CA refusing to validate debt ~ please help

[Anonymous]

Hello again,

I sent a DV letter to CA and they responded and said :

     "We are in Receipt of your letter requesting formal validation for the above reference account.  Unfortunately the validation period for this account has expired.  The validation period starts 5 days after first communication with a debt collector.  Upon receipt of the initial notice the consumer has 30 days to dispute the valididty of a debt.  You can find this in the FDCPA (15 yadda yadd yadda)  We do not report until the notice reaches the consumer and we send all outgoing mail through the National Change of Address system.  We never received mail flagged as being returned through the NCOA system"

Ok, I have NEVER received anything from them and only found out about them when they started reporting on my report.  They never sent anything certified or Return Receipt so they can't just assume I got a letter from them. 

How do I address this? 

[Anonymous]

I would send them another DV and say something along the lines that you recently found this on your CR and want validation.  How long ago did you find it on your CR?

You wouldn't by chance be in TX?

[Anonymous]

Hello and thank you for responding.

I am in Ohio.

I found this on my credit report in August 2010 and I mailed the letter to them in August 2010.

I was going through my files today and I see that I never responded to their letter.

Am I too late to respond back to them now?

[Anonymous]

You got a dunning letter prior to Aug 2010?

[Anonymous]

No, I never received a dunning letter at all.  I found out about the account when I pulled my credit report.

[Anonymous]

You made the comment you never responded to their letter so I am confused.

Is the amount owed large?  How old is the account, is it still within your states SOL?

[Anonymous]

To clarify, I meant that I never responded to their letter that stated they refused to verify the debt.

Here is what happened:

1.  Pulled my credit, found the account on CR

2.  Mailed letter to CA in August 2010

3.  CA Responded in August 2010 (refused to verify debt)

4.  I never followed up to their refusal

5.  Now, March 2011- wondering if there is anything I can do about this

The amount is $144 for one account and $61 dollars for the other.  They have 2 accounts. 

The accounts are about 3-4 years old.  Old cable bills. 

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it!

So, am I out of luck?

[Anonymous]

All you can do is keep trying.

Another option is contact the OC and ask if you pay them will they recall the accounts from the CA.  Let them know you knew nothing about the bills until you pulled your CR.

[Anonymous]

Is the fact that they refuse to validate and they are still reporting on my CR a violation of the FDCPA?

[Anonymous]

Well, if they just refused it would be. 

They are saying they sent you a dunning letter and you did not ask for validation.  Whether they actually did send a letter or not would be hard to prove.