Anyone work for Sprint? Fraud issue...

jhelgesen · 02-09-2006, 04:08 AM

Here is the story.

My girlfriends POS ex husband opened a new residential line account using the old account info that was in sprints system after they split. Pretty much used her social to re-open the account, even though the separation papers say its a no-no.

Jump ahead a few months, she gets a notice from her credit watch of activity on her credit report, she checks it out and finds a collection notice from sprint. Turns out, he never paid the bill after he moved it. So she gets on the phone, haggles sprint down to $20, and pays it to get it cleared up.

Here is the hard part, after 9 months, they still haven't taken the collection notice off her credit report, even though numerous people at Sprint have told her they were wrong and would fix it. She's been to the point of having 3 way calls between her, sprint, and the collection agency, where the collection agency would tell sprint, "all you have to do it tell the "iris" system to stop telling us its in collection and we can take it off her report".

Everyone there says, oh, we're sorry, that shouldn't have happened, but I don't know what to do to fix it. Even her lawyer told her good luck, not much she could do to help.

She doesn't care about the $20, she just wants it off her credit report. Anyone have any suggestions?

slakjaw · 02-09-2006, 11:18 AM

I know like 30 people who work for Sprint.

Not one of them is in billing though.

But here is a bump for your post.

KevinP73 · 02-09-2006, 11:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jhelgesen
she just wants it off her credit report. Anyone have any suggestions?

All three CRA's have an online dispute feature. Have her log on to each one and dispute the negative entry. She can do it as often as she wants untill the item is deleted. It's more effective than trying to get a human to act on her behalf. I've gotten quite a few negative entries removed from my credit report, even valid entries using the online despute feature. Feel free to call me if you want to know more.

jhelgesen · 02-09-2006, 11:34 AM

She's disputed it several time by hitting the button on her credit service, each time it comes back saying the collection agency said its hers, no dice. So are you saying to go to the CRA's site direct?

wcc · 02-09-2006, 11:46 AM

I had a case of mistaken identity. Someone with my exact same name ended up on my credit report years ago. It took me at least a year if not longer to straighten it out. Not exactly the same situation you have going on, but I'll tell you what I did.

I had to write the three credit report companies: Equifax, Transunion, and I can't remember the third one off the top of my head. Anyone? Anyways, they sent me a free credit report and I filed disputes with them and provided proof that it wasn't me not paying the bills, but this other person. Well after about a year it was cleared up, but what a hassle!

First thing I would do if I were you guys. Is if that phone is in her SS#, then she should cancel it. Pay off whatever balance is/was there so it doesn't happen again. Get that SOB out of your lives, he's got his own SS#.

Second: Keep contacting Sprint. Don't talk to one of their flunkies, ask to speak with a manager or a managers manager. You get the idea. They have to contact the collection agency to say the bill was paid. Then it should be removed from your report.

Third: Request a copy of your credit report and if it's still on there file a dispute with the reporting agency and they'll check it out. In other words they will contact Sprint to see if it was paid. This process takes a LONG time, so don't expect it to happen overnight.

Lawyers didn't do me any help so I wouldn't waste the money.

GOOD LUCK!

legion · 02-09-2006, 11:52 AM

I'm pretty anti-lawyer, but I'd think you could sue for real economic damages because of mistakes in your credit report.

wcc · 02-09-2006, 11:58 AM

I didn't loose any money. I just ordered to see what was going on with it. It didn't effect me whatsoever where it matters most. I wasn't charged higher interest rates based on that, and I didn't loose any money because of it. I don't like to sue unless it is REALLY necessary. It worked out, that's all I cared about. Since then I've kept a close eye on it an no problems.

mudman · 02-09-2006, 12:24 PM

John, don't hold your breath.
When I was selling cars I got to look at everyone's CR and 1/10 times there was something wrong with it. I got a lot of b.s. stories from people and could call them out on it, but there were a lot of folks who had followed procedure to resolve disputes and they all said it was he11. In one case there were 3 pages of notes attached to the CR and dated back 2 yrs, and still wasn't resolved! Advice: don't stop until you get what you want, call every day, write letters to sprint etc...

-Jeremy

jhelgesen · 02-09-2006, 12:59 PM

I took her 9 months just to be able to talk to an office sprint person who would say "oh, thats terrible, I'll take care of it" only to be told 3 weeks later, "I couldn't fix it, had to pass it up to the next person"

Next step as told from her Lawyer is to report it as fraud with sprint and the CRA's, go from there.......

KevinP73 · 02-09-2006, 01:40 PM

I'd suggest addressing the problem from all fronts. Directly to Sprint but also by disputing the entry directly with the CRA's.

jorian · 02-09-2006, 09:48 PM

According to the rules of membership of the CRA's it is the responsibility of the reporting company (Sprint) to clean up its own mess. They have a certain period of time to rectify the situation or face fines and exclusion from CRA membership. There is a mechanism in place at each CRA designed to help consumers with this sort of thing. The CRA's can and have compelled companies to remove derogatory entries from a persons credit history. As a mortgage broker I run into this constantly. It does take a Herculaen effort sometimes.