grephead Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 About 5 years ago I received a phone bill that stated that I had made a huge number of local calls. I informed the phone company that I did not think I had made all those calls and that I wanted a detailed listing of all local calls that were made. They indicated that they would send me the information I requested. A couple weeks later I got a letter in the mail with a copy of the standard phone bill I had already received, not the detailed call log. I then called the phone company, explained what I wanted again, and they agreed to send it. To make a long story short, they did not send me the information. They did keep sending me a copy of the phone bills. A couple of months after the last letter I had sent to the phone company, I received a letter from a collection agency. I sent them and the phone company a letter letting them know that this matter was in dispute, and again requested the detailed phone records. This happened a couple of times, then finally when I received another letter from a collection agency 5 years after the initial issue, I replied as I had before, and someone SENT THE INFO! I was amazed. I then paid the $50 or so that was owed.Now a year later I go digging into my credit report, son-of-a-gun a couple of those collection agencies as well as the phone company reported it to Transunion, Equifax and Experian.Now, do I send copies of my letters disputing the bill to TU, EQ and EX?Along with a nice cover letter explaining that the item in question was under dispute and that it should never have been reported in the first place? Along with the relevant information from my credit reports?Or should I do something else?Please help, I want to get this cleaned up but I don't want to screw this up anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willingtocope Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 First question is - who did you pay? A collector, or the phone company.If its a CA, then I'd suggest disputing this with the CRAs. Don't provide any details, just send a letter saying "I found this on my report, don't recognize the TL, please verify". See if it comes back verified, and then take it from there...If its the phone company, send them a letter saying "hey...once you guys verified this was my bill...I paid it. Get it off my credit report". (Maybe, you could word it a little nicer).Hopefully, you have some documentation that proves your efforts to get this correct...you may have to take someone to court. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grephead Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 I have a stack of letters sent to collection agencies and also to the phone company in question. I kept all of it. As to who I paid, I want to say it was the collection agency. When I contacted the phone company I was told that they had sold it to the collection agency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willingtocope Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Okay then, if its the collection agencies reporting on your credit report, use the DV process on ALL of them...even the one you paid. If the phone company is still reporting, then try a "goodwill letter" to their executive offices...again, pointing out that once they provided the info, you paid promptly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grephead Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Part of the fun is that the Phone company is reporting it a total of 3 times, then I have the collection agencies. This should be interesting.I think I will try the "goodwill letter" to the same lady that actually GOT me the information I was looking for, see what she can do. I am thinking that pointing out that it was in dispute the entire time and thus should not have gone to collections might help, who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willingtocope Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 If the lady who got you the info is at a collection agency, don't expect a lot of help. And, if the phone company is reporting the same debt three times, you might want to use words like "gee, I'd hate to get my lawyer involved because you guys have obviously violated the FCRA..." in your letters... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grephead Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Well part of the issue is that the phone company got bought by another phone company... so two of the listings are the old company, one listing is the new one, still not real good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wunderwoman Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 You have a good chance of getting them deleted once you dispute with the CRAs. Try that first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grephead Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 I was actually thinking of something like this...Letter to phone company asking them to remove listings and to contact thier collection agencies to do the same.Letters to the collection agencies disputing the entries.Letters to the credit reporting agencies disputing them.Send all of the above out the same day, registered mail, and see what happens. Or is that too much to do at one time? Should I just send a letter to the phone company and letters to the credit reporting agencies?Does sending a letter to the collection agencies do any good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willingtocope Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 A lot of letters to write for just $50...Like WW said, probably just start with letters to the CRAs, and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grephead Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 The point was not the money, it was a principle thing, which has gotten me in trouble before, and most likely will again.I have disputed $5 parking tickets because I was not there, could I have paid it? Yes, did I spend more than $5 worth of my time on it? Yes. But I was not there, so I could not have gotten the ticket, so I was not going to pay it.Anyway, will start with the credit reporting agencies, thanks for the advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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