Consumer complaint received 2019-10-12
Company: R & B Corporation of Virginia
State: KS
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
I am writing in an effort to clear erroneous delinquent charges from my credit. I will explain in detail following. My complaint is against XXXX by XXXX, the company I used for internet service at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX KS from roughly XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. Some dates are close estimates due to the fact that we did not know at the time we would need to keep records. 

I would like it to be noted that throughout this 15 years we had spotty service, sometimes going days with no service. Reporting these outages did no good to either alleviate the issue or to be compensated for the time I was without internet service. 

XX/XX/XXXX a service tech came to my home to troubleshoot and fix the problems with the internet service that XXXX was unable to fix over the phone. At that appointment the tech told us that we needed a new modem because the one they had provided was no longer working. My son had a modem he was not using at the time and we opted to use my sons rather than use one that XXXX would provide for us for a fee. The tech took the used modem with him. 

In early XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX to stop service because we were moving to another town. Our move-in day was XX/XX/XXXX, I asked them to stop service on or before that date.The customer support person told me it was perfect timing because the billing cycle would close that day so we would get one final bill for the last month of service. To my knowledge, the service was stopped, I do not know for sure as we moved from the home in XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. 

In late XX/XX/XXXX I received a bill in the mail from XXXX for what I thought would be the last month of service. We paid roughly {$100.00} each month. When I went to pay online as I always have, the amount online was different than the amount of the bill. Online the balance due was {$230.00}. Upon looking closer at the bill the service period is for XXXX we were not even living at that address at that time. 
I made a call to XXXX around the end of XXXX or first part of XXXX to find out what the other charges were from since I was not expecting them. I was told the charges were for a modem. I explained to the person what had happened and that the tech had taken the modem with him that day that he was at our home. I also told him that I had tried to pay for the part of the bill we did owe, which was for the last month of service, but that the website does not give you an option to choose your payment amount, you either pay the entire bill or none of it. The customer service person at XXXX told me that he would put in a request to his manager to void the modem charges. He let me know that someone would call me to let me know when this was done so that I could go online and pay the portion we owed. I asked him on that call if I could pay him the {$100.00} portion of the bill he said no that we would have to wait until the modem charges were removed. 

A couple of weeks go by and in XX/XX/XXXX my husband called XXXX to check on the progress. He was placed on hold for over 45 minutes and the call disconnected twice before he was able to talk to anyone. He told the person the same thing I did, that the modem was taken by the tech but we would like to pay for the last month of service. He was told no, to wait until someone called him and the modem was removed from our bill. He ws given escalation # XXXX. XXXX called back on XX/XX/XXXX and said that the information would be transgered for another department and they would call back. 

In a short time, XX/XX/XXXX, less than 60 days since I was billed, XXXX placed delinquent charges on to my credit. I immediately called the collection company and was told that the charges were for a modem and I could pay for it through them but that it would not erase the ding on my credit. I explained that we were working to resolve the issue with XXXX and that I was waiting for them to take the charges off of the bill to pay the remaining portion. The collections agent did not care to talk to me about my concerns, only stating that there was nothing I could do about the credit score going down. 

Because I work during the day, during business hours, and anytime we called them it was at least a 30 minute wait sometimes up to 2 hours and that most likely the system would end the call at least once during the time you were trying to make contact, on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX called XXXX and asked to speak to a manager. He was denied that request and told that he had to resolve his issue with the person that answered the phone. He explained the full situation. The person did not seem to understand and asked irrelevant questions getting him no where in the resolution of the problem. After much persistence he was finally transferred to a person in the collection department. Her name is XXXX and the case # she gave to reference is XXXX.. She told XXXX that the modem charges would not be removed until a ticket was put in that the modem was lost. He explained that our credit score had been affected and she stated that she understood but that putting in the ticket would trigger them to remove the charges so he could pay the rest of the bill and then everything would be ok after that. He once again asked to pay the amount we owed and was once again told to wait. He asked for her direct number since she seemed to be the only person either of us was able to talk to that seemed to understand and might actually do something. He was told to wait 3-4 days and he would hear back. If he did not hear back he was supposed to call XXXX back. XXXX asked for the womens direct line which she informed him she did not have a direct line. 

Over the course of several useless attempts to contact XXXX, mind you we both work and have limited time that we can be on personal calls, he was not able to reach anyone. He tried several times over several days, repeatedly being placed on hold and hung up on, he put his name on an automated waitlist for someone to call him back several times over a couple of days and no one ever called him. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I got another email, keep in mind that we had service shut off on XX/XX/XXXX, not even 90 days before this, I got another email from the credit alert company that I again had delinquent charges on my credit history. Upon looking at my credit the 2nd delinquent charges were from XXXX too, in the amount of {$100.00}! The amount we had been trying to pay! 

XXXX once again called XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX he was hung up on twice during a period of time between XXXX as he would call, be placed on hold, be put on the call list, wait for them to call back, this happened repeatedly until he could not stay by the phone any longer for the day having already spent 6 hours trying to get through to someone. 

Even though it infuriates me to say, we know we owe {$100.00} and we will willingly pay it as weve been saying all along and practically begging for XXXX to take. However, I have worked very hard to get the credit score I had. I take my credit very seriously and it was decreased by over 50 points. The way XXXX divided up the charges made two incidents on my credit appear. We have tried over and over to work with XXXX and the collections company even offering to pay the full amount if theyll take off the bad marks from our credit. XXXX been told there is nothing that can be done. It is XX/XX/XXXX still not even 90 days from when we had our service shut off with XXXX and were billed for a service period that was for after we sold the house. I want my credit rating returned to what it was prior to XXXX causing this nightmare situation.

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