I need your help in reference to my above utilyt post. I just spoke to their "collections" dept. and they are nasty. This is going to be a fight. What are my options? They say they sent notification of this being posted to my bureau. I didn't receive it. BIG SURPRISE!! What kind of correspondence do I need to send? They just told me even if I pay it, they won't delete it. I'm so ticked. I just got my LAST collection of last month. PLEASE HELP ME KEEP MY FILE CLEAN. ANY SUGGESTIONS AT ALL?
Regarding the CA's claim to have sent something, they would probably claim that whether they did or not. You might, however, research the CA a bit to find out what their tactics usually are, make sure they are licensed to collect in your state, etc. Did you send a timely validation request to the CA? Does the OC still own the account? Was there an error in the OC's billing, such as a failure to send a bill? Did you provide the OC with your new address at the time you terminated service? For future reference, NEVER leave you financial obligations in some other person's hands. You should have terminated service as of the date you moved out, notified the utility of where to send the final bill, and called them if you had not received it in 2 weeks. Your landlord may have found it inconvenient to have the utility service shut off, or to have had to temporarily transfer it into his own name, but that is his problem, and not your responsibility. Were the bills being sent to you, or to him at your old address? What does he have to say about not paying this bill?
First of all, thank you for responding...no matter what. I value your opinion greatly. Well, as for the CA, it's NCO...I doubt I need to say more. I did DV them. They sent me a letter saying that the account is closed in their office and all further questions need to be directed to the OC. My problem, believe it or not isn't NCO...its the OC, our local Eletc. Co. So, to answer you, yes I did DV timely to the CA after getting a letter from them, but I had no idea that the OC was reporting. I have never had that happen (OC and CA reporting). I think the OC owns the account as NCO sent it back. I didn't get a final bill from OC until months after I moved. It was supposed to by paid by our management company out of our deposit when we moved. I didn't know I owed a bill. The management company / landlord is worse than any CA I've ever dealt with. I didn't give the OC my new address because I didn't know I needed to. I thought I had paid them all I owed. Your for future reference is good advice. I didn't think I needed to do what you suggested, but you know about hind sight. However, for now, I can't get the OC to reason with me. I read what you said about them being data furnisher. Should I try to DV before I do anything else? I haven't disputed with the CRA's. I wanted you opinion first. Thanks!
If you got their bill months later, did they fail to send bills in the intervening period, or did they send them to your landlord/management company? If the latter, were those bills still addressed to your name? At this point, have you paid the bill? Did the management company take out the amount of the utility bill from your deposit? Did they provide you an itemized statement of any deposit amounts not returned, and in effect, documenting that they intended to make the payment? You might do better contacting thru the utility company's executive offices, explaining the screw-up, than thru their collection department. If you had money withheld from your deposit, intended to cover the payment which was never forwarded to the utility company, you may need to insist that the management company straighten out the account and its reporting with the utility company, or you may need to file a consumer fraud complaint against the management firm with your local DA, and then approach the utility company thru their executive offices, since both you and they were defrauded by the management company.
Thank you for all your help. I think I will try to contact the executive office before I go any further. Hopefully the will as you suggest be more "open" to hearing the truth that the collection department. I will keep posted with what happens. THANKS AGAIN!
