My name is Stacey Buckman and I first became a cellular user in 1985 as a customer of Cellular One in Dickinson, North Dakota. I remained a customer when Alltel purchased Western Wireless Corp., the parent company of Cellular One in 2005, as well as through the Alltel/AT&T merger in 2011. I remained a loyal lineal customer for a total of 29 years until May 2014, when we opted to go with an alternate carrier as my husband's employer had a negotiated discount and reimbursement program through them.
I would never have imagined that decision would lead us through a tumultuous year of financial confusion and ultimate decimation of my credit rating from 'excellent' to 'fair/poor' in a mere 11 months time. Over this time frame I have attempted to work with AT&T Customer Care to resolve an issue but to no avail.
May 2014 - Left AT&T for alternate carrier as our employer had discount negotiated with the alternate carrier; was advised by AT&T we would receive 'final bill'. Waited June, July, August but did not receive billing in US Mail, however this may well be the fault of our postal service do to our location in the Bakkan Oil Boom and there had been numerous problems during this time period with the postal service which were reported to the US Postal Service.
September 2014 - Received notice from Bay Area Credit that account was placed with them from AT&T for collections. I called AT&T to pay the bill but was advised I could not pay them directly as they turned the account over to Bay Area Credit and I would have to pay via Bay Area Credit. I called Bay Area Credit and I paid in full the amount of $1253.26 plus a $5.00 service fee to close this issue.
December 22 2014 - Reviewing bank statement in preparation of taxes and did not recognize the $1253.26 and $5.00 charge and I did not recognize at 'Bay Area ' as it was posted on the statement and began dispute of the charge with my financial institution Choice Financial and was provided an internal provisional creditby my bank of $1258.25 on 12/23/2014 from Choice Financial
February 2015 - received notice from IC Systems for collection of the $1253.26 for AT&T, this jogged my memory and clarified what the charge was on my bank statement and I called Choice Financial dispute department to cancel the earlier disputed charge. Was advised by Choice Financial that the dispute was not completed and I had only been provided an internal provisional credit directly by them and they had not contacted or received any funds from Bay Area Credit. Choice Financial clarified the bill from Bay Area Credit representing AT&T was fully paid. Provided this information to IC Systems. I was advised by AT&T to email all my documentation to paymentsrefundsdocuments@att.com all information was sent but I never received any contact back from them.
March 28, 2015 - Received another statement from IC Systems for collections. Called them and again advised them the bill had been paid via Bay Area Credit Services.
April 7, 2015 - Called AT&T and spoke with Customer Care Agent and she was able to access the closed account. She advised me she showed payment of the $1253.25 on 9/25/14, however she also showed the payment was reversed on 9/26/14. She told me that AT&T had 'fired' Bay Area Credit and now they were using IC Systems. She advised me to contact my personal bank to verify the activity. In contacting my personal financial institution, Choice Financial, it was verified once again the payment had been debited from my account on 9/25/14 and there was not a reversal of the payment to Bay Area Credit. Choice Financial reaffirmed the earlier dispute was not processed with Bay Area Credit and they had never received any funds back. Choice Financial did not reverse the payment to AT&T and the only other option was the transaction had been reversed by Bay Area Credit. Choice Financial confirmed they had not received any funds from Bay Area Credit and there were not any funds returned to my account.
April 8, 2015 - Sent email to paymentsrefundsdocuments@att.com restating all of the above with the supporting documents attached. I received a generated email stating I would hear from someone in a 3 day period. Disputed the validity of the IC Systems collection with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
April 22, 2015- Had no response so sent another email to paymentsrefundsdocuments@att.com restating all of the above with the supporting documents attached. Once again I received a generated email stating I would hear from someone in a 3 day period. I requested to be contacted back by Friday, April 24, 2015 but I did not receive any contact.
May 2015 - IC Systems removed the 'in collection' status from my credit report. I assumed at this point in time this was the end of the situation and all was settled.
August 21, 2015 - Returned from family vacation and found notice from EOS CCA that they were representing AT&T Mobility for collection of account in the amount of $1253.25. Sent a THIRD email to paymentsrefundsdocuments@att.com restating all of the above with the supporting documents attached. I requested contact back by 5:00 PM or this issue or I had no other choice but to take legal action in this matter as it was destroying my credit rating and had been drug out for over an entire year.
August 24, 2015 - Received a call from AT&T mobility from representative LaTonya Portee ID#LP5287. This woman was extremely rude and acted as if I was a deadbeat who did not pay my bills. I explained to her this was paid out of my account and I had provided them with the proof of payment and if the funds had been reversed out of their account back to anyone it was back to Bay Area Credit but it was not reversed back to me and suggested AT&T needed to secure their reversed payment from Bay Area Credit. Ms. Portee said NO it was MY responsibility to contact Bay Area Credit and get the money from them! I advised Ms. Portee that it was not I who had 'contracted' with Bay Area Credit and when I attempted to pay AT&T directly was told my only option was to pay via Bay Area Credit and I did pay the bill in full with the funds being debited from my account on 9/25/2014. She said it was my problem. She then gave me the number for Bay Area Credit 800-214-5291. Ms. Portee stated if I had any further concerns that I could be free to take them up with AT&T Customer Care at 800-331-0500.
I had Ms. Portee transfer me to Customer Care and spoke with Stephanie S. out of Pueblo Co. ID#Q76QDJ2. Unfortunately Stephanie also told me that my option was to 'pay my bill' with EOS CCA or to try to contact Bay Area Credit at 800-214-5291.
As I had already paid this bill in full, I decided to try to call Bay Area Credit to see if they could assist. I was greeted with a recording, "Thank you for calling Bay Area Credit, for more information on your account call 800-331-0500".... this is the number for AT&T Customer Care!
I again called AT&T Customer Care and spoke with Melody Sylvester (did not catch her ID#) who was extremely pleasant and did her best to assist me. She reviewed the account and she advised me that she did note the payment posting on September 25, 2014 but she said she was seeing it was backed out on February 6, 2015. This did not match up with the information I had been provided earlier from AT&T Customer Care on April 7, 2015 when I was advised the payment was 'reversed on September 26, 2014. I told Ms. Sylvester the number that I was given for Bay Area Credit provided a message to call 800-331-0500, to which her response was '"that is our number!" She placed me on hold and called Bay Area Credit and came back online to advise she too had no way to contact them. Ms. Sylvester was not able to clarify why there was the discrepancy on the dates or why there was not anyway to reach Bay Area Credit, but did try to help me by escalating the issue to another agent.
I was transferred to Jose Cardona ID#GT8X7Y5; he was of absolutely no assistance. In asking for clarification of the date discrepancy of the payment reversal, he said, "The payment was 'backed out' on 2/6/2015 because Bay Area said my payment didn't go through." He could not explain why I was told in April the payment had been reversed on 9/26/2014. He went on to reiterated it was my responsibility to contact Bay Area Credit for the payment I made to them for my AT&T bill. I inquired to Mr. Cardona as I had no control of why or how the payment I had made to AT&T was backed out of the AT&T system to please explain how it was essentially my responsibility to recover AT&T's money from a vendor with whom AT&T had contracted with for the collection. He told me that I needed to talk to Bay Area Credit and to ' look them up on the internet' and wished me a good day and thanked me for calling AT&T.
Frustrated and as I had no choice, I DID go onto the internet and found a number for Bay Area Credit 866-222-2097 and connected with their agent by the name of Myra. Myra was not able to provide me with any employee ID only that she was located out of Atlanta GA and the number for her was 800-214-8467. In asking her about the account she advised they no longer have any access to any of the AT&T records and that AT&T would have all of the information regarding the account. I informed her of the situation that I had paid via Bay Area Credit in full and AT&T posted the amount as paid on 9/25/2014 and AT&T had backed the payment out on 2/6/2015. Myra advised Bay Area Credit did not have access to the AT&T systems in February 2015. She again told me she had no access at this time to the account or any of the AT&T records but once Bay Area Credit had provided AT&T with payment it would not be able to be 'backed out' by Bay Area Credit and they had not any way to retrieve a payment from AT&T.
What is extremely perplexing is when proof of payment had been provided to IC Systems, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion disputing the collection of the charge, it was removed from my credit report. However, once again I am finding myself in a position of having my credit rating destroyed and having to take the time and energy to once again draft letters and provided proof of payment to a collection agency as well as dispute the collections with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. My bank has provided a notarized letter to assist in proving the status of the account has been paid by me in good faith. I run a small business; if I were to treat my clients in the fashion I have experienced I would not have a single client to serve.
I am finding myself pushed into a corner of having to escalate this issue further to the next level; my husband and myself have, as a direct result of this issue experienced increased out-of-pocket expenses. We now find we only have qualified for high interest loans from our damaged credit and we no longer qualified for lower interest rates we previously did. Additionally we have had a loss of credit capacity with our credit limits being lowered. And all in all, we have a loss of credit expectancy as we are finding ourselves turned down for loans we historically had no problem qualifying for and this does not take in to consideration, the aggravation, the loss of time dealing with this issue over the last 11 months and the loss of our credit reputation.