Consumer complaint received 2018-05-02
Company: Southwest Credit Systems, L.P.
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
I'm filing this complaint because I have had it with Southwest Credit Systems. They are attempting to collect a debt for XXXX that I do not owe. I know for a fact I don't owe it because I have XXXX services currently and have for years. Furthermore, I have communicated back and forth between XXXX and Southwest Credit Systems for months to figure out what's going on and I am being told I don't owe money. 

To be more specific on my complaint, I will describe what actually happened. Back in XXXX I noticed there was a collection on my credit report for XXXX. It was being reported by Southwest Credit Systems. Because I had XXXX for years, I didn't know why I owed a collection since I pay my bill every month. I decided to call Southwest Credit Systems. They attempted to inform me that the bill was for non returned equipment to XXXX from prior services. I knew that I left XXXX in good standing in the past so I knew this was a bogus reason. I decided to call XXXX. If I really owed XXXX money for prior non returned equipment, why did they render services to me again? Also, why didn't they tell me about a pending balance at the time of re-establishing services? 

When I called XXXX I informed them about what Southwest Credit Systems said. The XXXX representatives said there was no money owed. I then called Southwest to inform them of this but Southwest told me they spoke with XXXX and XXXX claims I owed money. I was shocked so I called XXXX back. XXXX then assured me there was no pending balance and that they had no prior balance owed in their system. Once I heard this I was furious. Furious at Southwest Credit Systems because they lied to me. After several calls back and forth between XXXX and Southwest I finally hired an advocate to assist me with this problem as it was damaging my credit report and both companies kept changing their story. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my representative called Southwest and requested validation of debt. he confirmed my address with them. To this day I have not received validation of debt and it has been 43 days since it was requested. To follow up on this validation of debt and the account as well, my representative and I kept in touch with XXXX and Southwest systems. At one point, XXXX said that I did owe money but for equipment only. They then changed their mind and said I didn't owe any money. On my representative 's side, Southwest said they verified with XXXX that the bill was for services and not equipment. That the services were for XXXX and XXXX of 2015!! I've had current nonstop services with XXXX at least since that time. Obviously I am now very upset because I have no idea what's going on. 

If I did owe money to XXXX for Services in XXXX and XXXX of 2015, then why wouldn't they tell me? Also, I know it's impossible because my current service with XXXX has been going on since then. If I did owe for equipment, then why is XXXX saying I don't owe them? Why is Southwest and XXXX giving me multiple versions and never the same version of what I supposedly owe? Why haven't I received validation of debt within 30 days of request as mandated by law? How could this debt be verified at the credit bureau level if Southwest can't  even figure out what I owe and why it's owed? I am now at the point where I don't care. If I have to. I will sue Southwest and XXXX as they are causing me damage to my credit report and can't give me a straight answer. I am reporting this to you so you can see that this is a sham and both XXXX and Southwest need to stop with this nonsense.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation