Complaint Review: BMG Music

I recall having a BMG account over 10 years ago, while I was at College. I fufilled my obligation on my first order, and even requested BMG to stop sending me CD's in the mail. This was back in 1997, and BMG complied or at least so I thought.

I graduated college in 2000 and had been living off campus since 1999. Yet, nearly 10 years later that I last dealt was BMG, I get a suprising letter from a collections agency claiming I have an unpaid balance of $46.04. I called the collection agency and they told me that BMG turned my account over to them on March of 2004. I asked them to verify the original address of the account that BMG was turning over to them, and they gave me my old college address. I told them that this debt was not mine and that I fufilled my obligation to them over 10 years ago, and the only possibility that BMG decided to start sending me CD's again, which of course I never received since I was no longer there, or they continued to send me correspondence that someone else got a hold off and used my info to get more CD's. In any case this bill is not mine.

I then called BMG customer service after searching the internet for about an hour and got someone on the line who barely spoke english and who I had to repeat my information to him at least 6 times. He was no help at all, and basically told me that my account was turned over to Collections and they could no longer deal with me.

The collections agency told me that I could pay half the $46.04, and my debt would be settled and nothing would ever be reported to my credit report, which is what I am ultimately worried about. Paying $23.02 seems like the easy solution, but why do I have to pay a debt that is not even mine. And who's to say that the agency won't report it anyway or BMG would then turn around and try to pin more debt on me.

My credit score is very high, and this erroneous charge is threatning to ruin all of my hard work.

Christopher
Lawrenceville, Georgia
U.S.A.