Nicor Gas was my gas company back in 2001 & 2002. When I moved from my residence in I of course shut off my gas along with other utilities and I moved into a new apartment complex. The complex provided their own gas and just added my monthly charges to my rent amount, so I had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. But late last year, I had a lender pull my credit because I would like to purchase a home soon, and low and behold, there is Nicor Gas for almost $1300 on my credit. I was so mad, because I never knew anything about this, years have now passed and I knew nothing! I contacted Nicor and they told me that these charges were from 2006 at the address I hadn't lived at since 2002. I asked them if I could provide a lease showing I did not live at that residence, if they could remove the debt. They told me to fax all of that information to them, they would upload it to my file and then investigate the charges. So, I complied to all their requests, called them to verify they had received my paperwork, where they then tell me it takes 4-6 weeks for the papers I faxed to be uploaded, so I was told to call back in a month. I faxed the papers 3 more times, just to make sure they got them, and I waited a few weeks. Called them up and they said they never got any of my faxes, even though I have fax confirmations... It didn't matter, they basically told me it's not their fault, because they 'get hundreds of faxes daily' so it's hard for them to keep track of everything. Okay, so how is that my problem that they can't properly do their jobs? I did everything I was supposed to do, but whatever. I ended up taking all of these papers to the Naperville office to personally hand them to a live body, and they told me that my papers would be entered in 5-7 business days. Hmmm, I guess that's better than 4-6 weeks, but holy crap!
I called them yesterday, exactly 5 business days later, and they informed me they did in fact receive my papers (almost 2 months after my original attempt) and that it would now take anywhere between 1-3 MONTHS for them to review my papers, because they are so busy. Again, how is that my fault they are not properly staffed? Credit reporting agencies have 30 days to investigate a dispute, why is Nicor allowed to make up all these rules and treat their customers like complete and total crap? And in between all of this, I sent these same papers into TransUnion, the credit bureau that is currenty reporting this debt. I was really hoping that would get me somewhere.in the past when dealing with credit bureaus, they are usually pretty good about removing things off of your credit that you can prove are not your debts. But they ended up sending me a paper that said there was going to be no changes to the debt because Nicor confirmed it. I am so angry, it seems like there is no end to this!
Has anyone else every been through this? I really want to buy a home, I am getting married soon and this is really causing HUGE issues for my family. There has to be an easier way, there just has to be!
HELP
Steve,
Westmont, IL
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