Consumer complaint received 2021-01-05
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was paid
Company: Associated Credit Services, Inc. (IL)

I had an account with XXXX XXXX water delivery service that has been paid off, but they continued to charge me after cancelation and after being notified of their error, and the ensuing balance is now an invalid debt held by Associated Credit Services. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXXXXXX XXXX, I called XXXX XXXX to dispute a bill and cancel my service. Over the course of a 23 minute phone call, I canceled my service, arranged for my water dispenser to be picked up, and paid my balance of {$160.00} XXXX {$220.00} bill - {$60.00} late fee that they removed ). The representative who spoke to me removed the late fee from my account because I had not been notified that I was still being billed at all. I had mistakenly thought that the service had been canceled some time back, and during this phone call cleared that up. 

XXXX XXXX did not show up when they were supposed to in order to collect the water dispenser. The next month, they sent me a bill even though I had already canceled my account. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXX XXXX, I called XXXX XXXX to dispute them sending me a bill after I had canceled. Over the course of a 14 minute phone call, they apologized for this, removed all fees from my account, and arranged to pick up their water dispenser. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX came and picked up their water dispenser from me. 

Several months later, on XX/XX/XXXX, at around XXXXXXXX XXXX I got a call from XXXX XXXX about my balance. I called back a few minutes later, but they claimed that they had already turned my account over to collections in those few minutes. I called the collections agency right after that, and they said they did not have my account but would call me when it showed up, which would be in about an hour. 

About 2 weeks later, on XX/XX/XXXX, the collections agency, Associated Credit Services, finally called me to tell me they had the debt at that point. I explained to them that I had canceled my account, and that I had called again a second time, after I had already canceled but XXXX XXXX  was continued to charge me, and that the charges on my account for equipment rental were incorrect since I no longer had the equipment. 

Sometime around the same time, I got two debt validation letters from Associated Credit Services, both with different amounts from XXXX XXXX. I sent a written reply to both letters saying I disputed the validity of the debt. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a debt verification letter from Associated Credit Services containing a series of bills from XXXX XXXX. 

The bills sent to me corroborate everything that I told them : there is a payment on XX/XX/XXXX along with the removal of a late fee on that same date ; another bill shows the removal of a charge for equipment rental on XX/XX/XXXX, along with a notation that on XX/XX/XXXX, that they picked up 1 " equipment '' and 3 empty water jugs from me. 

The bills sent to me show that the debt they are trying to collect is for the $ XXXX  monthly " rent '' for the water dispenser, charged long after I canceled my service and they agreed to come get the dispenser, and long after they actually did show up to get the dispenser. 

I have documentation of the dates, times, and length of the phone calls ; of the bills that the collections agency failed to look at before sending them to me, including all notations on the bills described herein ; and of the text notification they sent right before they came to pick up the water dispenser. I'm attaching the documentation of the phone calls, and can provide the other documents upon request.