Verizon Collection

[Anonymous]

I had some financial difficulties over the past year and paying my phone bill(home) wasn't exactly top priority.  long story short... I did not pay for about six month.  However, Verizon did not cut off my service. Once I got myself  together I paid the last bill they sent me not noticing that there was a deduction for a portion send to a collection agency.  They had continue to bill me new charges while sending the old to collection.  This charge is now on 2 of the 3 CRA's.  My questions...Is it legal for them to continue to increase my debt or should they have had a responsibility to mitigate their damages?

[RobertEG]

Hi, mov!

Did you ever get a dunning letter from the CA?  They are required to send formal collection notice to you under the FDCPA within 5 days of posting to your CR.

Once you have that, you can then DV them, asking for a specific and detailed breakdown of the total debt that they are attempting to collect, including their own fees.  It is not per se illegal for a CA to assess fees.  You need to know what they are charging.

[Anonymous]

Verizon likely left your basic service, cut off your long distance service, when the long distance was not paid, it was sent to the CA. You were still billed from Verizon for local service.

As far as them increasing the debt, they didn't do that.....you did by keeping services and not paying. As far as I know there is no law that states when utility companies must disconnect you for non-payment.