It's not a secret that Verizon and I have had a long and tumultuous relationship. There was the time that they screwed up my DSL connection for a good 3 months(!), and the time that they didn't bother to tell me that my long distance "wasn't included":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001307/ in my new plan after I moved. Yesterday they found a new and exciting way to give me agita! I got a letter from a collection agency for the amount of $197.82, referencing Verizon. Even though I had been getting reamed hard by the lack of long distance, I thought I was all up to date when I bumped my minutes and added long distance. WTF? I immediately freaked out, paid the amount on the web (I'm trying to buy a house, after all), and then got in touch with Verizon to see what was going on. I called their customer service, was on hold for 15 minutes, and then finally spoke to a nice and helpful CS rep, Travis. Travis told me my account was up to date, (they had just gotten my most recent payment a few days before) and didn't see any reason why I had gotten the letter. He thought maybe it was something to do with the move and switching my number/service. We connected to an east coast call center, sat on hold some more, and then got Tiffani on the line. Some verbal acrobatics, and then we started to get an idea of what happened.

When I switched my account, for some reason they tried to charge me a $175 cancellation fee, even though I was just moving and not cancelling. I got a bill back in October, called their customer service back then, and they told me it was a glitch and to ignore it, and my account would be credited. Apparently it wasn't, or was done too late, and even though I got no further notice about an unpaid amount they sent my Pittsburgh account off to collections.

Tiffani tried to call the collections office last night, but they were already closed, so she fired off an email explaining that it was their screw-up. So, now I have to wait to get my $200 back, as well as demand a letter from them explaining that there actually is no problem with my credit while I wait for this to get cleared out of my credit report. Oh, and somehow there was still like $10 that I actually _do_ owe Verizon (some sort of fee for account closing... always with the fees!), so if my credit gets a mark on it for $10 I'm gonna be pissed. I'll be calling the collection agency today to find out just what they're going to do for me.