Verizon put negative mark on my credit report

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by MGT1981, Jul 14, 2015.

  1. MGT1981

    MGT1981 New Member

    This residential account with Verizon was closed in November of 2014 at which time I paid the balance on the account that the customer service representative gave me over the phone and moved on with my new provider.

    I received no further communication from Verizon regarding any remaining balance that existed between when the account was closed and April 2015. In late April of 2015 I received a letter from a bill collector stating that the account was now overdue and in collections. I had never received any bill or notification of a balance so I called Verizon and spoke to a manager. I asked why I had never received a bill and after some investigation Verizon found that the emailed bills to me had not went through due to a systems error on their side. I explained that I was told I had no balance when the account was closed and went under that assumption until I received the letter from the debt collector. I also immediately paid the balance due on my account. However the Verizon rep stated that they could not remove any of the negative marks from my credit report and I would I need to speak to a manager. Verizon told me that a manager would call me back and I never heard back from them.

    The problem is that now there is an item on my credit report listed as "collections paid in full" that caused my credit score to drop drastically and this is now preventing me from getting a mortgage.

    From when the account was closed in Fall until I received the letter in April I received no notice of any balance. The second I got the notice from the collection agency I immediately paid the balance. There is no reason that this should be on my account as a negative mark and Verizon is not willing to do anything to remove this from my account.

    Does anyone have any suggestions regarding what to do ?
     
  2. jam237

    jam237 Well-Known Member

    If they are not responding, the only way that you MAY get a response is to send them a notice that you intend to sue.

    You would sue that the information is INCORRECT, and that their tradeline is a result of their NEGLIGENCE and that the COLLECTION notation is a false and misleading representation that the error was YOURS when their company has already admitted that their systems not functioning properly caused the situation in the first place.

    I know that there will be some people arguing that it doesn't matter whose fault it was, a collection is a collection; unfortunately for them (and Verizon) there is caselaw which says otherwise (i.e. when is a REPOSSESSION not a REPOSSESSION). http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/08D0495P.pdf (Discussion in this thread http://consumers.creditnet.com/Discussions/showthread.php?t=72000&highlight=American+Honda )

    Just as with REPOSSESSION, COLLECTIONS has a perceived meaning that the customer missed payments; NOT that the COMPANY failed to send the payments, it's not important whether or not the error was caused by a "systems" error; the second they were advised that a "systems error" caused a reporting anomaly they were required under the FCRA to cease reporting the erroneous information, not just to update it as a a PAID COLLECTION.
     
  3. JoshuaHeckathorn

    JoshuaHeckathorn Administrator

    I'm curious if you were ever successful in getting Verizon to work with the CA and remove this bogus negative mark on your credit reports. Would you be willing to come back and give us an update on what worked, or didn't work for you? Hope to hear from you soon!
     

Share This Page