Thursday, February 01, 2007

Bill Collectors

I pay my bills, I really do.

But in September of 2003 I got a statement from a phone company saying I owed them $156.10. I called them to say that the phone number from which these calls were supposedly made had closed down by me in June 2002. (At one point we had two land lines, before we got high-speed cable internet.) They said they would research it. Then later I got a letter from a new company telling me I needed to pay. Then later I got another letter from a bill collection agency telling me I needed to pay. Each time I phoned them and explained, and each time I kept notes and was glad I had kept notes from the time before.

And now today, another call from another bill collector, for the same amount. By some miracle I was able to locate the paperwork and notes from 2003 and explain it all again. When I complained about being through all this before, she told me how the bill collectors buy and sell debts to each other--so if bill collection company A doesn't succeed, they sell it to B who tries again, etc. Apparently, since no one seems to believe me, this may go on forever.

*sad face*

1 comment:

MoM said...

Truely this is sad. It has been happening for us about 11 years now over a double charge. Several moves later they still find you. Even when you prove to them over and over and over...Go figure. It is their way to recoup fees that they paid when buying this block of debt.