their error=UR validation letter

Suppose a collection agency sends you a demand letter.
Maybe you have already seen it a dozen times, maybe it's new. Check it very carefully. Is it exactly correct in every timy detail? Name,middle initial,last name?

Are all the spellings correct?
Let's assume that your name is Bubba Snodgrass.
You get this collection letter addressed to Bubble Snodgrass
Or maybe Bubba A. Snodgrass.
Or maybe Bubba Sodgrass Whatever.
And it makes no difference that you already sent them a well constructed validation letter or where you got that letter.

Their demand for payment can become your new validation letter if you play it right, and here is how.

Use their new demand letter with the error on it.
copy it and on the original, PRINT in pencil, not write or in ink saying

"I think you got the wrong person. Please validate"

Don't say no more, Don't say no less. Don't sign it either.

Send to them in a certified rr letter using the name B. Snodgrass at your address.

Then sit back and wait for the fun to begin. It will likely come back with some kind of foolishness but if it comes back with anything whatever besides a standard notification saying they are now handling the matter as a dispute, If they come back with anything, phone call or whatever except a statement that the matter is under dispute and investigation, you just start the process of dragging them out to the woodshed for a good lesson in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Playing stupid for a time is often an awfully good way to win a fight. Just remember that you only do that if they make the first mistake. Don't do it unless you can see in advance the most likely outcomes and be prepared for every possible eventuality.

Dealing with collecton agencies, credit bureaus and their ilk is just about like a game of chess. A beginner gets hit by fools mate after fools mate after fools mate until he learns the ropes. A championship player can take any move on the board, almost instantly analyze not only the move he plans to make, but all the possible outcomes that can lead to checkmate maybe 50 sets of moves down the board. And he can do it in less than 2 minutes. Don't even ask what a Grand Master can do because he can play against a 100 worthy opponents all at the same time and beat them all.

I once spent 30 days and nights in a military hospital playing chess with an Air Force Colonel.who was also a patient at the time before I finally beat him. And then I kept on beating him. He was only a Master, not a Grand Master.

But fighting collection agencies and ect is no different.
You have to know what the possible outcomes might be and how to "engineer" the outcome you want, how to get the game back on track if it jumps the track. You have to know when to hold 'em and you have to know when to fold 'em. You have to know how to lose and come back another day to hit em again from some other direction. And it ain't over till the Fat Lady sings, and she isn't even going to be able to open her fat yap until I tell her how the song is going to be sung.

Bill Bauer
bbauer1@netzero.net