Verizon Mistake Damaged Credit (despite multiple attempts on my part to rectify)

[andresDC]

Despite multiple good faith attempts to correct my final bill verizon damaged my credit.  On December 9th of 2016 I disconnected my service (order# {edited for privacy}) and returned my equipment on December 11th (Receipt ID : {edited for privacy}) a few days later I received a bill for the entire month.  I contacted the Financial Services department on December 13, 2016,  they told me to ignore that bill that a final prorated bill would be sent out. I received another bill and on January 9th, 2017 I contacted the Financial Services department once again and was told there was a mistake that it appears my account was still active but that they would fix it.  I received another bill same amount and contacted the Financial Services department on January 25th, 2017 who again apologized for the mistake and said they would fix it.  Each time I asked them to write a note in my account and each time they promised to correct it.

On February 7th, 2017 I receive a call from the Verizon collection agency IC System where they claimed my cutoff date was the end of December.  I disputed this claim (my cutoff was December 9th) both verbally and in writing in accordance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b), I also submited proof of my cut off dates. They received a certified letter on February 13th, 2017.  They did not respond to my dispute (as required by law) and instead immediately reported me delinquent to the credit bureau damaging my score by 200 points for a bill of only $90!  This is entirely inappropriate given all my attempts to rectify.  I paid the full amount to Verizon, instead of a calculated prorated amount which was promised and never delivered out of duress and fear of damaging my credit more.

I hope someone in Verizon can finally get this fixed and end this nightmare.

[LawrenceC]

Hi andresDC,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and scroll down the page to an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name located above your post, or at the top right of this page.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. The title of your post is the link. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. To ensure you know when they have responded to you, you may subscribe to the case. At the top right of your support case there is a gear icon which provides a drop down menu with support case options. Click that and choose "subscribe". Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

[andresDC]

Dear Verizon Customers,

As a former government regulator specializing in financial regulatory compliance and protecting consumer rights, I would like to share a very brief but important note regarding your rights as consumers as I understand them:

A debt is assumed valid only AFTER 30 days of RECEIPT of a WRITTEN notice of debt.  Unless written notification is sent disputing the debt or any portion of the debt.  In my case (https://forums.verizon.com/t5/My-Verizon-Account/Verizon-Mistake-Damaged-Credit-despite-multiple-att...) I received a notice several days after it was mailed out (letter was dated February 7th ).  Given how I value the importance of compliance, I immediately took action and formally and in writing disputed a portion of the debt.  When disputing debt, I strongly recommend that consumers use some form of trackable mail in order prove that it has been sent (like I did https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?tLabels=70143490000040633284)

In my case, as can be seen by the date of my previous post and my credit file, the debt still not assumed valid was reported to the credit bureaus well before the expiration of the aforementioned 30 days (today is March 9th and the letter was only dated the 7th of March and February only has 28 days).  Also to this date there has been not receipt of a verification of debt nor copy of judgment.

Luckily, per my post yesterday, Verizon being a large organization with a good comprehension of consumer laws, put me in touch with a representative.  It is my hope the in light of the information submitted and the prior understanding of what is contained in this message, they are making all haste to remediate the damage done to my credit based on assumed invalid debt before any further damage is done to me.

If this is an error by IC System, given that an institution can be held responsible for the acts of a third party vendor acting on their behalf (like banks are responsible for fair-lending violations of their brokers), it is my hope that Verizon’s compliance team is reviewing the actions of its vendor/affiliate and assessing if continued affiliation with this vendor is within Verizon’s risk appetite given the potential regulatory and reputational damage which may result from non-compliance of an affiliate.

Finally for any customer wanting to dispute a debt (or portion of debt) here is the beginning of my letter:

Dear IC System,

I am writing to formally dispute a portion of debt in accordance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b)….