How about the bogus electric bill?
I have one of those from the gas company. They can't understand why I don't want to pay them for months of service when my gas valve was closed. The valve is behind a locked door which only the gas company can open.
So far they've farmed it out to a "collections" agency which is really just a nag agency. They're not allowed to accept less than face value for the bill. I tell them to call me back when they can. All I want is a few bucks off, for service I was billed, but was undeliverable due to their closed valve.
Incorrect cell phone bill?
I got one of those from AT&T which is why I will not be their (Cingular now I guess) customer any more. After moving from one coast to the other I called AT&T and told them I've moved, set me up with a number in my new area code and let's talk about rate plans. I couldn't get the sweet government rate plan in my new region, which sucked.
For two years I continued using AT&T. Then one day I got a notice from a collections agency stating that my AT&T account was two years and hundreds of dollars past due.
AT&T at that time was broken up into for national billing regions which didn't talk to each other. So the region I left figured I had disappeared and sent me to collections. Despite the fact that I was an AT&T customer in good standing in my new region.
I asked AT&T what was up and they explained their regional billing systems had no insight into the other regions. I asked why, as a customer, that was my concern, or how I was even supposed to know that. I confirmed with the rep that I had given AT&T my new address upon relocation, and obviously they had my phone number since they were the provider. I also pointed out the hefty (sometimes up to a thousand dollars a month) cell phone bills I'd rung up since then, which had always been paid. Finally I told them that if the restaurant I'd been eating in every day found an old unpaid ticket from two years ago that had dropped behind the cash register, they might just consider that water under the bridge, or perhaps a lesson to them on how to better handle their accounts.
They didn't budge, I didn't budge. God Bless America!
I think that bill may finally have dropped off my credit report because I haven't heard about it in a while.
You know, I bet single payer systems are a good way around this sort of bureaucratic nonsense. :)
