Consumer complaint received 02/26/2016 about Debt collection (Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)) with Southwest Credit Systems, L.P. (CA).
Issue: Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not mine

Complaint: I ran a credit report on XXXX/XXXX/16 through my credit monitoring membership for all XXXX credit bureaus, I noticed an account was showing up for collection under the name Southwest Credit Systems. I contacted the Credit Bureau & filed a dispute indicating this account did not belong to me, in addition I was advised to contact the collection agency also and dispute it with them as well. I contacted Southwest Credit Systems on XXXX/XXXX/16 & spoke with a representative by the name of XXXX & explained the situation & that I wanted to file a dispute & could I speak to the proper person to take care of it, he was very rude & would not transfer me to the proper person or department, he kept insisting the debt was mine & that I could pay with Visa or Mastercard by phone. I kept explaining the debt was not mine & that it was an error however I was getting nowhere with him. I asked who the original creditor was on the account & he finally provided me the information as being XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX gave me an original acct # for XXXX XXXX XXXX, once he disclosed this to me I explained this is definitely not mine as I have never had an account with XXXX XXXX XXXX. He was absolutely no help & kept insisting the debt was valid and belonged to me & that if I had an issue I would have to take it up with XXXX XXXX XXXX directly. I then contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX and explained the situation to them, the representative with XXXX XXXX XXXX provided information to me on the account such as name, dates the acct was open, amount owed, etc. I let the representative with XXXX XXXX XXXX know this is not my acct or debt & it was an error. They also disclosed to me they only had a name, address, phone # & DOB listed on the acct, none of which matched my info & they had no SSN or DL # so there is no way they could have provided my social security # to the collection agency. XXXX XXXX XXXX explained that they were not the ones to report this to the credit bureaus & they have no interest in this acct any longer as it now belongs to the collection agency so that if I had a problem I would have to take it up with them directly since they were the ones that reported the information to the credit bureaus. Obviously at this point I was very frustrated due to all the back and fourth and getting nowhere. I called Southwest Credit again on XXXX/XXXX/16 & this time spoke with the operator first, then transferred to a representative named XXXX & then another named XXXX none of which were helpful in any way. I was then transferred to another department & no one ever answered, I got a voicemail asking me to leave a message & that a consumer manager would call me back however I have no faith that will happen. Since I can not get any help from this horrible collection agency ( Southwest Credit Systems ) with employees that give you nothing but attitude and just want to collect money for a debt that is n't even mine I am hoping by filing this complaint I will be able to get this nightmare taken care of & resolved once & for all. 

I would like to know exactly how this collection agency reported this to the credit bureaus as being my debt when XXXX XXXX XXXX does n't even have a social security # on file and in no way would have been able to provide it to them & since I never had an acct with XXXX XXXX XXXX. How can a collection agency pin this on me, I have worked very hard to have good credit and have always paid my debts. This debt obviously belongs to someone with a similar name and address as me. I actually have info on who the debt truly belongs to in doing my own investigating however since the collection agency wo n't let me speak to someone that actually might be willing to listen to me I have not been able to provide the info to them. I 'm in the process of getting approved for a home loan and this is negatively affecting me to be able and move forward.

Company response to consumer: Closed