Question about debt collection and VISA

[BriarfoxinWA]

So my DH signed up for a multi-level marking scam a couple of years ago that involved a video phone. We purchased the phone, were signed up for a personal website and had to have a special phone line for it. It was through a company called ACN. Since his "representative" signed him up, we didn't know there was a 2 year contract involved. (we were 1 year into the 2 year contract) Last fall, after doing absolutely nothing on the business end of this scam, I asked DH if we couldn't cancel the service. They were billing us $29.99 a month for the phone line and $19.99 per month for the website. We tried calling ACN 2 or 3 times to cancel the phone line and could never get a "live" person to talk to and there were no "cancel service" options on their automated line. On the website I called the service number and was told that in order to cancel we had to do it through the website - which we had never used and didn't know what our login/password was.

Since all the charges were being billed to our VISA card we contact them and filed a dispute on the charges. ACN wrote a letter to try to validate their claim since we supposedly had a contract. DH had a conference call with a customer service rep from VISA to ACN twice and could not get through to get the service cancelled. So VISA upheld our dispute and the charges were refunded to our card.

So now this week - about 1 year later to the day, we get a collections letter on behalf of ACN for $99. I have no idea why they have decided to do this after a) no contact with us for a year and b) our VISA card upheld the dispute. Is it even legal for them to do this?

 

[SandrA9810]

I'd file a dispute with the credit agencies. Do you have a paper trail with Visa for the cancellation of the service?? That way ACN doesn't have a leg to stand on.
Although if nothing can be resolved, paying a 100$ is a lot better than $50 a month for a whole year.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

if you signed a contract and did not pay it off according to the contract, they have every right to collect.

despite what visa did, visa cannot invalidate a contract you entered into with the company. they can only refuse payment at the request of the card holder.

I would also bet that if you read the fine print, they will start tacking on interest and collection fee's to the amount. it wouldn't suprise me if it jumped from the $99.00 to several hundred in a quick amount of time.

I would contact a lawyer.

good luck.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

I believe that the $99 was the cost of a couple of months of the services that we disputed since we were unable to contact ACN to cancel. They tried to tack on $188 in penalties for cancelling which was a separate VISA charge. At this point the information we have is that they are trying a total of $99 but nothing about what exactly it is for.

I just think that it is strange that we never received a bill or any kind of notice since VISA upheld our dispute, and now 1 year later we get this notice.

 

[Belle0101]

Not knowing and understanding all the exact particulars I couldn't say for sure if this is the case here but Dave Ramsey always says collections go in cycles. They're generated by computer. So maybe it just took this long for it to be your turn, so to speak.

Also, business can collect anytime they want so long as they haven't went beyond the SOL (Statute of Limitations) for your state.

Granted it may seem odd but it's not outside the norm given their rights and that most everything these days is done by computer.

Also, to cover yourself, everything shoulde be done in writing and sent CMRRR (Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested) to cover yourself. No phone calls.

Good luck!

 

[pixiewings71]

Pretty sure the $99 was for the phone, my Mom did this, she got a bunch of phones for us kids to use and she sent them to us, not one of us could get the phones to work. I'm pretty sure she said the phone was $99, I don't know what she did with her contract but I do know that the service was crap and never worked. Good luck OP, I would contact the collection agency and let them know the details, see how that goes, it may be as easy as giving the ACN phone back.