"I don't know what happened back in 2004 ..."

Last week, Wednesday I think, Jenn and I met with a lender to see about pre-qualifying for a home loan. As part of the process, the lady who we were working with, Heather, pulled our credit. Generally, it was pretty good. Both of our median scores, Jenn and me that is, were in the low 800s. All three of Jenn's scores were very good, while one of mine was down in the low 700s. Apparently, I had an outstanding balance of $200 with General Collection Services (or something like that) from 2004.

Well, flashing back 6 years ... we had cell phones in Colorado. The service was with Verizon, but the phones and plans had been purchased through one of those kiosk things. Oops. All was fine until we moved to Oklahoma. Apparently, Verizon had "service" in Oklahoma (which we inquired about before adding Jenn to my plan). But, Verizon didn't really have service. They didn't have any towers, they piggy-backed on other people's. As a result, I could make calls. However, I didn't receive incoming calls. And, not only did I not receive said calls, I wasn't informed of messages for days! So, not long after arriving in Oklahoma, we canceled our service.

Apparently, this was a breach of the contract I'd signed. So, to make a long story short ... partially because I have no idea what the actual details are ... we had to pay $200 to get out. Fine. It's WAY less than it would cost to continue to pay the monthly payments on the cell phones, which we're all that useful at that point. But, by the time we actually realized we were in breach of the contract, they had already sent it to collections. Now, that's some quality customer service. So, I sent a check in at the end of October, 2004.

So, I was surprised to learn that this $200 was still outstanding LAST WEDNESDAY! I knew I paid it. In fact, I had just shredded the check copies that included the carbon copy of that check in the last couple weeks. Heather thought, since it was just on one of the reports, that it might have been a mistake. So, I called GCS the next day.

Oh no, this was not a mistake! They only report to one of the three credit bureaus. There is still a balance. And, I have to provide PROOF that I paid this 6 years ago.

So, I look on-line at my bank website. I can see my checks ... for the last 90 days (although the lady on the phone later told me I could see the last 120 days). In the last 3 months, I've written ONE check! Wow! Thanks! You'll let me access that one!?! As it happens, it was for $2.67 for the co-pay on a visit to the doc for Andrew ... it's so little because we had a balance, for some reason. I'm guessing I've written less than 100 checks since moving to Oklahoma. I don't understand why I can't have access to all of them.

Oh, but I can. I can access ANY check! Yes! But, if I want one older than 3 (or 4) months, I have to pay $5/check and they'll send me a copy. WHAT? At this point, I'm SOL! I need a copy. The only way I can get a copy is to pay them $5. I guess I'll pay them $5. This seems ridiculous to me ... they have a monopoly! They don't return these things to me. I guess I could download copies every month. However, my bank is certainly on my shit list and WILL NOT be my bank in the future. I'm guessing they don't care.

So, yesterday, the copy of the check arrived in the mail. Hey ... look at that. Just as I suspected. The $200 check has been deposited! Piece of cake, just e-mail them a copy? Nope, GCS says "You don't want to do that e-mail thing." What? "That e-mail thing"? Who has a fax these days? Oh ... FedEx Office does. So, I got to pay them $2.70 to fax in a copy of a check that I paid $5 to get to someone who ALREADY cashed my original check!

The fax was sent at about 11:45. An hour later I called to check on the status of my "account". Apparently, it was still sitting on the fax machine. Finally, when I got passed the secretary, I was informed that this evidence was satisfactory and "I don't know what happened back in 2004, but my boss will contact the credit bureau and have this taken off your credit report."

I hate idiots! I know exactly what happened "back in 2004". Here's how it went:
1. I sent in a check for $200 to pay off something as soon as I was notified that it needed to be paid - well, maybe after bitching someone out because their idiocy led to it ... plus, it wasn't an original account, we just modified a current account to add Jenn, so I'm still not certain that we violated ... but ... whatever
2. They received the check AND deposited - it was endorsed by someone acting as a agent for the company the check was sent to
3. They didn't close the account as THEY SHOULD have
4. They continued to propagate their mistake forward for 6 years
5. They accused me of being derelict when I called about THEIR mistake
6. They forced me to use my time and money to prove THEY made a mistake

Oh, shit, not all of that happened in 2004 ... only the first few things.