T-Mobile sent reader Ivan’s account to collections after he twice cancelled his service. He first cancelled in August, but T-Mobile mysteriously lost the cancellation letter. Ivan faxed over a second cancellation letter while a CSR waited on the phone to confirm receipt. Having switched to Verizon, Ivan didn’t care when in September, someone stepped on the T-Mobile phone lying in his car, breaking the screen. T-Mobile is now demanding that Ivan pay a bill that lists only a reinstatement fee. Ivan writes:

I moved from NY to SC, and had a t-mobile phone. and because there is no t-mobile here in sc, i called to cancel it, because the service here is very poor for t-mobile. On August 17 I paid my bill for July and August in full, and called t-mobile to cancel the phone, she said ok that she will cancel the service without the cancellation fee because of no service in sc, but told me to fax her a letter stating that I want to cancel the service, I got off the phone and faxed her the letter. Couple days latter I logged onto my account online and saw that my service was still not canceled. I called them to see what was going on, the guy told me that they see that I called on August 17th, but that they lost the letter, and told me that I have to send the fax again, so this time I told him to stay on the phone while I send the fax, I sent him the fax while he was on the phone, and he told me that he was holding the letter in his hand and that he will take care of it.

After I while I started getting calls from t-mobile telling me I had to pay my bill, so I called them again and the guy told me that my account was still not canceled and that I was being charged for some reinstatement fee for September and some unpaid dues from before, and some fees for October, even tho I have the bills from t-mobile stating that I paid my bills in full for all the months and the bill for July and August, and that I have no minutes used for September and October, actually my phone wasn’t even working during September and October because someone stepped on it in my car and broke the screen, and I had already gotten a new service with verizon. The guy told me that it wasn’t right and that he will take care of it. So I thought that he will, but after couple days I again got a call from t-mobile saying that I have to pay my bills or it will be passed on to collection agencie. So I called again on Wednesday October 31st, and told the guy everything, and he told me that he can see that I called on August 17th to cancel the account, that he doesn’t have the letter, and that he will review my account and call me back Sunday November 4th to tell me whats going on before he does anything. I didn’t get any call from anyone on Sunday, So I called Monday. again the representative said she could not do anything about it, and this time said that it was already passed on to collection agencies, so I told her to let me talk to someone else, she let me talk to some guy from support something. The guy from support Michael told me he couldn’t do anything that it was passed on already to collection agencie. When I told him everything that happened he was like yea I do see all that but I cant do anything about it, and that I would have to deal with collection agencie now, when I asked him to give me the number to collection aggencie, he told me to wait that he came back and told me that they filled it on Nov 4th and that it takes 3 days for the collection agencies information to come back and that he couldn’t give me their phone number. So I asked his name he told me it was Michael, I told him Michael I was recording this call is that ok with you, right away he was like actually sir you can’t do that, I told him thanks and bye.

I wasn’t actually recording him, but he did seem scared after I told him.

Is there anything I can do to find some answers????

There is little you can do once an account has been sent to collections other than prepare for the coming onslaught of debt collectors. Read through our tips on dealing with abusive debt collectors by phone, and writing a sample letter for disputing a debt collection notice.

(Photo: medalian1)

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