Received a debt collection letter for an "account" we never received service for!

My husband and I moved to Raleigh in June 2014, and naturally, wanted to set up our wireless internet. We decided to go with AT&T, and completed the online process to set up internet access. When we didn’t receive service as scheduled, we called AT&T to find out the status of our service. The AT&T representative informed us that there was a glitch in their online set-up process, and we did not have an account on file. So he proceeded to take down our information, and set us up with service. When again we didn’t receive service, we decided to go with Time Warner Cable (who had a better reputation in our area we found out) and called to cancel. When we called to cancel (since no service was received), we found out that the reason we never received service was because the representative who took down our information input the wrong apartment number. Hence, no service was ever received to our apartment. So we confirmed that we wanted to cancel our “account”, and the representative informed us he was canceling our account, and there was nothing required of us since we never received service, and therefore nothing was due on our part. About a month later we finally received paper mail from AT&T regarding our account, however, since we were told our account was closed and nothing was due, didn’t look into their mail too much. In addition, the only reason we ever received the few letters was because our mailman finally figured out they were for us (even thought the incorrect apartment was on the enveloped).

Fast-forward to January 2015 when we received a letter in the mail from a debt collector for the amount of $158.03. (It appears the debt collector got our address correct, and we did receive this mail directly to our apartment). Since we did not want this to be reported on our perfect credit report and were naturally worried, we called AT&T immediately to address the issue and have it resolved. We explained the situation to the representative, who informed us he would close our “account” and process the issue so that that debt collector was informed that the debt was invalid. He told us we would receive a call in a 48-72 hours when the process was complete. With a death in our family, we were only able to follow up with AT&T about 15 days later. So on February 17th and February 18th for 3 hours each day, we were on the phone with AT&T, and still have yet to have our concern resolved. With a 30 day window to pay the debt, we are very concerned the issue will not be resolved, and hence, reported on our credit.

As mentioned, we spent a total of 6 hours on the phone recently, and were met with rude, and incompetent service. We spoke to a minimum of 15 representatives (including supervisors and managers), and were transferred back and forth from departments and cities, with no one appearing to be able to help us. In addition, we spoke to a manager in the Atlanta Retention Department, Sonny, who told us he would call collections and speed up our process, and then call us back. After giving him a half an hour, we called back and was told he was at lunch. Another 15 minutes later, we called back, and after pushing to speak to him, the representative came back on the line a few minutes later, and told us “I’m going to hang up with your now because Sonny is in the process of calling you back.” We NEVER received a call. We called the department back within 5 minutes, and were told Sonny left for the day. Unfortunately, this is just one example of poor service we received.

We were given contradictory information over and over, was told our account was showing a $0 to some representatives, and others said the balance of $158 was still being shown. In addition, we were disconnected multiple times. We certainly do not appreciate being given the runaround so to speak, and need AT&T to process the account we never received service for, and contact and erase our debt with the debt collector.

We hate to post about the company that in the past provided me with excellent AT&T wireless service, however, after hours of trying to resolve the issue, and worried about our credit history, we are in need of getting this issue resolved immediately.