Urgent - Need advice

[execsupport]

What is the name of your state? South Carolina

I recently found out that a utility company (telephone, cable TV and internet) shows a large old balance for me. Since I was not aware of any balance due to them, I called. After being referred to several people, I finally got one lady in billing willing to research and find out what was going on.

She discovered that they, indeed, had an order from me to shut off my service August 8, 2002. They did not, however, shut off the service but continued to bill me through the end of October of 2002. They are showing a balance of almost $900. As of August 1, 2002, I rented a home in another city and moved by the time of the shut off date for the utilities. I had no way of knowing they did not shut off the service. The mobile home I had been living in was pulled off the property as soon as I moved, leaving an empty lot, so no one else was using the service. She offered to remove the Sept and Oct charges (not the August ones) IF I would produce a copy of the lease for the house I rented back then. It was a 6 month lease and I no longer have that document. I told her that since they have a record of the shut off request and there is no law that says I can't shut off that type of service, they needed to credit me all charges after August 8, 2002.

A couple of weeks after that conversation, I received a call at work from a woman. She indicated she was from the telephone company in question. I thought she was calling to tell me it was all straightened out. Well into the conversation, I realized she was from a debt collection agency only by a reference she made. She never ONCE told me she was from a debt collection agency and she never told me the name of it. I later discovered it was Collectron. She began getting nasty and told me several times that she had verified my employment and I'd better get a lawyer or pay the debt because the telephone company had authorized her company to sue me.

I wrote letters to all credit bureaus stating that I considered this to be creditor fraud. I also mentioned the failure of the collector to properly identify herself. Now, I have received a call from someone at Collectron offering to settle for half if I sent a lump sum payment. He gave me the name of a contact at the telephone company that I could talk to but assured me that my "explanation" would "fall on deaf ears" with her.

I am now getting letters from the credit bureaus saying they contacted the creditor and the creditor has verified that the debt is valid. I'm told they are updating my credit report on this item as of March 2006.

I know that I can send a short statement to be placed with my credit bureau records. I still feel this is creditor fraud because they have a shut off request and didn't honor it.

I read somewhere that the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit over a debt in SC is 3 years but if they have updated the debt, does this mean they can still sue me? I don't want to have to pay an attorney for something that I don't feel I ever owed.

Can someone PLEASE give me an idea as to how I can handle this situation?

Thank you so muchWhat is the name of your state?

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by execsupport

What is the name of your state? South Carolina

I recently found out that a utility company (telephone, cable TV and internet) shows a large old balance for me. Since I was not aware of any balance due to them, I called. After being referred to several people, I finally got one lady in billing willing to research and find out what was going on.

She discovered that they, indeed, had an order from me to shut off my service August 8, 2002. They did not, however, shut off the service but continued to bill me through the end of October of 2002. They are showing a balance of almost $900. As of August 1, 2002, I rented a home in another city and moved by the time of the shut off date for the utilities. I had no way of knowing they did not shut off the service. The mobile home I had been living in was pulled off the property as soon as I moved, leaving an empty lot, so no one else was using the service. She offered to remove the Sept and Oct charges (not the August ones) IF I would produce a copy of the lease for the house I rented back then. It was a 6 month lease and I no longer have that document. I told her that since they have a record of the shut off request and there is no law that says I can't shut off that type of service, they needed to credit me all charges after August 8, 2002.

A couple of weeks after that conversation, I received a call at work from a woman. She indicated she was from the telephone company in question. I thought she was calling to tell me it was all straightened out. Well into the conversation, I realized she was from a debt collection agency only by a reference she made. She never ONCE told me she was from a debt collection agency and she never told me the name of it. I later discovered it was Collectron. She began getting nasty and told me several times that she had verified my employment and I'd better get a lawyer or pay the debt because the telephone company had authorized her company to sue me.

I wrote letters to all credit bureaus stating that I considered this to be creditor fraud. I also mentioned the failure of the collector to properly identify herself. Now, I have received a call from someone at Collectron offering to settle for half if I sent a lump sum payment. He gave me the name of a contact at the telephone company that I could talk to but assured me that my "explanation" would "fall on deaf ears" with her.

I am now getting letters from the credit bureaus saying they contacted the creditor and the creditor has verified that the debt is valid. I'm told they are updating my credit report on this item as of March 2006.

I know that I can send a short statement to be placed with my credit bureau records. I still feel this is creditor fraud because they have a shut off request and didn't honor it.

I read somewhere that the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit over a debt in SC is 3 years but if they have updated the debt, does this mean they can still sue me? I don't want to have to pay an attorney for something that I don't feel I ever owed.

Can someone PLEASE give me an idea as to how I can handle this situation?

Thank you so muchWhat is the name of your state?

Standard answer on expired SOL and/or validation and/or dispute letters. There are thousands of posts similar to yours on this forum so I have prepared a standard answer.

SOL (Statutes of limitation are DEFENSES to lawsuits; they do NOT provide a method to stop someone from suing you. This defense means when they sue you, you answer with the defense that it is barred by the SOL.)

[url]http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debt_sol.html[/url]

[url]http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/Disputing_Collections/SoL-dispute-letter.html[/url]


Validation letter samples you can get at :
[url]www.creditinfocenter.com[/url]
and [url]www.creditboards.com[/url]


Disputes: You can write a letter of dispute to the three credit reporting agencies.

Go this website to find instructions and samples for how to dispute: [url]http://www.creditinfocenter.com/creditreports/[/url]

Sometimes errors are easy to remove and sometimes they stick like glue. It is inexpensive to try and not difficult.

I am NOT a creditor-debtor lawyer; stand by for further help.

I am NOT vouching for the accuracy of these websites!

Debt settlement:

[url]http://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=293829[/url]