Approximately 2-1/2 ago, we cancelled our service with Heartland Cable television and switched to Direct TV satellite. Since all service is paid for one month in advance, we paid for the entire month of August upon cancellation but disconnected and removed all of Heartland's equipment at the beginning of August so that we could use our new Direct TV satellite and service.
At the end of August, we received another bill from the company, at which time I called them, reminded them that we had cancelled service and were still waiting for someone to pick up their equipment. I also refused to pay the bill as we no longer utilized their cable services.
At the end of September, we received another bill, which included the previous "unpaid" amount. Again, I called Heartland, told them that we cancelled service back in August, were still waiting for someone to pick up the equipment, and would not pay this bill either. I was told to deliver the equipment to the local office, which I did.
Upon delivery of all the company's equipment to their Corpus Christi location, I received a receipt, which I have, that states in black and white that there is a "zero" balance on the account. We continued to receive bills for a couple of months and then began to receive collection notices from a collection agency.
I called Heartland to no avail. I wrote to the collection agency to dispute the matter and heard nothing so I called them. I was informed that the collection agency did not handle disputes in writing but by telephone, which I found extraordinarily odd. I even filed a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau, also to no avail. They stated that they could not help us in the matter because Heartland had referred the matter to a collection agency.
To date, this matter is still reflected on our credit report and we are forced to explain the matter each and every time we apply for college loans or anything else.
Something has to be done about this company and this kind of business behavior!
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