I recently received a bill from a collection company for Verizon North (a previous landline service provider). They claimed that I owed $59.03 from an account that had been closed over a year before.
I immediately called Verizon, because when I had closed the account 13 months before, I was told there was an outstanding balance on the account in addition to a final bill and that this needed to be paid to avoid further difficulties. So I gave them my debit card information and thought the mattered settled (I never received a bill for this 59.03, which they said had occurred in 2005!)
Settled until I called Verizon. It took them more than 25 minutes to find the account, then they told me that they had no information about it because it had been sold to a collection agency.
I called the collection agency. They told me it was pointless to dispute the balance unless I had the account number for that account on some payment statement. Guess what? Upon looking at my check statements, I realized that Verizon did not at the time (November 2006) put account numbers on the statements when debit cards were used.
So - I am unable to prove, despite the debit card total to Verizon, that it was this telephone account for which the bill was paid. I have had multiple issues with verizon billing, customer service, repairs, and contracts, but this was the topper for me. I am a totally disgusted customer bound by a cell phone contract (will never have them for a landline service again because of the above incident.) for 18 months - with a phone that probably won't last the two year contract (none of their others have).
