Sprint wants to bend me over and stick it to me.

[thereds]

I ordered a credit report yesterday and noticed that I owe $57 to Allied Int (a collection agency) for a bill that I hadn't paid to Sprint. This $57 has been due for more than a year now. Here's what happened:

When I signed up for Sprint cell phone service last year (around June 7, 2006), Sprint messed up when they created my account. When I added the Employee Discount to my account on June 15, 2006 and due to the initial cock-up by Sprint, they had to create a new account (the current account I am using). I only learned of this ?extra account? last night after being on the phone with Sprint for over two hours.

The 1st account, apparently, had the $57 charge on it that they billed me for. A bill that I NEVER received. Mind you the 2nd account that they created has been paid in full on time except for one bill recently that I missed but ended up paying along with my next bill?no harm done here.

Sprint have, according to the credit dept CSR, been sending bills to an old address and tried calling my old number (both number and address that I used when I was in college circa 1996 - 2000!!!). I guess they didn't have the current address and phone number from my '2nd account' to contact me to pay this $57. Since it has been more than a year now, it has gone in to collections. The best part of it all - I don't even know what the damn $57 is for.

After talking to Sprint last night for over two hours, here's where I stand and what I have learned:
1. Sprint messed up when the created a new account for me becuase the 1st account was created on the old billing system and the new account was created on the new billing system.
2. Sprint Customer Finance has sent an email to their third party collection agency who will get in touch with Allied Int to resolve this.

Trying to fix this is going to take 5 years off my life and that doesn't include the hold times.

Anything else I should do to get this resolved other than talking to Sprint?

Cliffs:
1. Sprint sucks.

 

[Spineshank]

I have learned fast that Sprint CS is pretty dumb.

 

[Deeko]

Allied is a terrible company. My electric company screwed up and didn't cancel my account when I moved out of my apartment. They've since done so, but the collection agency they forwarded me to (Allied) still calls me 10 times a day. Thank god I don't get service at work and they don't leave voicemails.

 

[PokerGuy]

Originally posted by: Deeko
They've since done so, but the collection agency they forwarded me to (Allied) still calls me 10 times a day. Thank god I don't get service at work and they don't leave voicemails.

You can inform them that you do not want to be contacted again by phone in regards to that issue. Do it in writing, using certified mail. Then, if they continue to contact you, you can sue for violation of the FDCPA, $1000 per violation. They'll stop contacting you after they receive the letter. Of course, if it's something you really still owe or need to resolve, it's not going to protect your credit.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Trying to fix this is going to take 5 years of time because Allied Interstate is one of the scummiest of the collections agencies. I had a Worst Buy card that I paid off but Beneficial (the bank that had the card at the time) didn't report it as paid in full. At one point it showed i owed more on it than the credit limit. After finding out from Beneficial that my payment was credited to someone else's account, they managed to fix that part up, but since it had gone to collections and been passed around so many times, I tracked it down to having been in Allied's possession. They told me I had to pay or they would sue me. I faxed them proof that it was a mistake by Beneficial and that they can contact Beneficial, but they told me that the only person that could tell them it was an error was the company they got the debt from, which was a different collections company. I found out that that company was owned by the parent company of Allied. but that the 2 collections companies are on different systems. I went back and forth with them for 4 months fighting this and eventually just had a friend write a letter on his companies legal letter head telling them to remove the collection from my record due to the proof of payment and that if the record wasn't removed that Allied faced civil and criminal charges due to threatening phone calls and deception.

I found out the hard way that collection agencies are the scum of the Earth. They will "buy" accounts for pennies on the dollar and try to extort the person out of upto 2x the original debt.

Luckily for you $57 isn't going to hurt your score to much until you can get it straightened out. I had a $2500 limit on my card that I had to fight.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

Sprint appears to be resolving the issue... why are you upset?

 

[Deeko]

Yea, I actually just did that last week...they should be receiving it very shortly, if they haven't already. I haven't had a chance to check the status of it yet this week.

 

[thereds]

Originally posted by: HomeBrewerDude



Sprint appears to be resolving the issue... why are you upset?

Because unless I remain proactive and follow up with Sprint, nothing is going to happen. Just a gut feel. Oh and I shouldn't be in this mess in the first place.

 

[Scarpozzi]

It probably won't be that bad. If they have it in the works, they'll be able to take it off. Once they get it resolved on their end, call them back and have them write you a letter that you can fax to the credit bureaus in case you have any problems in the future regarding the $57 charge.

They should have your credit reinstated no more than 1 month after they resolve it.

 

[Mxylplyx]

Me and my wife had our fill of those shitbags at Sprint. We call up and change our contracts no more than a few days apart. They decide to renew her contract without informing us, and they didnt renew mine. We go to cancel some time later, and they inform us of the $275 cancellation fee. When I call to confront them about it, they tell me that they did inform us, and that she agreed to the renewal, telling us they have a 3rd party verification of it. I tell them thats great, so they wouldnt mind producing said verification. "Sorry sir, we cant do that". I tell them to take the $275 bill and shove it up their ass, and made it clear that it will never be paid. We dont use her credit anyways, so I could care less about the small ding to her credit score. They sent collection letters for years, constantly reducing the amount trying to get us to settle. I never paid those fuckers a dime, and made damn sure they spent more money on CSR time and collections attempts than they were "owed".

 

[oboeguy]

Curse-out the collection agency, frequently using the word "harassment". I had a couple of collection agencies on my tail for equally bogus charges (from my grad school & DHL). A little yelling and patience should put this behind you. GL!