The home-buying process can be stressful enough without questionable debt from the past rearing its ugly head just as you’re applying for a mortgage. And if you deal with that debt right away, you don’t expect it to linger — and you certainly don’t expect the company you owed money to will suddenly lose all record of your account.

Consumerist reader Sam says that when he paid his final bill with Comcast and turned in all his equipment, he considered it the end of the story.

But then in May, he receives a collections notice for an agency representing Comcast, claiming he still owed $85.32 to the cable company.

“I check my credit report periodically and this has never appeared on my credit report,” writes Sam. “In the letter it states that if this collection is paid it will not appear on my credit report.” So he sent off a check to his local Comcast office right away. Shortly thereafter, Sam says the check was cashed by Comcast.

It looked like Sam had nipped the problem in the bud, as he was able to keep his credit report clean as he begins the mortgage application process.

But then yesterday, he received an alert that this credit report had been dinged by the collections agent for the exact amount he had already paid to Comcast to get rid of the debt.

Sam immediately called the collections agency.

“They said they would need me to have Comcast have a 3-way conversation with them and myself to inform them the payment had been received. I called Comcast customer service and they could not find any record of my account through Comcast.”

Sam tells Consumerist that the credit issue is now “causing serious problems with my home loan process… I spent three hours on the phone with three different customer service reps today, and nobody can find an account for me…but they had no problem cashing my check made out to Comcast. They said I would need to go to the local office, but I now live in a different state.”

We’re reaching out to Comcast on Sam’s behalf to see if someone can clear up this mess and repair his credit report.

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