emergency situation please please help!!!

[Anonymous]

My score has been slowly rising and I've been working SO HARD for three years then today I got a letter from a collection agency....

I returned a movie to blockbuster on December 19th (just dropped it in the bin).  It was over 10 days late, so they charged me the full amount of the movie.

They sent me NO BILL, I just thought I probably had a late fine on my account that I would pay at my next visit.  I had absolutely no idea this existed until today when I got the collections notice. 

I went up there and the guy said they don't send bills anymore, they make phone calls. And  they had an old phone number, so they had no way to reach me.  He then said that the collections agency was "only for people with an amount due" and that it "won't affect your credit score in any way".  I asked for that in writing.  He refused to write it down saying he didn't have the legal authority to do so.  He gave me the name and phone number of his supervisor.  I left a message. 

I am selling my house and if I have a credit hit I'll never qualify for a new house... my credit score will tank and my son and I will end up homeless... somebody please help me.  I spend so many years being irresponsible and now I HONESTLY didn't know about this debt... I can't believe this is happening to me.  I didn't pay it since he wouldn't offer anything in writing... what should I do?  I want to pay it, I know I owe it... but I'm afraid if I pay it my credit report will be permanently damaged.

I am hyperventilating so please throw me a bone.

[Anonymous]

Ok now that I have stopped crying for a minute, what about this...

What if someone else pays it?  Like, my mom, for example?  Couldn't I technically say that I had never acknowledged the debt was valid if it later showed up on my report?

That way I can pay it in the hopes that it won't report.  Any thoughts to this (probably dumb) idea?

[Anonymous]

How much of a hit will a new collection account cause me?

[Anonymous]

This collection account will cost you alot of points. Your best chance is to negotiate a pay for delete where you agree to pay the amount but the collection agency agrees to remove this account from your credit reports permanently.

[IOBA]

It's been years since I worked at Blockbuster...but when I did --

1.  They sent out a bogus collection letter.  If you paid, great.  If you didn't, you received a few more collection letters.  It never went beyond that.

2.  They did not report on the credit reports.

I was nailed by a collection letter.  I was raised a stink with the store!  (The movie was returned and they didn't "check it in", thus it was forever lost...but the other movie returned same time was checked in.)

1.   Sent a dispute letter to the collection agency, CMRR.

2.   Called up and repeated was a asking the manager to remove it from collections, make sure it was changed in the system to not missing, etc.

I had the added benefit of having worked at BB, so I knew that movies get misplaced, misscanned, and walk.  The movie that went missing was a brand new, ultra popular movie...  hhmmm. 

[Cotton_Britches]

You have 30 days to request debt validation once you receive a collection letter. I'd send them a debt validation letter tomorrow via certified mail. They can't place it on your credit report until it's validated.

Plus, even if you can't qualify for a new home right away, you can always rent.

[RobertEG]

Let us back up for moment,

If you returned it to a Blocbbuster in a return bin on Dec. 19th, and your due date was more than ten days late, then that seems to say that you agree that your contractural due date for return was prior to Dec. 9th, 2009, and you did not meet the terms of your lease.

What was the actual date of initial rental for the video?  You ommited this from your post.

When was the actual due date? One month ago, six months ago? Two years ago?

I dunno, from what you have said.

Your contract upon rental will set the due date of delinqency.

If you can show that you met the terms of the rental agrrement, and were not in default for more than 30 days from that date of agreement, I would side with you.  Otherwise, I dont think Blockuster has not done anything more than overly agressive support of their rights.

[Anonymous]

I have to disagree with you Robert... sending a bill to a collection agency before sending the bill to the consumer is wrong... and it's just bad business.  People are late returning movies all the time, including myself.  I have ALWAYS paid every single late fee.  If they simply sent me a bill I would have paid it immediately.  I returned those movies by HAND, and they could have told me then that they were late.  They could have sent a letter.  They could have updated my file with the local blockbuster that has proper phone information.  There is no way a consumer would know that the computer systems are not interrelated.  And there is no way I can pay a bill unless I know the bill exists.  Aggressive collections is one thing, but collections without giving a consumer the opportunity to pay is quite another.  I pay my bills on time, every time.  They don't care about lates... they make money off of them anyway.  They even at one point encouraged customers to "keep it as long as you want".  So this has nothing to do with being a good customer.  Blockbuster has gotten thousands of dollars of my business and I have rented with them for 15 years.  Turning a fee to a collector without even NOTIFYING me of the debt is downright immoral.

[Anonymous]

IOBA, based on your post, I'm going to go ahead and pay it.  First, the letter says I have the option to pay in the Blockbuster store, and I don't think a regular CA would give me that option.  Second, you are mirroring what the employees told me- that it wouldn't hit my credit.  Third, I looked online and it seems that NAFS is collecting for blockbuster exclusively, so I'm betting that it IS a blockbuster owned deal.

When this is said and done, I am definately never renting from them again.