On to the next one! Credit Management you are next!

[j_in_colorado]

First thing....YOU ALL ARE AWESOME!!! I am so glad I stumbled upon this forum. You all have helped me sooooo much and I appreciate everything. Because of y'all my credit score has gone from 570 to 649 and I can finally move out of state and own a house! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

 

Now, I am currently battling Credit Management. They told me they acquired a Direct TV debt in August 2012. They have not sent me anything to verify the debt but they continue to call me and tell me all the info they have. The debt is for $517. Here's the issue: they have the wrong disconnect address. They say that I had service at an address I used for my mailing address and are showing that they discontinued service at that address. Well I have a lease that states where I was living (in a whole different city) during the time I supposedly had service. Service was disconnected on July 2011 and my lease shows I was living at a different address in a different city from September 2010 to August 2011. They told me they will remove it if I send them 1) A police report, 2) a copy of my lease, 3) a theft affidavit with the FTC, 4) a copy of my drivers license, and 5) a copy of my social security card. I called the police and basically got laughed at because this happened 2 years ago and they cant do anything. I have no idea why they need me to file a complaint with the FTC and they wont tell me either. I will gladly send a copy of my lease but I am not comfortable sending them my drivers license and social security card. What do I do from here?

 

 

[Torden]

Do not send the copy of drivers license or social security card.  They do not need it.  They are only trying to gather this as part of harassing you later.

 

Ask the police to put their laughter in writing, or something to show you placed the report.  The police likely THINK you are filing it to get them to hunt down and arrest the thief.  The REAL reason for filing the police report is that you are putting your statement down under threat of legal sanctions for filing a false report.  You know and I know and everyone else here knows this is more likely a case of Direct TV's deplorable and incompetent accounting and customer relations management systems where disconnect orders get "conveniently" lost.  Direct TV has a huge track record of fraud and lies.  But play the theft angle as a possibility and file that police report FORMALLY.  Make it clear you know this is just a LEGAL FORMALITY and that because the theft is so long ago nothing could be done, anyway.

 

Or be like me and tell the CA to stuff it because Direct TV are liars and incompetent with computers.  For what it's worth, I would never sign up with Direct TV just because of their horrible track record.  The other major satellite company is only barely better.

[admin]

I'd send them a copy of your lease as proof that this isn't yours.  If they continue to harass you for the debt, it's time to get a lawyer.  You would have them on violations of the FCRA (if they are reporting) and also the FDCPA.  

[elite1331]

A well written letter threatening to sue with lots of attachments and some highlighting has done wonders for me cleaning up my wife's credit report. Send it CMRR and scanned in PDF form to as many e-mail addresses you can find for the CA and odds are good that this could be taken care of and deleted. My wife had DirecTV before we got married. She moved in with me and it lapsed. They have sent 3 CA's after us and all have been dealt with in this manner and have deleted.

 

I will say that I sent a letter to their corporate offices to inquire if the contract could be continued where it lapsed to stop further collection action against my wife and they agreed. I only mention this as an option to stop collection activity and secure removal if you need it to happen ASAP for some reason. I have Time Warner Cable which makes DirecTV seem like saints in comparison. Time Warner raises their rates if you blink.

 

DirecTV stated:

 

"Dear Mr. Elite1331,

Thank you for writing.

I sincerely understand your inquiry about restoring your service.

After services are disconnected, we require customers to pay the full last amount billed in order to reinstate or reactivate services.  Based on our records, you can pay $1XX.05 which was the amount billed to you on 12/XX/2010 before your account was disconnected.  Early Cancellation fee and Non-return fee charge will be reversed once service is activated.

The quickest way to pay your bill is by signing in at DIRECTV.com and clicking on "Payments" in the "My Account" tab at the top of the page.  Once you make your payment, you can sign up for automatic monthly payments by clicking on the "Auto Payment" tab and entering your payment information.  With the Auto Bill Pay, you will never need to worry about forgetting a payment, writing a check, or mailing a bill on time.  This is the most convenient way to keep your account active and it ensures that your bill is always up to date.

Once payment is posted for the total amount mentioned above, please call us immediately at 1-800-531-5000 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. local time, based on where you receive your service.  Our highly-trained Customer Service Representatives will be ready to restore your service and be able to reverse the other charges on your account.

Sincerely,

Adele C.-100331809
DIRECTV Customer Service"
 

However, our case was different as my wife actually did default and it was her account.

[j_in_colorado]

Well never mind. I guess this is over. I called the collection agency and they told me to call direct tv. So I called direct tv and told them I have a copy of my lease showing that I was never living at the service address and she said "ok I will take you off of this and notify the collection a agency that this is not your account and it will be removed from your credit report in 6-8 weeks". I took down her name and id number and asked her where to send the copy of my lease and she said "don't worry about it, I don't need anything from you, I will take care of it and inform the collection agency".

Was it seriously this easy?

[admin]

Well never mind. I guess this is over. I called the collection agency and they told me to call direct tv. So I called direct tv and told them I have a copy of my lease showing that I was never living at the service address and she said "ok I will take you off of this and notify the collection a agency that this is not your account and it will be removed from your credit report in 6-8 weeks". I took down her name and id number and asked her where to send the copy of my lease and she said "don't worry about it, I don't need anything from you, I will take care of it and inform the collection agency".

Was it seriously this easy?

 

Sometimes it is.  What most people do is roll over, though, and just get stuck with these collections.  Kudos to you for taking charge of the situation.