Should I or can I sue somebody??

[NCOWife2]

When my husband was stationed in Georgia 4.5 years ago, we had an account with Comcast cable. The Army gave us less than a week to relocate and we had paid our bill in advance.

When we moved to Illinois, we received a letter from Comcast stating that our refund for approx. $150 would be mailed in about 7-10 business days. I never heard anything else from them until they sent us a bill for some crazy amt like $500 for not returning equipment. Fortunately, when my husband turned in the equipment, I sent him back into the office (against his wishes of course) to get the signature of a mgr and a handwritten note on the receipt stating that we had no outstanding debt and that all of their equipment was turned in and in good condition.

I immediately faxed 4 receipts and a copy of the letter that states that we were to receive a refund. After speaking with about 4 managers and faxing documents back and forth, I was told that they were not going to give us our refund because the person that did the accounting in their Savannah office had screwed up so many accounts that they didn't know who was owed anything, therefore, the supervisor informed me that she was zeroing out my account. This occurred in or around May or June of 2001.

In September of 2002, my husband and I pulled our credit reports and Savannah, GA was all over them (For those who don't know, creditors around military installations regularly prey on soldiers and their families because we typically relocate often and they figure they can get paid whether the debt is legitimate or not, simply by contacting a soldier's chain of command...which generally works for them. Most soldier's aren't willing to end a career over a dispute with a CA or the OC for that matter). Right away I started firing off letters and receipts from creditors stating 'Paid in Full'. Nearly all of them that were reported incorrectly came off. I thought everything was taken care of until we pulled reports again on Valentines Day of this year. The first thing we saw on my husbands CR was a tradeline under Credit Management Inc in TX. On the report it shows that they validated the account in 10/2002, after I disputed with them and faxed them the statement from Comcast stating that we owed nothing. Comcast also initially promised that they would take care of any collection efforts by their CA.

I called and faxed docs to both Comcast and the collection agent on this in February and March and still today it is on my husbands credit report. Last night I checked and EQ said that the investigation will be completed by 05/17/05. Today I called Comcast and insisted that they call this CA but was told that they didn't have conferencing on their phones, so I asked the young lady to hold and then I called the CA on 3-way. The girl at the CA recognized my voice as the person she had just spoken with and threatened to hang up on when I reintroduced myself and the surprised accounting rep from Comcast. She immediately connected us to the accounting manager of her company. In the end, I now have an apology letter from the CA that they faxed to me today and Comcast has insisted on cutting me the check for the $150 that they initially stole, and both have stated that they have submitted requests to delete all negative trade lines, but that it could take another 30-45 days.

I don't have the time, we're down to weeks now before we PCS again and they are holding up a mortgage. I called Equifax, but they won't talk to me. The reps just repeat, "I can not discuss this account with you" over and over like robots. I faxed them a copy of my Power of attorney, but the lady was mean and told me that it takes 3-5 business days before they can even see faxes and even then, it doesn't mean that they will talk to me. All I wanted to do was send all of my supporting docs for removal of this tradeline so we could speed up the process.

I know this was long, but are there any suggestions out there as to what I can do now?

[breathing_easier]

I wish I had something helpful to say, as I know how frustrated you are, but I'm not sure what you can do to speed up the process. If it makes you feel any better, when they say it can take 30-45 days to update, it is usually much faster. I would bet that if you check your reports within the next 5-7 days the TL will be gone. Also, supporting documentation submitted by anyone other than a subscriber of the CRA (Comcast) is given short shrift by the CRAs so your providing it to them probably wouldn't have done any good anyway.

Ooooooh, that would have really burned me if Comcast had told me that they weren't going to refund the $150 I was owed simply because they had an incompetent employee! And to admit that that was the reason they weren't going to refund! You were much more forgiving than I would have been, especially after getting a $500 bill you didn't owe! My gas company once overcharged me by $600 and when it was discovered by them after they finally read my meter they so generously offered to simply not send me a bill until my $600 "credit" had been used. I very politely said I wanted my $600 now. That's what they would have done if I'd owed them the $600.

[NCOWife2]

I very politely said I wanted my $600 now. That's what they would have done if I'd owed them the $600.

That's very true. Thank you for your response.