Last spring, Qwest allowed someone to set up phone accounts using my wife's name and Social Security number, in a city 150 miles away, without making an adequate effort to verify that person's identity.
The thief racked up about $1,000 in unpaid bills, and in late July Qwest turned the accounts over to a contractor, ER Solutions, which found our home number and contacted us. We told ER that we did not have the address and number in question, but meanwhile Qwest sold the accounts to their collection agency, West Asset Mgmt. (WAM).
WAM began calling us repeatedly at all hours of the day to demand payment. We called Qwest, spent numerous hours on hold, and were told repeatedly that the issue was being resolved.
We continued to receive harrassing calls, and after many more hours on hold, with Qwest staff who always had to go through the same long rigamarole to unearth information on our supposed account, but again and again they failed to take care of the problem (their problem, not ours).
Finally I threatened them with a small claims lawsuit, and that seems to have done the trick. However, I will file a claim against them if we get ONE more call from the collections agency.
Qwest's excuse at the end was "these things take time." Well, in 2008 they shouldn't take time. If Qwest can call on a collection agency, they should be able to call it off - immediately. Or they should find someone a little more competent than they are. They might have a near-monopoly, but we will not buy anything from Qwest as long as there is ANY alternative available.
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