State: NV
I used to live in St. Louis, MO more than a year ago and as I was moving out I was in person in a gas company office to ask them for disconnecting the service and ask what else I was suppose to do and pay, as I thought, my final bill.
After about 14 months an information about collection appeared on my credit report and I did not know what was going on with it. I called that gas company immediately, paid the bill I did not know about (nobody called me or let me know about it in any way) and then called a collection company to ask what is going on, what can I do with that and to tell them that I paid that.
On the next day I started thinking how to fix my credit report because I am convinced that this information should not be there. It was not my fault at all. I understand that I am responsible for paying bills on time etc, however I received wrong information at that gas company office and later nobody actually cared to contact me. The collection agency did not contact me either.
I called Laclede Gas company twice, I was talking to a supervisor and everything and at the end they told me that they have nothing to do with that anymore. “Once an account is send for collection ii is gone…” - they told me. I was also adviced that I need to deal with collection agency and credit bureaus.
On the next day I wrote quite a letter to a manager of that collection agency explaining all the circumstances, stating that I feel like they should at least try to contact me before notifying the credit bureaus and asking for understanding and taking that information off my records. I called them few days later to discuss the content of my letter over the phone and I felt like we were talking about two different things and that they were treating me at least like an idiot.
First of all they told me that they were talking to me on the phone several times, she also told me at what particular days it was!!! I am 100% sure I did not talk to anybody at all. They were just lying convincing me that I tlaked to them on the phone, but I did not!!!
Secondly the person said that “we have computers here” and your account is no longer active, we do not have access to it anymore. She also said that they close accounts after they no longer belive they can collect the money. I was trying to explain that I paid and I called to let them know about it but she kept treating me like an enemy or something.
Most importantly they said that they have notified credit bureaus twice – first about the collection process and than later that it was “an error” and that they did not collect the payment, I paid to that Laclede Gas company directly and, what I heard before, that they do not have anything to do with it anymore. I was advice to contact the credit bureaus to dispute the information. I was trying to ask them for some kind of letter stating what they just told me over the phone to attach that to letters to credit bureaus but they refused to do that.
Basically they were talking to me as an idiot. I was saying something, they did not care too much and repating the same thing all over and I knew they were making a fool out of me.
Today I deceided to check my credit report on the Internet and there is only one onformation about collection. It says:
“Collection Account, 106$, past due as of March 2006.
I have no idea what to do next. I probably will not do much by calling that Laclede Gas company. When I will call that collection agency again they will probably treat me like an idiot again (they probably receive such phonecalls and know what to say to disciouragre somebody). What do you think I could do and what arguments can I use to dispute this information with the credit bureaus? I really think it should not be there. I got the wrong information from somebody and later nobody cared to contact me at all. They have just reported that as a collection. Thank you in advance for any information you can offer.
PS: Are there any professionals who deal with something like that or any laws etc...?
I used to live in St. Louis, MO more than a year ago and as I was moving out I was in person in a gas company office to ask them for disconnecting the service and ask what else I was suppose to do and pay, as I thought, my final bill.
After about 14 months an information about collection appeared on my credit report and I did not know what was going on with it. I called that gas company immediately, paid the bill I did not know about (nobody called me or let me know about it in any way) and then called a collection company to ask what is going on, what can I do with that and to tell them that I paid that.
On the next day I started thinking how to fix my credit report because I am convinced that this information should not be there. It was not my fault at all. I understand that I am responsible for paying bills on time etc, however I received wrong information at that gas company office and later nobody actually cared to contact me. The collection agency did not contact me either.
I called Laclede Gas company twice, I was talking to a supervisor and everything and at the end they told me that they have nothing to do with that anymore. “Once an account is send for collection ii is gone…” - they told me. I was also adviced that I need to deal with collection agency and credit bureaus.
On the next day I wrote quite a letter to a manager of that collection agency explaining all the circumstances, stating that I feel like they should at least try to contact me before notifying the credit bureaus and asking for understanding and taking that information off my records. I called them few days later to discuss the content of my letter over the phone and I felt like we were talking about two different things and that they were treating me at least like an idiot.
First of all they told me that they were talking to me on the phone several times, she also told me at what particular days it was!!! I am 100% sure I did not talk to anybody at all. They were just lying convincing me that I tlaked to them on the phone, but I did not!!!
Secondly the person said that “we have computers here” and your account is no longer active, we do not have access to it anymore. She also said that they close accounts after they no longer belive they can collect the money. I was trying to explain that I paid and I called to let them know about it but she kept treating me like an enemy or something.
Most importantly they said that they have notified credit bureaus twice – first about the collection process and than later that it was “an error” and that they did not collect the payment, I paid to that Laclede Gas company directly and, what I heard before, that they do not have anything to do with it anymore. I was advice to contact the credit bureaus to dispute the information. I was trying to ask them for some kind of letter stating what they just told me over the phone to attach that to letters to credit bureaus but they refused to do that.
Basically they were talking to me as an idiot. I was saying something, they did not care too much and repating the same thing all over and I knew they were making a fool out of me.
Today I deceided to check my credit report on the Internet and there is only one onformation about collection. It says:
“Collection Account, 106$, past due as of March 2006.
I have no idea what to do next. I probably will not do much by calling that Laclede Gas company. When I will call that collection agency again they will probably treat me like an idiot again (they probably receive such phonecalls and know what to say to disciouragre somebody). What do you think I could do and what arguments can I use to dispute this information with the credit bureaus? I really think it should not be there. I got the wrong information from somebody and later nobody cared to contact me at all. They have just reported that as a collection. Thank you in advance for any information you can offer.
PS: Are there any professionals who deal with something like that or any laws etc...?
