topic Re: AT&T. Never again. in Rebuilding Your Credit

AT&T. Never again.

thorjo1984 — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 05:21:40 GMT

I've been building my credit for over 10 years now. It started with a $200 secured Target card (Thanks Target!), then my first car loan and eventually a couple of credit cards I still use daily, Amex Blue Cash Preferred and Citi Forward, both amazing!

I've enjoyed watching my credit scores rise slowly but steadily, always keeping a watchful eye to make sure everything is as it should be. All of my scores were hovering around 790. That was 6 months ago. I was starting to entertain the possiblity of purchasing my first home. Interest rates were great (even better now!) and it was becoming a reality. Then the unthinkable happened. A collection on my credit from AT&T for $122.

Now let me explain. A year prior I had signed up for AT&T internet. I installed it myself and everything was working as intended. A couple months later I still hadn't received a statement from AT&T. I decided to call them to pay whatever balance was on my account. I didn't have my account number since I hadn't gotten a statement but I had my name, address, phone number and social. That should work right? I gave my name and address to the CS agent and they told me there was no account pulling up for that address. I verified the information and still nothing. I offered to give them my social but the agent said they were unable to pull up accounts using socials. I was at a loss. I didn't know what else to do so I ended the call and figured a statement would come eventually.

A couple months later my internet was still working but still no statement. I decided to call AT&T again, hopeful that by now I would show up in their system. Well, long story short, same thing as above. Verified the information, no account, can't do socials. Got it, thanks. By this point I figured I had just slipped through the cracks. It had happened to me before with another provider and I couldn't see any other explanation. I moved to a new location around this time and since I had no account, there was no account for me to cancel.

Fast forward a year and boom, AT&T sends a $122 bill to collections without even as much as a courtesy call. I noticed it almost immediately. My scores tanked from 790's to 660's. I was horrified, confused, angry. I called up AT&T, gave them my old address, and still NADA. I told them they had sent my bill to collections, I had an account! They offered to transfer me to their internal collections department. I agreed.

One of the very first things the agent in the collections department asked for was my social. I gave it to them and TADA!, they were able to pull up my account. I verified my name and address, it was all correct. They said I could pay them directly and they would have the collection updated. I agreed. $122. Now the collection says Paid in Full but my scores remained the same.

I want the collection removed completely. It never should have gone to collections to begin with. But the debt was legit, it's just that I never had the opportunity to pay it, and I tried damned hard multiple times. What are my chances of successfully disputing this? Are there lawyers that deal with these types of situations?

One thing I find odd, I have over 10 years of credit history. Multiple credit cards and car loans, tens of thousands of dollars in credit all with perfect payments showing, and a $122 collection is enough to knock my 790 score down to a 660. Something is wrong there. Also, if someone is going to send your bill to collections they better make damned sure you aren't willing to pay them. I'm more than eager to pay all of my bills. I'm basically a Lannister in that regard.

Thoughts?

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 07:35:02 GMT

I had a medical bill that went to collections when I was 19 years old. When I started getting the collection calls, I did some research and found out that one could negotiate the terms of paying back the debt. For example, paying in full but with the condition that it gets removed completely from your credit report. Usually you would get that in writing before making a payment. Keep in mind, this is in the complete discretetion of the collection agencey/department to do.

Since you made the payment already, you can try to call back and have them try to meet your terms after the fact. Does not hurt to try. I may be wrong, but I do not believe that a lawyer can remove anything off your credit report if the debt is justified. Try the goodwill letters.

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:23:47 GMT

Damn. That's messed up. If the goodwill letter don't work, if this was my only derogatory I'm not so sure that I would not dispute this with the bureaus. I would tell them (truthfully) that I had no record of this bill existing (which if it went down this way I truthfully would not) If AT&T customer service (separate from their collection department)had no record of this bill ever existing how the hell could they expect anyone else to have it? Not trying to encourage dishonesty here but I had a similar situation pop up years ago with the cable provider. Thought I was current and come to find out they claimed I owed a small amout that I cannot even recall what it was for. Instead of fighting them tooth and nail I naively figured the small amount that the bill was for was not worth the trouble of fighting and paid it. Voila, it wound up on my reports. I disputed this as I had no record at all of this bill and told the credit bureaus my story and their customer service at all 3 told me that a dispute would be filed on my behalf. I am assuming that the cable company never verified it because that one disappeared from the reports quickly.

Re: AT&T. Never again.

newstart2010 — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 13:56:31 GMT

So who is reporting on your credit report? The collection agency or AT&T?

Re: AT&T. Never again.

thorjo1984 — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 17:08:19 GMT

The collection agency is reporting it. I talked to them and they made it clear that they do not remove any collection under any circumstances. This was before I paid AT&T directly.

I have call logs showing I called AT&T when I was trying to pay my balance. Their systems failed them and I'm taking the hit.

Now I understand that just about anyone could make up a story to dispute a collection, and without recorded phone calls I really don't have definite proof. But if I was lying that would mean that someone who's paying monthly to monitor their credit, paying thousands of dollars off of car payments and credit cards every month who hasn't missed a payment in over a 10 year history basically said screw it, I'm not paying this $122 bill. But then paid it as soon add it showed up as a collection.

Or I'm telling the truth and AT&T really was not able to locate my account. Which in fact is the only reason they didn't get paid on time. Hopefully the credit agencies see the logic when looking over my case.

But even so I'm worried because I don't have much faith in the system at this point. It seems like anyone can screw up your credit and then you have to fight tooth and nail to get it fixed even if it is completely bogus.

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 17:19:17 GMT

AT&T has the call logs. That is strong evidence that you were trying to pay your bill but AT&T's incompetance prevented that. The way I see it they are liable legally for damaging your credit. Contact a consumer attorney through NACA and file suit against them and the CA.

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 17:45:26 GMT

Something needs to be done in this case to make this right. Sounds like You made every attempt to pay this bill yet AT&T failed to acknowledge that you even existed until someone somehow stumbled across your account and decided to immediately send it to collections without so much as a courtesy call. IMHO there is a very strong probability of this going away using either the dispute process or the threat of a lawsuit the poster above mentioned above. Sucks though that somebody like yourself with stellar credit is having to go through the headache of having to deal with this.

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 18:08:14 GMT

I had something similar happen to me with AT&T. I got nowhere with CSRs and their internal collection dept, but to make it worse the collection was with Enhanced Recovery (ERC). ERC is one of the worst CAs out there. Long story short, I submitted a complaint through BBB and received a call within two days from their EO. The EO had ERC removed effective immediately. Also, ERC sent me a letter confirming their removal from all bureaus. Although, Equifax seems to want to take forever to remove. From the BBB complaint submission to letter received from ERC snail mail took two weeks max

Re: AT&T. Never again.

thorjo1984 — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 18:09:17 GMT

It has definately made me reconsider who gets my social. Cable and internet companies no longer have my trust. They won't be getting it in the future. I'd rather prepay a year at a time.

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 18:10:08 GMT

By the way I was not insinuating that you were making any of this up. Fact of the matter is I can easily believe this with this company. A friend of mine recently had his phone service disconnected for nonpayment with them after he had paid the bill something like 10 days before disconnect. The customer service rep denied that a payment was ever made until he rattled off the confirmation number of the electronic transfer. Then after he proved that he did in fact make the payment they still tryed to charge a reconnect fee to get service restored when the service was shut off due to THEIR error. I can believe your account of what transpired totally. I was trying to emphasize that you honestly had no statements indicating that you owed anything.

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 18:37:28 GMT

Is there an Arbitration Agreement in the terms of service you signed?

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 02:31:18 GMT

A decent lawyer can probably clear this up for you . You can try doing it yourself but hiring a lawyer would show them that your serious about this and won't just go away .

Re: AT&T. Never again.

Imperfectfuture — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 03:54:28 GMT

Agree with the BBB complaint. Research complaints on at&ts BBB file, then formulate an official complaint. I'm sure that this will solve it for you.