Consumer complaint received 2020-03-10
Company: Merchants' Credit Guide Company
State: IL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
I had thought this was already resolved when I filed a dispute once before stating that I did not know of or owe this debt. 

The collection company had been called by me today. I had asked asked what the debt was? A collector who identified himself as XXXX with Merchant Credit Guide Company in XXXX, stated that the name of the creditor could have changed and named two different company names that it could have changed from. After verifying my name and matching the account in question, he stated it was a debt that was from XXXX, XXXX. He then stated that this was an attempt to collect a debt. ( Note : The credit report shows false and deceptive information on its reporting. It claims on the credit report that the debt was from XXXX, XXXX. ) I had told him I dont know who the company is and that this debt was not mine. He immediately started talking quickly and said he would start the billing process and send me an invoice and transfer me to his supervisor. I said wait slow down, dont transfer me yet and he just started talking over me, transferred me and then I was on hold till the phone call hung up on me. 

The law states that there must be 100 % accurate reporting. First, if the company name has changed 2 or possibly 3 times, then that is not accurate reporting. Second, if the alleged debt was from XXXX, XXXX, then they have falsely reported the date of collection. This makes someone think that this will stay on their credit until XX/XX/XXXX instead of XXXX XXXXThird, I had stated that the debt did not belong to me, so XXXX unethically turned our  communication into an act of debt acknowledgment and dispute and said he was sending an invoice, without giving one moment to correct his attempt to alter the call into a collection dispute. 

XXXX was well aware that there is only 3 months left until this purported debt, I dont have enough information to form a belief about being mine, falls off the credit report. 

So he turned this into a communication of debt collection and dispute in order to revive the statute of limitations on collection debt that would have fallen off the credit report in 3 months, This is immoral, unethical and against the law. 

The reporting was not 100 % accurate and was deceptive in practice, since it represents that if you dont call about a name and debt you dont recognize, your credit will be showing this purported debt for an additional 1 year and 6 months and be adversely effected until then. 

The Fair Debt Collections Act is very clear on these subjects. The reporting was not 100 % accurate. I still dont know who the real company name is and how many times it has changed. This person should have informed me of who the two other company names were, in order to help me on what this was about. Plus regardless of the debt being found out to be accurate or not, the debt would have fallen off my credit in 3 more months. No one who knows their rights would ever call a creditor if they knew that a properly reported debt that is 7 years old falls off in 3 months ( not 1 1/2 years ).

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation