World Financial Network National Bank, Lane Bryant Retail They are billing me almost $200 in late fees and the bill wasn't mine to begin with! San Antonio Texas

This started in June 2006. I received a phone call trying to collect money for a Lane Bryant credit card account. I tried to explain to the guy that I don't have an account with this company. Long story short the guy said that it is my name (first, middle and last) on this bill and I am responsible for the payment. I hung up on this guy. Later that evening I talked to my husband who said he paid part of a bill from Lane Bryant.

I looked at the bill and it wasn't my address but it was my name. My husband mistakenly paid part of the bill because he thought it was mine. I contacted their fraud department and TRIED to get them to understand that this wasn't my bill.

After several months they called and said because my husband made a payment on this bill that we assumed responsibility for it because we made a payment. I was so tired of dealing with this company that I agreed to pay the remaining $55 of the bill and told the guy that he needed to send the bill to my address. At that time I gave him my current address and he said once I recieve the bill I will need to pay it in full to avoid any late fees.

A few more months went by, and the first bill we got at my address came in January 2008. When I opened the bill I nearly fell over. The bill is now up to $166.15. They have added $111.15 in late fees. At this time I am so upset and call the phone number on the bill. I am told that they no longer handle my account because all of the accounts have been sold to another bank.

I tried to explain to the guy that this is the number on the bill and he will hear none of this. He tells me I have to call the other number. I do this. When I get them on the phone and give them the account number as it appears on the bill they tell me that it is a wrong account number. I then give them my name, address and phone number and the don't have anything for me. I explain to this guy whats been going on and he says that's very strange and tells me to call the number back on the bill and talk to a supervisor. I attempt to do this but can not get anyone on the phone to listen to me. All they say is that they don't handle these accounts any longer and give me the other number.

I call that number back and get a supervisor on the phone who tells me that they are now taking care of all of these accounts because they were sold to this new bank. He says that they do not show anything is owed by us. He tells me very specifically that he can pull up the account and it shows a zero balance. We take his name and direct number thank him over and over again. Guess what, next month we get another bill. This one shows that we owe $194.37. I lost it!

I called the supervisor on his direct number and he says that we must owe them something or they wouldn't keep sending me bills. He looks up the account and for some reason this time can't find anything with our name. He gives me about 7 other phone numbers (some working, most not) and no one can help me because they don't have any accounts with any of my information, and on top of that, the account number on the bill doesn't exist. Today I open the mail and I get a notice from a collection agency stating that I am ruining my credit by not paying my bill.

We try to call the collection agency and guess what, they don't show that we owe anything. The don't have anything and can't figure out why we received this letter. Meanwhile my credit has been trashed. Needless to say I am ready to pull my hair out. As of today I am no closer to getting this resolved than I was back in June 2007.

Jenny
Sioux City, Iowa
U.S.A.