In November of 2000 I receive a letter from Gulf State saying they purchased a debt from Sprint. It is a long distance bill from 1996. Well, I have had AT&T long distance since 1994, as I work for one of their business units. I have my own personal 800#, that is FREE. I sent Gulf State a letter asking them to verify the debt as I have never had Sprint as a LD carrier. Gulf State ignored my request. in December I sent a second request for them to verify the debt. IGNORED! Then, get this, Gulf State Credit sold the account to Berks Credit & Collections in December of 2000. I immediately sent Berks the same thing (certified receipt) asking for validation of the debt. NOTHING! I have created an audit trail with this as I have sent everything certified receipt! As a result. Gulf State placed the item on my Experian report. I retained Junum in January, they disputed the debt, and it was removed. Bingo, 2 weeks later I get a letter from Experian stating it was reinserted. Not only that, Berks Credit and collections placed the same item on my credit report. Both companies (Gulf State and Berks Credit & Collections) reaged the account. So it looks like it was a recent charge off from 2000. I sent BOTH companies a demand for validation second request. I know they are in receipt of the correspondence because I have the green cards. Also, I disputed the debt with sprint. They told me to call Gulf State, obviously unaware that they sold the debt to Berks. They did it right before the sol ran out to collect. The thing is.....I have NEVER had sprint as a Long Distance Carrier. My long distance has been free since 1994. I sent them a certified letter demanding validation. Any suggestions on how to procede? Sue all three in small claims court? Only thing is: in small claims you can name one defendant. File complaints with the FTC, FCC which regulates Phone companies, Attorney General for Pennsylvania? Any and all help would be appreciated. I know I have Gulf State, because they verified the debt after I sent them the letters for validation. On a side note: Junum removed 15 negative tradelines since January. I haven't received my Trans Union report yet, but I am sure there will be a couple of additional deletions this month. I was on my second round of disputes.
Documented & repeated FCRA & FDCPA violations. Time to pay an attorney. Consider it a high-yield investment. Saar
Send one last final notice to all 3, Sprint, Gulf State, and the new CA warning them you will sue them. Also send a letter to the CRA to remove IMMEDIATELY and send copies of your mail that you sent to the 3 and explain the no response you have received. Give the 3 CRA's 30 days, if there is no response - send them a final letter, then sue the CRA's. You want to sue the CRA's to get rid of the negative marks. You can also send a C&D to the collection agencies if the SOL has past. If you are interested in making money, then perhaps speak to a lawyer and find out about novation and suing for the open amount against the collection agencies. This is a much longer and convoluted process - if you simply want to make sure your credit stays clean, talk to the CRA's.
