Consumer complaint received 2021-07-02
Company: Sequium Asset Solutions, LLC
State: LA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
I marked " Debt is not yours '' since it seems to fit better than " Debt was already paid ''. 

Thesis : The debt Sequium is trying to collect regarding my XXXX residential ( XXXX  ) account is invalid. 

Summary : I have uploaded a record that Sequium was informed of this in XXXX. Sequium never followed up with me, but two months later they still filed collection reports will all three major credit bureaus. I disputed all three. XXXX  sided with me and removed the negative collections item. XXXX  and XXXX  sided with Sequium, saying that Sequium confirmed the debt was accurate. Here is the reason why the debt is invalid. My residential ( XXXX  ) account continued to be erroneously billed by XXXX for months after XXXX set up my home 's __Business__ Internet and disconnected my home 's residential ( XXXX ) internet. There is only one coax cable that comes into the home. It goes directly into a cable modem ( no TV ). The technician changed out my residential cable modem to a business cable modem, and changed some things on the pole on the street. While explaining the benefits of the business internet, the technician told me that I was now on the Business network, explaining that it preventing me from experiencing possible congestion with my residential XXXX neighbors at the local loop level. In summary, XXXX continued to _double bill_ me for months for a service ( XXXX residential ) __**from which XXXX itself had already disconnected me**__. Thus, the residential ( XXXX ) debt, which corresponds to XX/XX/XXXX and later, is _invalid_ because that is the day when XXXX switched me over as confirmed by my attached invoices. Note that XXXX pre-bills, not post-bills ( thus, unlike what a telephone company would do ). 

That's it for the summary. Everything else is context, backup, and documentation. 

Context : The only reason I upgraded to business internet in the first place is because XXXX would not come out to repair my XXXX when I had it. I was getting freezes on XXXX XXXX  and other realtime collaboration tools during the Covid pandemic across multiple devices in my home. I could tell it was the XXXX  because the problems would go away when I would switch to my cellular hot spot tethering on my laptop ( or when I was using my cell directly, just by turning off wifi to use cellular data only ). 

Backup ( this one is _not_ a document attachment ) : I was once able to get a XXXX agent to confirm my account of the story. She told me I could give her information as a reference if there were questions about my account. This was on XX/XX/XXXX. She gave me her agent number as XXXX and told me her name was XXXX. I think she was on the XXXX XXXX side, but she was the only agent that was actually willing and able to pull records from both the business and residential ( XXXX  ) sides on one call. All _other_ agents I ever talked to about the double billing were utterly unhelpful, including the one that sent the residential account to collections. It was like the left hand didn't _want_ to know what the right hand of XXXX was doing ( residential vs. business ). 

Documentation : Below I walk through each of the documents. 

Sequium Never Followed Up XXXX : This automated email memorializes the notification I gave to Sequium 's automated system on XX/XX/XXXX, but Sequium never followed up with me to confirm or deny what I said. Instead they later filed negative items with all three credit bureaus. This email also gives Sequium 's internal reference number. 

XXXX  Removal XXXX : This shows that XXXX  removed the Sequium collection report. All I did when I reported it was to say the same thing I said to Sequium about the debt being invalid due to double billing after residential disconnection. I also mentioned that Sequium was notified about it and never followed up with me. XXXX  removed the item within two days. 

Driver License XXXX and Driver License Notarized XXXX : Self explanatory ; has my name, SSN and address. 

XXXX  In Progress XXXX : This is the only email from XXXX  that I have about my dispute. It says to expect a result one month from the date of submission. 

XXXX  Dispute Closed XXXX : This web page printout shows that XXXX  closed my dispute on XXXX, exactly 7 days after opening. However, they never emailed me to notify me. ( I checked my email spam also. ) XXXX  Dispute Results Original XXXX and XXXX Dispute Results Repaired XXXX : The pdf file XXXX  links to on the 'dispute closed ' document above is corrupt, at least according to my XXXX  after multiple attempts at downloading and opening. So, I took the file from XXXX  and put it through an online PDF repair tool, either XXXX or XXXX XXXX, I can't remember which. I am able to open the repaired file on my XXXX. The repaired file looks like a full credit report ... from the XXXX XXXX XXXX era. On the last page of the file, it looks like it shows my complaint. However, the complaint is incorrectly represented. It looks like they overwrote the contents of my complaint with the contents of one of the other " additional comments '' fields available later on in their dispute tool. I am a highly computer literate person ( a XXXX XXXX and a XXXX XXXX, with experience in XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX ) , so I'm not just some XXXX that does not know how to operate a web form with a combined character limit across multiple fields. I am very confident that their system recorded my complaint incorrectly. Also, we're talking about XXXX, the company responsible ( or should I say irresponsible ) for the largest consumer credit breach in history in XXXX, and whose CEO resigned due to the culture of technical incompetence that he cultivated there. ( Search XXXX for XXXX  breach. ) So, I'm not surprised their systems don't work. Anyway, according to the end of the report document, the response from Sequium is that everything is correct. Thus, XXXX  will not remove the negative item. 

XXXX Dispute Result XXXX : This is the results page excerpted from a letter I received from XXXX  regarding my dispute, published XX/XX/XXXX, but received on XXXX via snail mail. Same result as XXXX  ; XXXX claimed they verified the debt as correct. Thus, XXXX  will not remove the negative item. 

XXXX Disconnect Notice XXXX : This is a scan of the disconnect notice for my XXXX account. It has the full residential ( XXXX  ) account number on it. I can no longer log in to the XXXX account management website to obtain statements, but it should be possible to compel XXXX to produce the dates that these charges correspond to. However, see the final documents below for my XXXX XXXX payment information corresponding to the XXXX bills. Note, my residential bill was very low, something like {$30.00} per month. Thus {$120.00} is months of double billing. The last page of the disconnect notice says billing was terminated in XX/XX/XXXX. Note that XXXX pre-bills, not post-bills ( thus, unlike what a telephone company would do ). 

XXXX Support Message Note Email Envelope Disappeared when Agent Exited XXXX : Here is a chat log of a XXXX agent refusing to correct the service ( not billing ) address of my account. This relates to how it was even possible for XXXX 's system to double bill me in the first place. They invented a non-existent _service_ address for my business account. Never could get it corrected. 

XXXX  : These are all of my XXXX XXXX invoices, starting with an initial service date of XX/XX/XXXX, which is the day XXXX disconnected my residential internet ( XXXX  ). Literally, they came out, disconnected my residential cable modem, and gave me a different cable modem. They also made some changes on the pole where the cable comes from the street, and they changed the grounding stake on my house side as well. After this, I only had XXXX XXXX. ( The reason why I upgraded is that XXXX would never come out and correct the problems I was having with its network, which involved frequent freezes during XXXX XXXX  meetings. Not very good during the pandemic. ) You may notice some statements in XXXX where it says I have a late charge on my business account that seem very close to the amount on the disconnect statement from the residential ( XXXX ) account. These confusing late charges were fixed after the XXXX bill came in. The origin of the problem was complex. XXXX, agent number XXXX that I mentioned above, was the one that helped me fix this problem. Essentially what happened is that I had disputed the XXXX  residential charges with my credit card company, XXXX XXXX, ( twice ). The credit card company agreed with me both times and refunded my money for the XXXX residential service. We also set up a billing filter that would automatically deny the monthly XXXX  charges ( {$30.00} ). At some point after that, what happened is that eventually all of my Visa cards started silently denying any bills from XXXX ( regardless of whether it was business or residential ). It was hard to figure out what happened because initially the charges would be approved ( pre-authorization for automatic billing setup would succeed ), and also hard to figure out because the amounts due were similar. In other words, business internet for one month was similar in price to XXXX residential for several months, so it seemed like XXXX was trying to transfer my residential bill to my business bill. To resolve everything in XXXX, I changed it so the business account is paid directly from my bank, bypassing the Visa credit card network. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX  and XXXX XXXX XXXX Minus XXXX Dollar XXXX : These are transactions from my XXXX  XXXX card, which is what I used to pay my XXXX bills last year. One of the documents is a search of the term XXXX. The other is a search for transactions equal to XXXX dollars. It is the second one that shows the two refunds I mentioned, where the credit card company sided with me over XXXX ( because XXXX could not or would not justify their double billing for residential XXXX  service ). I can also get you the individual full monthly statements if needed. Note that XXXX pre-bills, not post-bills ( thus, unlike what a telephone company would do ). 

XXXX  XXXX All Transactions in XXXX : Here is the XXXX XXXX XXXX summary. It shows *all* transactions in XXXX. The XXXX transactions are grouped on page 15 ( fifteen ). For privacy, I deleted page 18 ( eighteen ), which is wholly unrelated. I didn't include a XXXX version because there are no residential XXXX  charges in XXXX and my business account is in good standing as shown by the XXXX business invoices included in my CFPB submission. Note that XXXX pre-bills, not post-bills ( thus, unlike what a telephone company would do ).

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