Having received a 'bill' for $700, in the mail, from Portfolio Recovery Associates, dated April 10, I called them to find out what it was all about. Upon contacting them, a woman explained it was a Verizon Wireless bill, going back to December 6,1997! I really had to think to remember ever even having done business with Verizon.
It took me a few minutes and then it struck me... That 'bill', I assumed, was for a phone that had been stolen! I can remember immediately contacting Verizon and clearing all this up with them at the time... I thought!
I explained this to to woman and she kept insisting I owed the bill. My question to her was 'are you licensed to do business in State of Arizona'?'Of course', she said, 'we're licensed to do business in all 50 States. The whole time she was talking, I was looking up licensing thru the Dept. Of Financial Institutions for the State of Az., which monitors collection companies. Lo and behold... They were NOT licensed under the name of Portfolio Recovery Associates. They had 'forgotten' to update their information!
She then put a Manager on the phone, and I told him the same thing. You are not licensed to do business in the State of Az. With that, his retoric went more or less like this...'so, when are you paying your bill, you owe this bill and we're going to collect this bill'. I hung up on him!
I contacted the Dept. Of Financial Institutions, and they were going to take care of contacting Portfolio to request updated info, as they were NOT licensed in Az.
I have received a call, every night since the 10th of April, and have chosen not to answer my phone... Until this evening. Again, a very antagonistic young man called, and I requested any and all documentation that they had to substantiate this bill. He told me it had been sent back in 2004 to an address in Illinois. I informed him I hadn't lived in Illinois in 9 years and repeated my request. I was polite but firm! His response 'I don't like your attitude'! I told him 'if you don't like my attitude, then perhaps you'll like this'.. And hung up!
I will take no further calls from Portfolio Recovery Associates!
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