Locations: Account created in California. Currently living in Texas
I'd like to start off by saying this is a complete mess and that's partly my fault. Here goes...
When I lived in California, I had a Verizon cable TV and internet account. I moved to Texas in December of 2011 and the account stayed opened while my brother was still living at the address. In September of 2012, the account as closed and Verizon sent them boxes to ship the equipment. They shipped the equipment to Verizon and it was delivered and signed for by an employee at Verizon, according to the tracking number. I thought that was the end of it.
Now, January 2015, I'm seeing a collections account in my credit report and the original creditor was Verizon. The collections is dated September 2014. I was able to log into my old Verizon account to look this up and it looks like I owe them a little over $1k for unreturned equipment. I know the equipment was returned because I constantly checked the tracking updates when my brother sent the equipment back to them. Now, however, I no longer have that tracking number and can't prove that the equipments were shipped back to them. It also doesn't look like they're the ones trying to collect this debt. The derogatory mark was reported by Debt Recovery Solutions.
We're looking to buy a house soon, so we wanted to make sure our credit reports were nice and polished. Everything in my report looks solid. 0 missed/late payments, but this collections item has stained my credit. What options do I have? Is there a way I can still dispute this even though I don't have anything to prove that the equipment was returned?
I'd like to start off by saying this is a complete mess and that's partly my fault. Here goes...
When I lived in California, I had a Verizon cable TV and internet account. I moved to Texas in December of 2011 and the account stayed opened while my brother was still living at the address. In September of 2012, the account as closed and Verizon sent them boxes to ship the equipment. They shipped the equipment to Verizon and it was delivered and signed for by an employee at Verizon, according to the tracking number. I thought that was the end of it.
Now, January 2015, I'm seeing a collections account in my credit report and the original creditor was Verizon. The collections is dated September 2014. I was able to log into my old Verizon account to look this up and it looks like I owe them a little over $1k for unreturned equipment. I know the equipment was returned because I constantly checked the tracking updates when my brother sent the equipment back to them. Now, however, I no longer have that tracking number and can't prove that the equipments were shipped back to them. It also doesn't look like they're the ones trying to collect this debt. The derogatory mark was reported by Debt Recovery Solutions.
We're looking to buy a house soon, so we wanted to make sure our credit reports were nice and polished. Everything in my report looks solid. 0 missed/late payments, but this collections item has stained my credit. What options do I have? Is there a way I can still dispute this even though I don't have anything to prove that the equipment was returned?