Banana Republic This company makes a huge mistake, admits wrong doing, apologizes but takes no responsibility, then destroys customers credit. Hyannis, Massachusetts

It has been my personal experience that this OVERPRICED, Hideous store has ill-fitting merchandise that seldom lasts through one wash and most of the size that they have are way too small anyway in the cuter,more trendy styles...

Most of their clothing merchandise is made in countries OUTSIDE the USA that generally tend to have poor records when it concerns CHILD LABOR LAWS, LAW PROTECTING THE RIGHTS AND GUARANTEEING THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF THEIR WORKERS anyway...

I also suspect they are buying up the seconds or inferior schmattes from others in the garment trade and selling them as new or first quality goods -- and I was burned by them once on it so that's the MAIN reason why I am no longer shopping there!

SO YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THESE BAD THINGS?

Not only that, it is a yuppie-owned and operated company. Since it was basically the yuppie ethos that got our country into the nightmare on Wall Street, you can't trust the people who keep books for them either.

I would make copies of the correspondence from them admitting their fault and send them to the credit reporting agencies. SAVE THE ORIGINAL IN CASE YOU HAVE TO SUE.

You also need to contact your local law enforcement agency and file Indentity Theft charges, claiming you do not know who stole your identity and gave the wrong address for you and stuck you with the debt. Tell the police you were unaware that your identity was stolen until you began to receive the payment requests.

You then need to send copies of this police report to all three credit reporting agencies and state that you were unaware of the charge until it was called to your attention, that you did NOT open this account, you never shop there and you have no idea who did and you would like copies of your credit report to see if there are other bogus charges there that you allegedly made.Have your accounts frozen for good measure.

Send copies of all this documentation to the Banana Republic people who do the billing and tell them that THIS IS NOT YOUR DEBT,THIS WAS NEVER YOUR DEBT, SOMEONE STOLE YOUR IDENTITY AND THEY (BANANA BAY) HAD BETTER UNSUBMIT YOUR NAME FROM THE COLLECTION AGENCY LISTS OR YOU WILL SUE!

They have two years to make things right.

If they don't, you can sue them in small claims court where YOU live., And that means in a justice of the peace court where you elect the justice of the peace and you can represent yourself in a pro se action.
You just submit originals of all of the materials that you have saved and what you basically want is to have them remove your name from the creditors files and to pay you whatever the balance is that they claim you owe for intentional and deliberate harassment when you have advised them that you did not incur the debt, your identity was stolen and you resent their relentless and unjust pursuit of you to collect a debt that you never incurred.

How to deal with the Collection Agency:

Change your home phone number to UNLISTED and UNPUBLISHED. People can find unlisted numbers but very SELDOM can they get UNPUBLISHED numbers. If you have a cell phone, just get another cell phone with another number.

Tell the people who harass you at work that it is against the federal debt collection laws to harass you at work, that your identity was stolen, you did not incur the debt and NOT TO CALL YOU AT WORK ANYMORE!
Then file a complaint with the Attorney General in your state and the Attorney General in Washington,SC about violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CALLING YOU AT WORK ANYWAY.

I would also tell who ever answers the phone not to give out any information concerning you. That should be standard policy for ANY employer.

I hope that helps.

REMEMBER NEVER TO SHOP AT ANY TRENDY,UPSCALE YUPPIE BUSINESS AGAIN! EVER! AND ENCOURAGE OTHERS NOT TO SHOP THERE EITHER!

( THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE.NOR WAS IT MEANT AS LEGAL ADVICE.TO GET LEGAL ADVICE,YOU NEED TO CONTACT AN ATTORNEY WHO IS LICENSED BY THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE.)