Allied Interstate Collections RIPOFF Unbelievably rude and sarcastic SBC should discontinue use of them Plymouth Massachusetts

Somehow I wound up with a delinquent portion of my SBC bill, it was "separated" into two different accounts, my phone service was never interrupted. This happened in August. I called in January to change my services, and found out about the delinquent bill. Apparently SBC does not like to interrupt your telephone service (they wouldn't make any money that way) so if you let your account get overdue, they create a new account for you, and let the old one sit. I never received another bill from SBC, and Allied said they did not send a collections letter until December first, yet they had reported my credit as delinquent in October. ??? Not knowing this bill was delinquent, I probably threw the letter out without looking at it, since I did not recognize the name of the company.

When I called Allied, I offered up my credit card number right away, I wanted to take care of this immediately. Once I paid then I had a few questions. I was curious why I only got one letter, and why it did not come until months after SBC had referred my account to them. The lady, who claimed to be the supervisor, (LaQuita or LaQuinda, something like that) immediately became rude and nasty. She began to yell at me, saying that it was my problem since I never paid the bill, that legally they only have to send out one letter. I asked how long it took before the letter was sent and payment received before it would be reported to credit bureaus as delinquent. She told me that all letters say payment is due "upon receipt". I then asked if the collections letter was not sent until December, why was it reported delinquent in October? She again said it was my fault for not paying the bill. At this point, she was really yelling, and I asked her to calm down. She told me I was the one who needed to calm down, that she was not my child, and I could not to tell her what to do. I said "Excuse me?" and she said "You heard me.", and hung up on me. I called SBC back to complain about the way I was treated, and the SBC person I talked with said that SBC uses about 20 collection agencies, and 90% of the complaints they get are about Allied Interstate. I would hope anyone who reads this and has dealt with Allied would call the company that sent the bill to collections and insist that they use a company other than Allied from now on.

Dave
Troy, Michigan
U.S.A.