Consumer complaint received 2023-09-16
Company: Collection Bureau of the Hudson Valley, Inc.
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Telecommunications debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
I attempted to cancel my service with XXXX, formerly XXXX, on XX/XX/XXXX. They kept me on the phone for more than an hour trying to cancel the service. Continually transferring me to new retention members. Towards the end of the call I was so exhausted by talking to them that they offered a deal, I submitted and told them fine I would try it. I called back twice to cancel the new deal, hoping it wouldn't be another hour plus ordeal. On XX/XX/XXXX I thought I cancelled everything, the appointment to install new equipment, the proposed service, everything. Middle of XXXX, I received a bill saying I owed a bill higher than any I had previously been given. I dismissed it as an error. When the next month I received another bill at over {$300.00} I called. I believe this was XX/XX/XXXX. I expressed my frustration that I was still getting bills for service I cancelled, and the customer service representative told me she could see I called in and asked to cancel service in XXXX and she would remove everything and I shouldn't be bothered again. The next month I received another bill. In between these emails I was also getting multiple text messages and replying STOP to all of them. XXXX has been harassing me asking for money and claiming I owe them something I do not. When I spoke to customer service in XXXX I was livid, and was not polite when I called. I apologize for that, but multiple times I have had such difficulty getting them to listen to my issue. This time they told me the customer service rep who I spoke to in XXXX cancelled my previous debt but did not stop my future billings or possibly only removed part of the debt. This representative told me they would have to review every call I have ever made to the company to see if my claims were correct or not. They told me that the representatives I spoke to in the past did not make any notes on my calls and therefore they can not know what I requested without listening to the calls. How is it that all of their representatives did not make notes on my calls if it is XXXX for them to do so. Did they all disregard the procedure of the company or did the company purposefully loose the notes of the representatives. I never heard the results of the inquiry into all of my calls. The rep told me he would call in 10 days with results. I have heard nothing until I received a collection letter from XXXX XXXX Hudson Valley. I have followed their instruction to dispute the debt. I have not called back to XXXX as I am sure they will say that now the debt has been passed on to collections they have nothing left to do with it. I am beyond frustrated with Optimum/Suddenlink I never want to speak to them again. They were the only high speed internet option, by design of the former XXXX of XXXX, who was thought to receive compensation for keeping it such when we moved here in 2016. They have always had spotty service, often throttling the speeds and completely loosing connection multiple times a week. We did not report every outage as most of the time they were of limited duration. Please tell me what I can do to remove this collection from my credit history, it is not fair for them to sell a false debt to another company and expect me to pay for it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation