Verizon Verizon Wireless Sends Customer to Collections for $26! Redondo Beach, California

Really?  $26?!?  I spend $2000+ on their wireless service and they send my closed DSL account to collections for a $26.66 trailing balance w/o so much as the common courtesy of a phone call or even an email!?!  How about sending me a freaking bill??  

When I moved in February, my wife and I closed our DSL account since we were required to use Comcast in our new apartment.  For the past 3 months I've  diligently logged into my verizon.net account to make sure there were no trailing charges.  Turns out, they don't update the "Account Summary" with those charges.  Honestly... Apparently, to Verizon, "Paid in Full!  Thank You!" means "You're account is past due and we're sending you to collections for a measly amount of money!".  Beacause that's what is says on the front page of my account summary! 

It's not until you dig deeper into the site does it show any kind of trailing extra charges.  So.. you can imagine how surprised I was when I received a letter in the mail from some collections agency in Massachusetts!  I even threatened to cancel my wireless service w/ Verizon since apparently $26 is more important to them than the $2000+ /yr I spend with them.  But since, apparently, the wireless and in-home services are technically different companies, they both just blew me off.  
I'm sooooo heated over this.. all I want is an apology and for someone over there to pick up the d**n phone and tell the collections agency they made a mistake.  I'm an Iraqi Freedom vet who's in the process of buying our first home w/ a VA loan.  The last thing I need on my credit report is to take a hit because of $26 measly dollars.  I have no problem paying it, that's not the point.  The point is.. How do they not understand how RUDE and degrading it is to just send someone to collections w/o even bothering them to let them know they have a past due amount???  Especially when they've been a loyal customer for over a decade???  

These communications companies are getting waaaay too powerful.  There's not NEARLY enough competition in their markets to encourage them to actually SERVE their customers and make them happy.  They could care less about this as long as they can still nickle and dime us into oblivion.
And that's just my two-cents.