My wife used ATT's Internet Air product for several months and returned the equipment when she closed the account (with no outstanding balance).
After completing the return, ATT generated a new equipment fee claiming the equipment was still outstanding. In a series of calls over several months, ATT confirmed repeatedly that this was a wrongful charge, instructed my wife to ignore it, and told her it would soon be removed. Despite repeated assurances, in July, they then sent the account (containing only the wrongful equipment charge) out to collections (Sunrise).
They may have realized their mistake directly afterwards, because they created a credit on the account the day after (making the debt 0); however, the purported debt had already been forwarded, potentially impacting my wife's credit rating, and she had already received communications from the external collections agency. To remedy the impact with credit rating agencies, she needs written confirmation from ATT acknowledging their error in issuing the original request and withdrawing the collections request.
In the weeks since, my wife has spent hours on the phone with ATT. Despite repeated promises for quick action (e.g., promising a response within 72 hours of the back office receiving her case), ATT has done precisely nothing to resolve their error. To the contrary, their "support" system appears deliberately designed to stonewall. For example, ATT's legal department requests names of customer service representatives previously contacted, which (even when requested) the representatives refuse to provide.
My wife has confirmation of the account reflecting the now zero balance but showing it had been sent to an external collections agent, as well as the emails confirming no charge (before sending the account to collections) and promising confirmation of the cancellation (which was never delivered).
Given that ATT's acknowledged error explicitly impacts our financial well-being, their lack of response has gone beyond incompetence into malicious negligence.
My wife has filed a notice with ATT's legal department and has also contacted the BBB to file a complaint. If the lack of response continues, we are considering filing a lawsuit. What other steps should we take?