Issue with cell phone provider, collections?

[ccsauer]

Ok, I have an odd issue:

I have been with Helio (Cell phone provider, for those of you that don't know) for nearly 2 years, and i recently got a piece of mail stating my contract was about to expire. I called, since I dodn't know the date it would be expiring, to find out and see what other phones were availibale, and what extending my contract would do. The helio representative said my contract was already ended, as of this past month's bill. So, that being said, I did my search for a phone, found the G1 and switched to T-Mobile. a few weeks later (2 days ago) I got a bill for the remainder of my Helio contract, and called to pay it off. They said that I owed that amount........plus $175 early termination fee. 

So, of course, I called to dispute this, and they have no records of me calling the first time, and insist that I owe the full $216.

So, besides the fact that I'm going to call a few more times to see if I can talk to a reasonable person, what are my other options here?

What would happen if I didn't pay and allowed this $216 charge to go to collections, since I refuse to pay it?

I own my home, and besides the car I'm about to purchase, I don't see myself needing stellar credit for the next few years. Would this be ridiculous?

Also, what would be the down side to allowing this to go to collections, and then negotiating with the collection's office? 

At that point, if I can't get them to budge, what would be the down side to having it go onto my credit report, and...say...disputing it later on down the line?

Let me hear your thoughts all around!

Thank you!

[JoeBJay20]

I would call back and ask to speak to a supervisor/manager to see if you could get more assistance on the matter.  But if you have no success with that route, you may have to ultimately decide if $216 is worth the hit on your reports that you would get for not paying it. 

[Anonymous]

If you have no collections and this hits, you could easily lose up to 100 points.

Just a few things to think about....although you own your own home and don't think you'll need credit for a few years, this could remain for 7 years. The future is never certain. You don't know what will happen. What if you were to lose your home to some disaster and needed to finance a new one and was held up over a $216 collection?

What if your car blowed up and you needed to finance a new one and this collection held you up?

I am not saying to pay it and give up.

I would ask for your original contract and find out exactly when you signed up and for how many months it was.

Escalate higher up within the company and see if you can't come to a better solution than just letting it go.