Quick Question About Dunning Notice - Verizon

[Anonymous]

Hi Gang,

Did not see this answered in my attempt to search.

I cancelled my Verizon on July 12 on the day my bill was due as I had just switched to T Mobile.  Very nice lady accepted my cancellation.  I asked her if she could immediatly send me a final bill with all Early Termination Fees so I could forward that to T Mobile as they will pay them.  She said she could not send one and I would have to wait until the next billing cycle for that.  It would not come until mid August.  No big deal. 

Today I got the bill finally with all the fees and ETF fines and now can send that off to T Mobile. $2003 for the 5 phones we switched including the $350 for the last bill.  Excellent!  

Not really...

I also received a Dunning letter from Valentine & Kebartas Inc for $2003.  They have given me zero days to make it right.   I kid you not.

So my question is:  Does this get reported to the CRA today or do they wait the 30 days for debt validation?

My Mortgage company is pulling my CR this upcoming week for the new home we are buying.  My FICO score are on the fence with being able to go conventional 20%.

I attempted to contact Verizons collection department but they are not open until Monday.  I don't want to dispute the debt, I was just hoping to have the ETF money from T Mobile in hand and pay them off with it as we scraping every last dime to come up with our 20% down and didn't in a million years think Verizon would sell the debt before giving an actual $$$ amount to pay them and giving me more than zero days to do it.

Very worried here.  Any suggestions?  Thanks very much in advance,

Bill

[RobertEG]

The debt collector can report their collection prior to sending dunning notice, or at any time up until the point that they receive a timely DV request.

There is no requirment that they cannot report during the 30day period set in a dunning notice.

Most debt collectors, however, will voluntarily delay reporting for 30'ish days after sending dunning notice.

You can call them and offer to pay in exchange for their agreement not to report their collection.

A pay for not reporting, even if only oral, is a binding contract.

[Anonymous]

Let me know how this turns out. I canceled my Verizon a week after the cycle started (end of July). I had not paid my "final bill" (apparently, Verizon still bills for the ENTIRE billing cycle not for a prorated amount) b cause I wanted to send the entire bill to AT&T. I rec'd my very last bill with ETF this morning and rec'd a collections call this afternoon. I told her id pay by 9/13 (which is the due date of this last bill). She made it sound like that would be ok so I hope they do not send to collections agency. I guess I better call and clarify. OP please let me know outcome.

[srloring13]

That's a different experience than what I had. When I cancelled my Verizon account and after I got the final bill they let me make payment arrangements for the ETF's. Nothing got sent to collections. I either had to call in to make the monthly payment or paid via a special website they sent me to but everything was handled by Verizon. They even sent me reminder notices for the payment arrangement until it was paid in full.

[Anonymous]

I got absolutely nowhere with CSR-Supervisor-Manager-Call Center Manager so I escalated it myself to the CEO of the company.  By the next day the corporate response team called and apologized and said that despite the CA sending me a Dunning Notice, Verizon still held the debt so I made payment arrangements with them under the agreement that they would get the CA off my butt and remove any negatives from my CR immediately.

It's still ridiculous that this even happened, however.  If they can't give you the total amount of what you owe they certainly shouldn't be having a debt collector sending you notices the exact same day as you finally get the bill from them.  I will never do business with this company again.  Very bad experience.