The Phone Cops, Part 2

Once, years ago, I deliberately let an account go to collection, despite the fact that I value my good credit rating and I'm vigilant about paying off debts.

I had signed up for a certain number of payments on an item, and I was sure that I had paid the requisite number. Whenever I contacted the company and asked them for the exact date the debt was due to be paid, they either flatly ignored my letters or were cagey, insisting that I owed more without telling me when they had my last payment scheduled. I took to saying, "I want a copy of the forms that I signed," and they ignored me.

So, I let them send it to a collection agency. When I explained the issue to them, they asked the company for copies of my contract. It turns out that I'd miscounted by 2 payments (math is not my strong suit). Armed with a copy of the contract, with a printed "paid in full by" date on it, I happily sent in a check for the two remaining payments, and never heard from them again.

I've written before about my attempts to get my mother's phone turned off after her death. It's been nine months now since she passed away. The granddaughter who lives in Mom's house recently brought me a piece of mail. "It's addressed to Grandma; it's from a collection agency," she said. Of course, it's about the phone. AT&T claims that Mom owes them almost $200. They have turned off her phone, but not because we requested it - they claim that she's not paying her bill.

My knee-jerk reaction was to say, "Good luck proving that she legitimately acquired this debt from beyond the grave! She doesn't need the phone where she is! Go ahead and trash her credit - she doesn't need that either!" That is, however, both juvenile and misplaced hostility. I'm not angry at the collection agency, I'm angry at AT&T. In fact, I welcome the agency's involvement. Maybe AT&T will have to respond to them, instead of ignoring them or giving them the runaround.

I sent the collection agency this letter:

"To Whom It May Concern,

The enclosed form has been forwarded to me as the trustee of the estate of Mrs. B. E. Smith, otherwise known as Mrs. E. R. Smith (her husband, E. R. Smith, passed away in 1988, but some accounts, including this one, remain in his name.)

Mrs. Smith passed away on October 30, 2012. As her bills came in, each was paid in full and each account holder was provided with a copy of the enclosed letter, dated November 19, 2012, notifying them of Mrs. Smith's passing, and requesting that all her accounts be cancelled. Every creditor except AT&T complied with this request. Her final accounts, including this one, were paid in full after her passing.

Over the last eight months, AT&T has been notified by mail, by phone and via the Internet of Mrs. Smith's passing, numerous times, with a request to cancel her account. Most communication from us has been simply ignored, but I have also encountered the following, through various AT&T channels:

1.       The letter was never received, because it was sent to the wrong address. When I requested  the correct address, I was told, "I'm sorry, I don't have that information."

2.       The phone number provided on the AT&T bill for customer service, as well as the phone number provided on their web page, does not connect to an operator, but to a recording that informs me that, "Service cannot be cancelled over the phone."

3.       The link provided for "modify or cancel service" on the web page takes me to a page that informs me that, "Service cannot be cancelled over the Internet."

4.       When I finally drove to an AT&T store in frustration, an employee used their phone to connect me to an actual human being, who informed me that she could not cancel the service as she could not "verify" my request. She promised that her manager would phone me, on my own line, within 30 minutes to take care of the problem. I never received the phone call.

When the phone was finally turned off, I assumed that the message had finally made its way through AT&T channels, and the account had been cancelled because Mrs. Smith is deceased, and AT&T has been asked repeatedly to terminate service. To find that AT&T considers this bill to be valid, despite its being accrued after Mrs. Smith's passing and despite repeated requests to cancel service, is astonishing in the extreme.

This is not a valid debt. If necessary, I can, and will, provide the name of the attorney handling Mrs. Smith's trust, and allow her to conduct any further communication with AT&T.

I regret that you have been asked to waste your time in this endeavor.

Thank you."

I'm not kidding about the attorney. The estate attorney works for the same firm that employed my mom. She's not cheap, but she is very good. If I have to pay her to take care of this, I will, but it will tick me off. I mean. more than I'm already ticked off.

Let's see if we can finally lay this to rest, as it were.