Consumer complaint received 2024-07-01
Product: Debt collection — Telecommunications debt
Issue: Written notification about debt — Didn't receive notice of right to dispute
Company: TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC (NC)

I sold a property in XX/XX/XXXX and the new buyers were supposed to return the XXXX XXXX  equipment since we had an early occupancy agreement and had to keep all the utilities in our name until the sale officially closed. Apparently they never did return the equipment but I didn't find out about it until I tried to refinance a house in XX/XX/XXXX and my lender pulled my credit report and saw that XXXX had sent me to collections over the lost equipment fees. I was never notified by any debt collector or given the chance to dispute. Once I did find out about it, I was able to get in touch with the buyers and have them return my equipment and bring my account balance to XXXX and close it out within 2 weeks. The collection agency ( Transworld Systems Inc ) is refusing to provide a letter or anything that says the debt collection can be removed from my credit report and continues to tell me they don't actually have that authority and only XXXX XXXX can do that. Of course XXXX XXXX tells me that only Transworld could do something like that. Neither XXXX nor Transworld will acknowledge that they never contacted me about the collection. I've called each company several times and sent email requests to the only email address they provided and I haven't received any responses, and still haven't even received the XXXX balance letter they said I would receive a week ago. The collection dropped my credit score about XXXX points and I am unable to refinance my house because of it. I've already had to pay a {$5000.00} extension fee and am also paying about $ XXXX with my current loan and I simply can't afford to eat those costs while waiting for this to get removed. I also have had to spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to get this removed which has led to lost income from jobs I've been turning down to try and get this situated ASAP. I've explained the situation to several people both with XXXX and Transworld but I have received no legitimate help and have been lied to about who has the authority to communicate with the credit bureaus. I don't even need them to remove the collection from my credit report themselves, I just need a letter stating that it can be removed and then I can take that to the credit bureaus and have it removed myself ( which I also explained several times to no avail ). Transworld and XXXX have both taken no action that they said they would, let alone help to rectify the significant consequences I'm feeling as a result of their failure to contact me. If I had been informed I would have been able to resolve the issue before it showed on my credit report, which was proven by how quickly I did resolve it once I was informed. I learned of the collection on XX/XX/XXXX when my lender pulled my credit. I got the equipment returned and brought my account balance to XXXX by XX/XX/XXXX ( including the 10 business days Transworld said they needed to process everything after I got it to them ). I believe I have exhausted all options outside of legal action at this point.