Consumer complaint received 12/28/2017 about Debt collection (Other debt) with R & B Corporation of Virginia (CA).
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint: We contracted with XXXX home phone internet and cable tv services, who then sold that part of the business to XXXX XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX XXXX to see if they could match a competitor they said they could not. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called them to cancel services with them. I specifically asked what day I needed to cancel my subscription so that I would no longer be charged. The agent told me that as long as I cancelled by XX/XX/XXXX I would not be charged so long as I returned the equipment to them that was theirs which they were to provide boxes to send back. I asked the agent if I needed to call back in order to cancel on the XX/XX/XXXX, she stated that she would put the cancellation into effect automatically and then I would n't need to call in on the XX/XX/XXXX. I asked her upon hanging up to be clear that I would not be charged again. The agent stated that I would not and offered a discontinuation of services confirmation number. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX XXXX to make sure that all was well with the discontinuation of services, and stated that I had not received boxes to send the equipment back to them. XXXX then stated that the cancellation had gone through and that they would be sending the boxes for their equipment which came and which I mailed back to XXXX. 

I did not receive any further communications from XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX when  they sent a bill stating that I owed them for the last four months of services to the tune of {$960.00} some dollars. I then called XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and asked what was going on with my account and asked the charges to be reversed. The agent that I spoke to stated that he was sorry and that the cancellation had not gone through properly in their system and that he would rectify the problem. He also stated the system seems to be having problems. A few days later I once again received boxes to send back equipment that I no longer possessed which I discarded believing the issue to be resolved. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from a collections company stating that I owed them {$140.00} in conjunction with my XXXX account. I called XXXX again and asked what had happened and asked them to help resolve the issue. They stated that I owed them {$140.00} and I asked them to do an investigation and help me understand why I owed this money. I did not hear back from them. 

So I reached out to the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General of California to lodge a complaint. After filing these complaints I received a phone call from someone at XXXX, following the Attorney General complaint, who told me that my account was no longer in the system and therefore he could not tell me anything about my account. Following the Better Business Bureau complaint the company fraudulently stated that they contacted me and that I did n't answer which was completely false. 

I then received an email which I attached from XXXX XXXX from the Executive Relations Team asking to help me out. I contacted XXXX XXXX who did an internal investigation and stated that they would not remove the collection from my credit report and that the amount was still due. At no time was I provided an explanation of where the charges came from or why I owed them. 

I was told two answers via a phone call with XXXX XXXX stating that I was receiving a discount because of a promotion which ended in XX/XX/XXXX he was unclear as to how that related to my account that ended in XX/XX/XXXX other than to say that they charged me because the discount did n't apply because of when I terminated. To be clear I was on a month to month contract, with automatic payment withdrawals for 9 years with XXXX, before XXXX even owned my account so there was no promotion that should have affected me. 

In the same conversation XXXX XXXX stated that the {$140.00} was charged because the bill went out on XX/XX/XXXX and my cancellation was on XX/XX/XXXX so they prorated the amount for those 9 days to more than 50 % of my monthly bill which was {$230.00}. If this was true then 1 ) why did the agent on the phone not inform me that I would be charged, 2 ) Why did n't I get a bill in XX/XX/XXXX that I could have disputed, 3 ) Why did the agent in XX/XX/XXXX apologize for the over billing and state that the bill should be {$0.00}. 

ONCE again I have not received written explanation as to where these erroneous charges stemmed from. Also they sent the claim straight to Collections without informing me or giving me an opportunity to dispute the claim. The bill owed is {$140.00} and is negatively affecting my credit by nearly 100 points. I do not believe that I owe this money at all and I feel that these charges are unexplained and erroneous. I would like a written explanation which I have asked for from XXXX but have not received word from them on that issue. I would like the issue removed from my credit report as it is affecting a potential home purchase that will not take place with my credit in the position that it is in. 

I have spent at this point nearly 50 hours trying to resolve this issue. It is clear from the credit rating of XXXX XXXX and the thousands of complaints online about this company that they are fraudulent and over billing good people out of hard earned money. Even as I write this I am losing time with my family to continue dealing with this issue. My credit is and has been exemplary I have never been delinquent on anything. Please Help me to fight this it is costing me an immense amount of stress time energy and money. Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation