DirectTV
Collection Notice for Bill Sent to Verizon in Error

My household previously had DirectTV service as a bundle package with Verizon. We found less expensive service for TV, phone, and internet through a different company and therefore terminated our service in Dec. At the time of cancellation, we were told that there was a zero balance. We were therefore perplexed when a month ago we received a collection notice from DirectTV. My husband called DirectTV, and was informed that DirectTV had sent a bill to Verizon for service in January, and, because the account had been closed, did not receive a payment back. Apparently, several months later someone at DirectTV looked at the books and decided to hold us responsible for this clerical error, although no bills or notices were ever sent to us, until last month. After spending nearly 2 hours on the phone between various departments at both DirectTV and Verizon, it was concluded that an error was made by the DirectTV Accounting Dept, that we were not responsible for the payment. My husband requested a letter documenting this, and not only did he never receive it, I got word yesterday that this error is now reflected on my credit report.

My husband again called DirectTV customer service yesterday and spoke to a representative named Armando. Despite the long period of time that my husband spent on the phone regarding this issue last month, we were dismayed that not only was it never resolved, very little of the prior interaction was recorded in your customer service system. Armando advised us that if we paid the balance in full, even though we were told previously that we were not responsible for this error, that we would get an immediate email showing that our balance was paid in full, and that we could take that to the credit bureaus. Unfortunately, when we followed this advice and made full payment over the phone, all we got was an email trying to sell us more services! Armando assured us that another email saying that payment in full was made would be sent once the payment had gone through. Today, activity on our credit card clearly marks that a payment went through, yet there is still no email documenting this from DirectTV, and now they have a payment for a charge for services never rendered!

We now have submitted a letter to the CEO, Michael White, re-requesting our original letter, and now requesting a refund of the illegitimate charge. If this leads to immediate remedy of this situation, I will repost. If there is no subsequent repost, assume that we were hosed.

Company: DirectTV
Country: USA
State: California

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