Afni, Inc. Verizon Illegally selling paid off debts to Afni Bloomington Illinois

I'm not sure if I should be more irate about my treatment from Afni or Verizon. About a month ago, I received a collections notice from Afni, Inc, stating that I owed $75 on a Verizon phone bill. At first I thought it may have been a case of identity theft, and I wrote back to the company requesting bill verification. They sent me back a copy of a bill (that for all I know could have been fished out of the trash) dated August 2000 with my name and old address on it. I quickly remembered that this was one of the accounts I had included in a debt consolidation program I entered in early 2001. I called the consolidators, and they had reference on file that the account had been paid off in Nov 2001, they also had a name and contact number of a person at Verizon who confirmed this. Sounds like I should have no problems clearing this matter up, right? WRONG.

I attempted to call Verizon's collections department to get ANY information on my account ... payment history, the date it was sold to Afni, etc. I got bounced around to about 3 different people, one of them told me to hold and then transfered me to Afni's automated line without even telling me!!! I hung up and called Verizon's collections department again. I explained my situation to a gentleman, who said he was going to transfer me to their dispute resolution department, where I just needed to tell my story again, refute the debt, and request that the account be recalled. The person I spoke to next told me that the account had been sold off to Afni, and that was all the information he had on it. I then asked him: so once an account has been sold you delete all references to account payment history, etc. He said yes. I said, wouldn't it be construed as ILLEGAL behavior if my account which was paid in full was later sold to a debt collector. He said yes, that seems to be the situation. He then said there was nothing he could do and I needed to continue my dispute through Afni. He proceeded to connect me directly to a representative with Afni (because I complained about the automated line you get when calling their number that refers you back to their website and prompts you to schedule an appointment for THEM to call YOU!!! the nerve). Against my better judgement I spoke to the Afni rep, and told my story once again. The debt was paid in full, your company erroniously acquired this debt, my debt consolidator has records of the payments made to Verizon on this account, this debt was paid in full and I don't owe on it. No go. Out steps the attitude. She informed me that they received my written letter asking for the validation of the debt but that I would need to send them proof that I didn't owe the debt. She also said my account has now been marked as being disputed, which I'm assuming starts some other kind of countdown that I need to stay ahead of. I'm completely incensed, infuriated, irate regarding this entire situation.

It's bad enough when you really DO owe a debt. I was young and stupid once, but I worked really hard to pay off my debts and ensure that situation would never happen again. And here I am, 7 years later, being bullied about a debt I already paid IN FULL.
Right now my efforts will need to be focused on Afni, and the credit bureaus if they decide to report to them...which reading up on this company is almost assured. I'm infuriated that, more than likely I will have to hire a lawyer if they just laugh off my copy of payments from my credit consolidators. I think, however, the thing that irks me the most, is that Verizon sold this account in the first place. After it was paid off. And then deleted all references of account payment history. Sound pretty darn illegal to me.

Irate-in-idaho
Boise, Idaho
U.S.A.