Sometimes the Whistleblowers work right across the room. Randy Salas, assistant features editor at the Star Tribune, wanted to share this tale of telephone woe:
Like millions of others, I recently decided to drop my landline. But CenturyLink didn't want to let me go.
In December, I notified my mobile carrier, AT&T, that I wanted to transfer my home number to my cell. AT&T put in a request to the landline company – CenturyLink (formerly Embarq, formerly Sprint), which serves Maple Grove and many communities throughout Minnesota and 32 other states. Then the landline company is supposed to release the number and close the account.
My home telephone number was released on Jan. 5, about two weeks after AT&T notified CenturyLink of the port request. On Jan. 6, CenturyLink issued its regular $56.16 monthly bill for the landline service for the period Jan. 6 through Feb. 5, after the account had been closed. (CenturyLink bills for the current month of service, not the previous.) Payment was marked as being due by Jan. 28, but, as usual, the bill also carried a note saying "do not send payment," because the account was tied to automatic bank withdrawal. I ignored the bill, figuring the statement was already in the pipeline when the port request was made and because I wasn't even getting the services that CenturyLink was billing.
On Feb. 4, CenturyLink withdrew $56.16 from my bank account. Then things got weird: On Feb. 7, I received a letter from a collection agency saying that CenturyLink had turned over my account to the debt collector, Allied Interstate, and demanded payment of $56.16 – the amount that CenturyLink had already taken for the bogus bill.
When I contacted CenturyLink, a customer-service representative confirmed that my account was closed and in good standing. The rep's name was Mark, and he worked at a call center in West Virginia. He had no explanation for why CenturyLink withdrew the money for a bill it knew was out of date, but he said a check for the mistakenly withdrawn amount (minus about $8 in taxes/fees apparently related to the previous month's service) would arrive in two to three weeks. When asked why the account was turned over to a collection agency, the rep said that CenturyLink automatically does that when delinquent accounts are closed. Then the rep quickly admitted, "But your account was in good standing." He then volunteered that CenturyLink often does this "too soon" on any closed account, whether delinquent or not. "Don't worry about it," the rep said when asked about the collection agency's notice. "Just ignore it."
That wasn't good enough for me, so I had the rep call the collection agency to confirm that the account was clear. I also had the rep confirm that the automatic bank draft was canceled, too. The refund check did arrive on Saturday, but I won't know until the collection agency doesn't contact me again if the matter is really closed. Despite the rep's reassurances, I'll need to follow up with a letter to the collection agency just to be thorough, because its letter says it will assume the debt is valid unless it hears from me within 30 days.
Admittedly, these are tough times for landline phone companies. But at best, CenturyLink got an unauthorized interest-free loan from one customer for several weeks and, at worst, turns over accounts in good standing to collection agencies as a parting "gotcha" to customers who cancel service and take their number with them. An Internet search shows that many other CenturyLink customers have the same complaint that I did.
Has a phone company ever referred you to a collection agency or overbilled you after you closed your account?
