Here's what I did in a similar situation, for those who may be interested.
Basically I signed up for AT&T home internet, and it DID NOT WORK, period. It was unusably slow and cut out constantly. I couldn't use it. I told them so within a week, they sent someone to fix it, they failed to fix it, I told them I'm canceling. I proceeded to return their router and switch to a different provider and immediately got fine service.
But AT&T didn't cancel my service. They said I couldn't because I was locked in for a year or some arbitrary time period. It's been five years now so some details escape me-- but the key thing is that after some months they claimed I owned them $600, and I said I wasn't paying when I never got anything from them, end of story, goodbye.
My bank took their side on the part of the bill that had already been paid for that first month. I explained what had happened, and the bank "talked to AT&T" who no doubt showed them a sheet of paper with the words "He signed up for our internet and we installed it," and my bank said there was nothing to do. So that first month was a sunk cost.
But I never paid that $600. Simple as that. They forwarded it to a collections agency, I ignored it. I told them, "don't call me: I will never pay you."
It went on my credit report and my credit dropped about 40 points, making no appreciable difference to me. I ignored it. Over time the credit report recovered, and somehow after about four years AT&T withdrew the whole thing without any further action from me. It's no longer on my credit.
Moral of the story: if you can withstand a small dent in your credit, just tell MEGACORPXYZ to fuck off.
Sad that this is what you have to do these days, but it's better than no options at all.
You're lucky... Some collections agencies are far more rigorous... They'll come to your house every day at awkward times. They'll ring your grandma and try to tell all your friends you're in debt, etc.
If they finally get paid, it won't be $600 - it'll be $600 + $1500 of interest at 55% APR and $1200 of fees for letters, visits, phone calls etc.
Under the FDCPA you have the right to demand no contact with you, your workplace, or your family members.
If they willfully violate this non-contact demand, they can be on the hook for $1,000 in statutory damages. They can also be on the hook for disruption they caused at a work-place, or emotional of physical distress.
If a debt-collector is getting overly aggressive, send a certified letter to their headquarters explicitly invoking the FDCPA and demanding that they not contact you further. Document the letter, and save the certified letter receipt.
If they contact you further, or harass your family, document it thoroughly and then speak to a lawyer about filing a lawsuit.
You can't sue a company that won't give you its name.
When I moved into my current place, a collection agency (agencies?) kept sending people over looking for the deadbeat who lived here previously. They would tell me why they were there but never from what agency so there was no way to preemptively make them stop.
After a few months of telling them that the previous person moved out it died down. But every four or five months another one shows up. Presumably because the debt has been sold to a different company.
This has been going on for five years.
It's great that you know the law. They know it, too.
> It's great that you know the law. They know it, too.
They don't. Or, if they do, they're actively violating the law by refusing to tell you what agency they were from. It's definitely an effective tactic to make enforcement of the law hard to impossible, but they are not working within the bounds of the law.
> You have the right to ask for the debt collector’s name.
> As noted above, debt collectors are also required to furnish the name of their company or agency.
They cannot (legally) refuse to provide you the name of the collections agency.
If they do so, I'm not even sure how you would be able to make a payment. If this were to happen, I might try to imply (without explicitly stating) that I wanted to make a payment, and then ask who I need to contact to figure out how to write a check. I'd then use whatever address/contact information they gave me to start researching them.
In my part of the USA, someone showing up to your door threatening you would likely result in the resident brandishing if not "defending" themselves. It's probably not a coincidence that I've never heard of this collection tactic in the Midwest.
Even in Texas you aren't going to get away with "defending" yourself in this situation without a real physical threat. And gun owners know that, there are very few unjustified shootings of bill collectors or the like, and the really bad cases show clear mens rea.
But I was thinking somewhat along those lines, take a picture of the perp while keeping one hand close to my concealed gun. And you could well be generally right, I'm pretty sure from some of the snail mail I get or that shows up in USPS Informed Delivery that some of the past residents of my current location are dodging bills, but no one's every showed up to my house, nor have I ever heard of it happening around here.
Basically I signed up for AT&T home internet, and it DID NOT WORK, period. It was unusably slow and cut out constantly. I couldn't use it. I told them so within a week, they sent someone to fix it, they failed to fix it, I told them I'm canceling. I proceeded to return their router and switch to a different provider and immediately got fine service.
But AT&T didn't cancel my service. They said I couldn't because I was locked in for a year or some arbitrary time period. It's been five years now so some details escape me-- but the key thing is that after some months they claimed I owned them $600, and I said I wasn't paying when I never got anything from them, end of story, goodbye.
My bank took their side on the part of the bill that had already been paid for that first month. I explained what had happened, and the bank "talked to AT&T" who no doubt showed them a sheet of paper with the words "He signed up for our internet and we installed it," and my bank said there was nothing to do. So that first month was a sunk cost.
But I never paid that $600. Simple as that. They forwarded it to a collections agency, I ignored it. I told them, "don't call me: I will never pay you."
It went on my credit report and my credit dropped about 40 points, making no appreciable difference to me. I ignored it. Over time the credit report recovered, and somehow after about four years AT&T withdrew the whole thing without any further action from me. It's no longer on my credit.
Moral of the story: if you can withstand a small dent in your credit, just tell MEGACORPXYZ to fuck off.
Sad that this is what you have to do these days, but it's better than no options at all.