Afni, Inc. False Collection Notice - GTE now Verizon Landline Ripoff Bloomington Illinois

GTE now Verizon Landline 727 577 6200

Today I received a collection letter from Afni, Inc. for an alleged debt of $1,197.44 owed to Verizon Communications, Inc. The phone number listed is a former GTE account on a residential land line I used until January 2000.

Firstly, I have never run my phone bill so high.

Secondly, if I failed to disconnect service, that balance would have transferred to the GTE residential account I established in Plantation, Florida during my relocation. It would have been presumably improbable that GTE would have allowed me to open the new account without settling the prior one.

Like other victims of this scam I immediately contacted the toll free number indicated. On the first three attempts, my call simply failed. On the fourth attempt I was on hold for forty minutes before abandoning the call.

Of course I only keep receipts and copies of bills going back only five years, so I have nothing from GTE and switched to a Bell South residence in 2001.

I then tried contacting Verizon Communications, and after several transfers, spoke to "Jason" in Customer Service. "Jason" claims that Verizon did refer my account to a collections agency, and that he had no idea of the amount or date of referral. He stated that I needed to contact the agency directly. On asking for a supervisor, he refused, and kept reiterating that it my request was "irrelevent." (see upcoming report!)

"Jason" of Verizon Communications further claimed, "...the collection agency has advised that their call volume is high this evening," and, "...that they (the collection agency) should have more people on duty tomorrow."

He further stated I should try to reach the collection agency tomorrow. He also claimed that Verizon does not maintain "any information" on an account, once they assign the debt outside.

If anyone can advise how to proceed I would be most grateful.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice.

James
Saint Petersburg, Florida
U.S.A.