im in dangerous waters. a few years ago I had an issue with a creditor overcharging me for service , I disputed the charges & my acct was later credited after much indepth review, this problem seem to reoccur for a few more months overcharging, dispute, credit etc. until I got fed up and cancelled my service. when I received my final bill I again disputed some of the charges & was issued credit I then paid the remaining balance due well 2 years later I got bit by a CA who claims this acct was SOLD to them I'm like huh ??? I contacted the OC and they said the acct was sold off so they no longer have any info, so I contacted the CA and requested validation, they provided an old statement that does not reflect any of the credit that was issued to me and now shows a huge balance how can I dispute this, I have no reciepts or old statements to help me. since the acct was SOLD do I have recouse with the OC? since they sold an acct in error that was not due?
Your old checks also show the payments that were actually made. No company would continue to provide your service for a period of many months if at the time they did not consider the account to have been paid. Did your statements at the time show the credits? Do the statements from the CA cover the period during which the credits were made, or are they only a final statement with a balance long after the various credits should have been applied? If so, request validation, specifically noting that the statements provided are incomplete and do not reflect corrections and credits made by the OC. File a complaint against the OC and CA with your local BBB, and DA, and any local news consumer action person. If the company is regulated, file a complaint with any applicable regulatory agencies. If they originally messed up your bill, they have probably done it to others too.
in this case it relates to a final bill , I cancelled my service due to billing issues. I requested validation the CA sent me a copy of the OC final bill which BTW did not reflect the credit, I disputed those charges and stated that there are other statements with later dates reflecting credit, they refused to listen and insisted that I owed the amount stated on the final bill. after sending a written dispute stating that I do not owe this money and why they slapped their TL on my CR. I have written to the OC in an attempt to clear this mess up, they are claiming they have no info for this acct as they SOLD it to the CA. I know there are statements that reflect this credit but they will not provide them as they want to make money off of me. I think I will write to the AG and let them investigate the matter.
Is there any indication they did the same to other customers? In other words, did you accept some offer, they set up your account without considering the offered terms (bait and switch), and through enough perseverence you got them to correct the statement to reflect the originally agreed terms? Do you have any documentation, including copies of letters sent, contemporaneous phone records of calls to resolve, etc? If they tried to (and now actually) did this to you, they likely did it to others. Is there any record of the original terms, in an ad, tarriff filings, etc? Are there complaints by others claiming they were offered the same terms, thru BBB, or ripoffreport.com? Complaints or consent agreements documenting similar behavior, and similar switching of terms? Enough to get a DA, AG, or class action attorney interested?
bottom line is it will be your word against their's, even though they cannot actually prove you "didn't" pay them, even though u did. even if u had check's to prove u paid, who's to \say what the final balance really was? i am not arguing with u, trust me. CA's and other debt collectors are bottom dwelling bast**ds, as we know and will stop at almost nothing, including violating the FDCPA because most folks don't know their rights. and the collectors know that. U need to walk them into a violation or more than one, of the FDCPA to actually have a leg to stand on. do a search on this board for a "cross validation" process. i actually had a process I have used a lot u can search under my user name. it will give u ideas at least. good luck
