Got a letter from ERC saying I owe Comcast some money. I only have one account with them for internet, and the total is a little more than what 3 months would be, so maybe interest? I have copies of the checks I used to pay Comcast the last three months. I also recently got my next invoice from comcast and it only lists the regular amount.
I figured my first move was to call Comcast and see what was up and when supposedly I missed payments and then verify with my records.
Depending on how the call with Comcast goes I was going to reach out to ERC to either dispute or pay up.
I have the money to pay, so that isnt the issue, but I dont believe I am at fault and dont want to send money out to everyone who sends me a collection letter.
Anyone have any experience or advice here? I live in Georgia if it matters.
I had a similar situation with my local phone company for my business. Their service was terrible especially on the internet side. I called them and asked them when i could cancel and they said i was finishing the first year of a two year contract. I asked them how much $ to get out of the contract and they said they were holding me to it and the amount owed was the remains year of the contract which was $2000. So I set a reminder in my phone so prior to the year being up I would cancel and move to Comcast, my only other option. Low and behold they contacted me wanting me to renew. I laughed and told them basically to go to heck.
So I went ahead and arranged for Comcast to take over. Being a business I didn't want my phones being down at all so it required some coordination, Comcast came and did the install and said I had to get the other company to release the numbers. I called the other company and asked them politely to release the numbers. They said the bill had to be 100% paid before they would release the numbers. I said let's just take care of that right now and I'll pay with a CC. She took the CC and settle up the remaining balance. She then transferred me to another person to handle the rest. The other person was trying to talk me out of it and I told them there was no way I was staying with them. She said she would handle it. So I called Comcast and told them it would take 24 hours but they would be available the next day.
Comcast calls the next day and says the numbers still are not available. Steaming mad now I called the company back and they were giving me all kinds of excuses. I finally asked for a supervisor and basically had to threaten her with a lawsuit. She finally said that it was a difficult process in order to protect me and that it would take a couple of more days. Finally everything ported.
About 2 weeks later I get a bill from the phone company claiming I owed $2000 for canceling the contract. I called them and told them I didn't agree to another year and to produce me the contract. She said it was a voice recording. I said it should be easy then for them to provide me with the recording. They never produced anything but turned it over to collection. So I called the agency and told them the story. They said I'd have to take it up with the phone company. I finally wrote the phone company a letter stating that I was going to pursue the matter in court. That I would be suing them for harassment. If they put one disparaging thing on my credit rating that I would be suing for punitive damages. After that everything stopped. No more anything from them.
Long story, I know to get me to where I can offer my thoughts.
Record your phone calls with both Comcast and the collection agency.
Document everything on paper as far as time of phone calls, how long you had to wait on hold, how long it took for call backs, what the person said they would do.
If you are truly in the right and don't owe them anything, write them a letter stating that you will seek legal assistance if necessary. Obviously, you don't want to spend a bunch of money to fight it but they don't either.
Finally if you are happy with them and don't want to change companies, appeal to their business side of not wanting to lose a customer over this. Tell them you've been a customer for x number of years but there are other options out there. If they bring up that you're under contract, tell them that may be true but do you want to 100% lose my business at the end of the contract?
Good luck. I hate all the telecommunications/internet/TV companies
