yeah, I just got a free copy from one of the agencies and it wasn't there. I got one from the other (different reason) a few weeks back and it wasn't there. I need to get the third to see if it's on that one still.

I guess my main curiosity is this: If I really believe this to be a Sprint error (which I do), and I say, "Prove to me that you billed me for something legit and I'll pay", if they can't provide the exact reason for the 87 bucks (they say they don't have that on their system.. ????) is the burden of proof on them? I would hope it is...

 

You are correct, sir!

 

Thank you guys for all your help. I'm on the phone with Sprint right now. They say that any records more than a year old are lost, and they can't retrieve them. Since my account should have ended january 2004, that means my info was lost. I told the guy I'd be writing a letter disputing the charge and he actually agreed. I asked for the collections agency of Sprint, to write a letter, and I'll also write a letter to the outside collection agency..
O god... I'm talking to their collections department, and she's say there is no mailing address for their collections department, nor their customer service department! So I guess I'm just going to look up an address on their website, send a letter to them, and the collection agency. What a pain in the Arse!!!

 

They must prove that you owe them that amount. Otherwise, they can claim that you owe them thousands of dollars without any proof and you have to pay them ?

"You'd switched from Sprint to Verizon in Jan 2004 and kept your number but Sprint still charged you for Feb and Mar, plus late fees started accruing in April". If this is correct, then Verizon should have records of you from Jan 2004, that means you were not with Sprint since that date. Get a copy of either the contract or the first bill from Verizon, show it to Sprint.

 

I'd wager Sprint has those old records somewhere. They're probably tucked away in some backup database that is either offline, or that regular employees and customers aren't authorized to access. I can't imagine any way a large company that is is even remotely well-run would permanently destroy records more than one year old. That's inconceivable.

I still say to not pay it and dispute it to the bitter end if they can't prove a legitimate claim to that money.

Think of it this way. Yes, a negative mark on your credit report can impact you should you need credit. But lenders aren't robots, either. If your other multi-thousand dollar accounts are in order, then a single $87 bad debt isn't going to hold much weight. You can explain to the lender that it is a disputed charge that is still getting worked out.

And yes, Sprint needs to prove a legitimate claim to that money in order to collect it. You have the upper hand here, unless they can tell you why you're being billed.

 

Yeah, I think they probably have it archived somewhere (they'd be STUPID not to keep records older than a year). I did some browsing and you guys are right- they have to prove the bill is valid to me. I basically copied a letter from some consumer website disputing the claim, and saying I know about Section XX under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act...etc. It's a really official sounding letter (much better than I'd have written on my own ). So I'll send that, and I'm guessing they'll drop it,being only 87 bucks.

TR-S2K: Theoretically, if I owed Sprint money In january, then switched to Verizon, I would still owe Sprint that money, even though Verizon would have my phone number on their system. But I would NOT have left an unpaid bill with Sprint.
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I would feel horrible about this, if somehow they were able to substantiate the bill. But though I can't remember the exact moment I paid my last bill, I know I would have been stupid not to, so I'm 99% sure it was paid.

Well, I'll fire this letter off and hope it gets resolved that way. Thanks for your help again, guys.

 

Sprint did that to me when i started working for Verizon. I canceled the month i started with Verizon and since i had a month to month contract it didn't matter to me. 5 months later, they tell me i never canceled and i had this huge bill. I didn't want to pay the bill, since i told them i canceled and after 5 years, i had to go ahead and pay because the collection agency reported it and i had to clean it up before i could purchase my house.

SPRINT SUCKS!

 

Just because someone had Verizon service doesn't neccessarily mean their Sprint service was cancelled. You can have as many services at the same time as you care to pay for.

Apparantly, Sprint is famous for bilking money from customers who cancel their contracts by claiming they didn't cancel. Like I said before, they did the same thing to me. In the future, I would call Sprint from a landline to cancel and inform them that this call is being recorded for quality assurance. Be sure to get the customer service rep's name, id # and call center.

Sprint =

 

Actually you cant have both sprint service AND Verizon on the exact same number.

Sprint would've had to Tx the number to verizon for them to be able to provide service.

That's what the point is.

So it's proof that Sprint service was cut off.

 

Yeah, but if I was on a month-to-month deal, and say I hadn't paid Sprint fo a month, I'd owe ~40 bucks. Then if I port my number over to Verizon, I'd have switched to Verizon, but I'd still owe Sprint 40 bucks.