Consumer complaint received 2023-09-01
Product: Debt collection — Telecommunications debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: Convergent Resources, Inc. (WI)

XXXX XXXX failed to cancel an erroneously opened account. I contacted the company multiple times and each time was told that they had no record of the account. I never received a bill in either paper or electronic format. I later received notice from XXXX that they would be referring my account, which I was told repeatedly didn't exist, to a collections agency. When I called XXXX, they told me that they would not send the bill to collections and would work with me to resolve the issue. I was told that I would hear back in 48 hours with resolution, but did not receive any communication. When I followed up after the 48 hours had elapsed, I was told that the bill had been sent to a collections agency. I was put in contact with the collections agency, Convergent Outsourcing, and immediately filed a dispute. I also worked with XXXX to confirm that the account was opened erroneously and was told by XXXX that they would send a notice to the collections agency retracting the balance owed. When I followed up with Convergent, they had not received this notice, so I filed another dispute. I did not hear from Convergent for over 2 weeks, and when I called to follow up on the dispute using the confirmation number I was given, they were not even able to locate my account. They were able to locate the account but it was under a different number. I was told that they were waiting on XXXX to verify my dispute. A few days later, I received a call from a different collections agency, XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), attempting to collect the debt. They told me that they were formerly known as Convergent. I never received any notification from Convergent that they would be changing their name and was provided very little evidence that this was a legitimate company. Unfortunately, I was unable to speak with them at that time and was only able to report to the representative that I had already filed a dispute. The following day, I called the number on the Convergent collections notices I had received and multiple times was told by a machine that no representatives were available and given a different number to call, each of which yielded the same response. When I was finally able to speak to an agent, I was told that the second account number I was given as also incorrect. I was told that the dispute had only been started the day prior, despite me filing the original dispute a month earlier ( dispute filed XXXX, this phone call was on XXXX XXXX ). After I disputed this, they suddenly had my dispute. I was told that XXXX was requesting more information, but were unable to tell me what information it was that XXXX needed or how to get in contact with XXXX to find out. I spoke to a supervisor, all they were able to offer was a reduced settlement amount, but could not tell me whether just paying this to make the issue go away would affect my credit score. On the same day, I then spoke to XXXX and was initially told that there was no record of the account, then I was told that the account existed and that there was nothing in the account about the balance being reduced to {$0.00}, as I had previously been told it had and they asked me to pay the full balance. When I pushed back on this, they suddenly found the record and reported verbally to me that a credit to the account to bring the balance had actually been approved as of XXXX, but would take 30-60 days to process. They were unable to provide any written documentation of this and told me that I would receive a letter when the credit had processed. 

During the course of this ordeal, I made dozens of phone calls, spent hours on hold, and was repeatedly hung up on by both XXXX and Convergent/XXXX. On XXXX alone I spent over 2 hours on the phone with both companies.