I've spent far too much time today writing letters I should never have to do.
At work I had to respond to a Boise Better Business Bureau complaint. Some rocket-scientist decided to file a complaint against my company because he had a very unrealistic expectation of the conference we just co-hosted. He figured he's pay his money, plop his ass down in a seat for 3 days and we'd just magically hand him a specialty certification from a third-part certification board. Never mind the fact that the conference website, conference online brochure, and print brochure make it clear that the conference just fulfills the educational requirement towards certification. Seriously though...think about it. It's not our certification. Even if it was, a certification available for a price and no other qualifications other than risking a sore ass is pretty much worthless. This hero was demanding we refund him not only his registration fee, but reimburse him every dime he spent to attend.
Unfortunately I had to attempt to be "professional" in my response....sometimes I hate being "professional".
After dinner I sat down to respond to a wonderful debt collection letter. Out of the blue last August I recieved a debt collection letter from some company in Illinois claiming I owed Qwest $83.99. A little backstory: When I bought my home I did what every eager soon-to-be homeowner does in preparation of the upcoming transition from renting to owning....I called all of my utilities to get everything hooked up at the new address. Evidently the phone company wasn't able to handle the transition because the only thing not hooked up when we moved was the phone service. One of the first things we did when we moved in was plug in a phone.
Well, no biggie. I found out my best (speed and expense) internet would be from the cable company and since the Mrs. and I had cell phones there wasn't any reason to have a home line. I called Qwest and kindly told them to cancel the work order they never bother to fill on time. It wasn't a problem until the phone rang a few weeks later. Evidently we forgot to unplug the phone we hooked up and the wrong number told us they had hooked up the phone after we cancelled the unfullfilled work order. I got a bill for the unauthorized hook-up which I had to go down to the local office to get resolved.
This was in February 2002. 2..0..0..2! I've had the same address since then and I don't remember any stolen mail since that time.
Fast forward to August 2008 and I get a notice saying I owe Qwest $83.99 from six and a half years ago! I of course dispute the validity of this debt, explaining what did happen in 2002 in case there was some disconnect from back then. I get a second letter that states "This letter confirms the original creditor and balance of your account." Attached is some computer printout dated February 25, 2002 that shows my activity for the months of January and February was $2.84 with AT&T and $0 from Qwest. Zero dollars with Qwest!
Want to see me pissed off? Claim I owe a sum of money and then quote evidence that proves I don't owe anything!
I've done what I can. I sent off another letter, included all of the appropriate information, and let it be known any more fraudulent attempts to collect this debt would e turned over to my lawyer.
Heck, if I have to take these bozos to court I might get a few extra bucks out of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment