Okay, now this is on my husbands CR and we have been requesting validation from MCI but, they have not responded. We cancelled service and they continued to bill us. When I contacted them they first said it was taken care of but, still continued to bill us. Now we received a letter from a collection agency that states: "Your past due account has been place with this office for payment." It goes on with the usual 30 days to dispute the validity, etc. But it ends with, "The law does not require our office to wait until the end of the 30 day period to collect on the past due account. You may however, dispute the debt either orally or in writing as stated in the above paragraph." Because there are so many experts here I just to know if this statement is accurate. And what exactly it means?
It seems that they are playing with words here to confuse people. it leads you to believe that they will continue collection efforts. It should really read: "The law does not require our office to wait until the end of the 30 day period to collect on the past due account UNLESS however, you dispute the debt either orally or in writing as stated in the above paragraph." If this was the first communication from them then you do indeed have 30 days to dispute the validity of the account before they can resume collection efforts!
pd... One clarification... They can continue collections from day 1, *UNTIL* they receive the *WRITEN* dispute, *THEN* they can not resume collection activity until *AFTER* they have obtained and mailed the validation. They are *NOT* required to wait until the end of the 30 day period to escalate collection activity. Their statement is correct as phrased. They only have to pause, *WHEN* they receive the written validation letter. BTW: their phrasing is *ALMOST EXACTLY* from the Federal Trade Commission, & case-law. You don't want to fall into their trap of disputing over the phone, disputing over the phone does not protect your FDCPA rights, and allows them to continue collection activities. Send the validation letter out immediately; and if their response doesn't include statements from BALANCE $0.00, send them a letter immediately that their validation was not complete as demanded.
Unfortunately, they aren't playing with their words. Their words are almost exactly from the Federal Trade Commission. From the Commentary From the Mezines Opinion http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/04/fdcpaadvisoryopinion.htm From the Berger Opinion http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/letters/berger.htm Now, if they would demand payment within the 30 days, directly threaten to sue within the 30 days, or otherwise *DEMAND* *IMMEDIATE* *PAYMENT*, then it would overshadow, but just stating what is directly from the Federal Trade Commission that they can continue collecting unless you dispute in writing as noted in the above paragraph is not playing with the words. BTW: They can do all three of the above, however if they do say one of those three things, their validation statement has to be molded after a number of "SAFE HARBOR" statements from court rulings, which were designed for those specific situations, essentially they phrase the validation clause in such a way that it expressly explains how exercising the validation rights affects the suit (or other escalated collection efforts.)
