company, they informed me that their action was the result of an undesirable entry on my credit report. After obtaining a copy of my credit report, it showed a collection account for the paultry amount of $74.56 from a collection angency named CBCS with the original entity being BellSouth. I called BellSouth and after jumping through many hoops was finally put in touch with their collection dept who told me that as far they are concerned, I do not exist and therefore could not owe them any money.

I contacted CBCS and explained to them that this was bogus, and that BellSouth has no record of me, but CBCS REFUSED to verify this bogus debt with BellSouth and basically accused me of being a liar when I told them that BellSouth has no record of my existance. I called BellSouth back and explained that CBCS was REFUSING to verify the debt and asked them to contact CBCS to clear this up, but they told me that since I do not exist in their system, there was nothing they could do on their end to help.

So - CBCS REFUSES to verify with BellSouth, and BellSouth says they cannot tell CBCS that I don't exist.

Meanwhile, I'm paying out the wazoo for an interest rate hike that is the direct result of this bogus $74.56 item on my credit report placed their by CBCS, who I am now convinced is a criminal organization. Unfortunately, if I were to simply pay the $74.56, it would still remain on my credit report as a nagative item.

I disputed this item with Experian, the only credit agency this appears on, and in less than 2 days I got a response saying that their "investigation" resulted in no change of status for the item. That is impossible since BellSouth says I don;t exist. I think it is only going back to the collection agency, who is only interested in convincing me to send them $74.56 so they just tell the credit agency that it is not bogus and the "investigation" ends there.

I refuse to pay something that I don't owe to people trying to steal money from me through what I see as Credit Report Hostage Taking. I am going to speak with a lawyer about the possibility of filing a class action lawsuit against BellSouth with CBCS's name plastered all over it.

These people will NOT be getting away with this crap!