Consumer complaint received 2022-10-31
Company: Convergent Resources, Inc.
State: GA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2022, I was surprised to receive a phone bill from XXXX XXXX. It was addressed to XXXX XXXX and was in the amount of {$6500.00}, with {$6400.00} being past due. All of the lines were assigned to XXXX XXXX. Thinking this was a simply billing error by XXXX XXXX, I called XXXX and advised them as follows : 1. We do not have any account with XXXX and have not had one for quite a few years. All of our phone service is provided by XXXX XXXX. 
2. All of the phone lines shown on their invoice belong to XXXX XXXX. We do not know anyone named XXXX XXXX and had no idea why they were suddenly billing us for this account. 
3. Although the invoice had our correct street address, it is addressed to XXXX XXXX, which is not the correct name of our company. I had never received any previous invoices. Since the monthly charge was only {$65.00}, I assumed this was an account that had been going on for a long time. 
4. Because of the very large amount of the bill and concern about fraud and protecting our credit rating, I wrote to XXXX to document our conversation. My letter to XXXX is dated XX/XX/XXXX, and is is included in my report to the XXXX Police Department. I had hoped to attach a copy of the police report to this file but it's apparently too large. 
The XXXX representative I spoke with stated she could not give us any information in order to protect the privacy of XXXX XXXX, but assured me the bills would stop. 
When the second bill arrived the following month, I took the bill to the local XXXX store. The store staff said there was nothing they could do about it. They suggested that I return the bills to XXXX, noting on the envelop that the bill was incorrectly addressed, no XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX, which I did By the billing period ending XX/XX/XXXX the bill was {$12000.00}. A copy of the summary bill, consisting of only three pages is available if needed On XX/XX/XXXX we received a collection notice from Convergent Technologies that was addressed to XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. We disputed the bill, being careful to follow the instructions on their notice. We learned that federal regulations require debt collection companies to stop collection until they send us information that shows we owe the debt if we request it. They must also provide the name and address of the original creditor, if different from the current creditor. A copy of our letter to Convergent is available if required. Our letter was sent via certified mail, so we have a written record that Convergent received it. We received no response from Convergent XXXX No information was provided. 
On XX/XX/XXXX we received a collection notice from XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX. I called them and spoke with XXXX XXXX. Although I did not believe most of what she was saying ( they didnt have a copy of prior bills, they didnt have any record of any prior creditor, etc. ), when she asked, I provided her with the last 4 digits of our EIN number. She stated that was the reason we kept getting these bills XXXX XXXX was using our EIN number. She suggested I file a complaint with the local police, which I am have. 
Being tired of getting no information from XXXX XXXX and its debt collection companies, I tried an on-line reverse look-up service, XXXX. I learned the following : XXXX XXXX is listed as being used XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX and 4 other persons. XXXX no. XXXX XXXX is listed as being used XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and others. Interestingly, XXXX XXXX lists his job as XXXX XXXX. The number XXXX XXXX is listed as being used by XXXX and XXXX XXXX. The number XXXX XXXX is listed as being used XXXX XXXX XXXX and others. There was no result for XXXX XXXX. Most of the telephone numbers had a multiple users each with a number of aliases in several different states. XXXX made no mention of XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX for any of the five telephone numbers listed on the XXXX bill. 
I have filed a police report because XXXX XXXX stated that their process requires me to do so. However, my experience leads me to believe that XXXX XXXX is itself guilty of fraud and deception. They and their debt collection agencies have refused to provide me with any additional information about this account, acting as if I should pay a bill for over {$12000.00} while they concealed information about the account. Additionally, the letter I received from the second debt collection agency, XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX, omitted any reference to XXXX XXXX, whose name appeared on the XXXX bills. Neither did they provide information as to how to contact the CFPB. I would not have known about this agency except for the notice from the first debt collector, Convergent XXXX. 
Finally, I would like to add that my husband and I are both over XXXX XXXX XXXX. This has been an extremely stressful experience for me. It seems that each time I state that I am disputing the bill, the only thing that happens is that I receive another debt collection letter from another company. It has been a terrible experience and there seems to be no end in sight. 
I was unable to attach a copy of my report to the XXXX Police Department because the file seems to be too large. I would be happy to submit it if the an alternatae way to send.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation