Phone co. hops from one collection agency to another to recycle old "debts"

[jgombos]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? IN

A phone company made several technical and billing errors with my account. It's a very long story, but in short they ended up overbilling my credit card in 2007. They refused to fix it, so I won a chargeback dispute.

It probably should have stopped there, but in 2008 they contracted a collection agency to collect the disputed amount. Within a week of getting a notice from the collection agency, I posted a dispute letter to them along with a copy of the letter sent to the credit card company which explains the error.

They essentially went away - I never heard back from them. So I thought the problem was gone.

Now (2010) a different collection agency is trying to collect on the same disputed amount from 3 yrs ago.

Do I have to reply every time the phone company sends this case to a different collection agency? The growing amount of effort and waste of my time is getting disturbing.

BTW, I should add that the new collection agency (CBCS) appears to be some kind of rogue agency running scams, judging from the first page of google hits.

 

[JETX]

Do I have to reply every time the phone company sends this case to a different collection agency?

Pretty much. Unless the contacts reach the level of harassment (very hard to PROVE), there is no restriction on the number of 'debt collectors' that a creditor can have pursue a debt.
Your best action would be to keep a 'boilerplate' response and then to simply send each new debt collector your 'standard' letter disputing the debt and asking them to validate it. A good sample letter can be found online at: Sample letters for use in credit repair, debt consolidation, credit disputes

Oh, and be sure to keep a copy of each letter for your records.

 

[jgombos]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I do not want to have to repeatedly and indefinitely send registered letters at my own expense for a bogus debt. So I started investigating whether there is any privacy law to guard against the disclosure of debt information.

What I have found in the FDCPA is that debt collectors cannot exchange (with other agencies) information about individuals who allegedly owe a debt. Effectively, this means a debt collector cannot subcontract the collection to another collector because it requires an illegal information exchange. Since the phone company tried to collect the disputed debt first, they were then acting in the capacity of a collection agency themselves. So they seem to be violating the privacy protection of the FDCPA by subcontracting the bogus debt.

Consequently, I think a letter to the phone company demanding that they do not share any information with any other collection agency might carry some weight. Are there any other privacy laws beyond what's written in the FDCPA that would help stop the disclosure?

 

[JETX]

I do not want to have to repeatedly and indefinitely send registered letters at my own expense for a bogus debt.

What you WANT has nothing to do with this.

What I have found in the FDCPA is that debt collectors cannot exchange (with other agencies) information about individuals who allegedly owe a debt. Effectively, this means a debt collector cannot subcontract the collection to another collector because it requires an illegal information exchange.

Interesting.... but not true. Please provide a reference to the section of the FDCPA that you think prohibits "exchange information about individuals who allegedly owe a debt".

Since the phone company tried to collect the disputed debt first, they were then acting in the capacity of a collection agency themselves. So they seem to be violating the privacy protection of the FDCPA by subcontracting the bogus debt.

First, the FDCPA only applies to THIRD-PARTY debt collectors. Since the 'phone company' is the original creditor, the FDCPA does not apply to them.

Consequently, I think a letter to the phone company demanding that they do not share any information with any other collection agency might carry some weight.

Agreed. Probably about an ounce or so. Be sure to add additional postage if it weighs MORE than an ounce.

Are there any other privacy laws beyond what's written in the FDCPA that would help stop the disclosure?

If by 'disclosure', you mean the ability of a debt owner to assign your debt to another, no.

Read your original service agreement or application. You will find a clause where the creditor can sell or transfer your debt to another.