Complaint Review: MCI Worldcom Communications

About a month ago I was looking to refinance my credit card debt by getting a low interest credit-card. I called in with my info and thought I was good to go. A week later I received a letter saying I was declined. This surprised me, because Ive spent the last two years cleaning up my credit. I then ordered a copy of my credit report. And there it was a brand new mark on my report dated 1/01/03. Then it stated the original creditor as MCI Worldcom for the amount of $64.

This was a huge shock to my system, because Ive never had any services with MCI in my life. I then called MCI to try to resolve this. They did a search on my name with no results. Then they tried a search on my phone number, still no match. Finally I gave them a number that was listed on the credit report, and then we finally found something.

Let me back up a little to show you why I am so pissed. I went to college in a town called Decorah, Iowa. I lived there for about 4 years and moved away to Minnesota in the summer of 2000.

When I was talking to the rep from MCI she gave me a phone number of 563-382-8926 now this rang a slight bell, because when I lived in Decorah I had a number of 319-382-8926. Then she told me the name on the account was Dave Mensink, which is a combination of my name and my roommates name from when I was living there, my first name his last name. I then thought that maybe some how my old roommate had screwed me. Then I asked the rep what calls I was being charged for. She told me that I never made any calls and that the $64 was all from monthly long distance service charges dating from 6-8-02 to 10-08-02. I asked her to repeat the dates again, and I started laughing. I told her that both my old roommate and I had moved out of town in the year 2000. She told me there was nothing that she could do and that I needed to pay the $64.

To make a long story short, I talked to her supervisor and had the $64 credited. So this part of the problem is resolved. But they still screwed up my credit. It will take at least six months of mailing all 3 credit bureaus and double checking my report to get this off my report. Anyone who has tried to clean up there report knows what Im talking about.

Now here is the real kicker. As I started this I was trying to move $1500 from a 19.9% to a 5.9% card. Right now Im paying $298.50 per year in interest. On a 5.9% card it would be a mere $88.50. So this little screw up that the supervisor called a computer error will cost me $210 a year. Best case this will only take me six months to clean up and it will only cost me $105 for their error. And thats if I ever get this off my report. Thanks a lot MCI!

How do you sign up somebody who doesnt exist to a number that they never had and bill them for a service that they never used two years after they moved away? And then file for a collection on me. I know this cant be legal. Doesnt someone need to signup for a service before you can charge them for it?

David
Rochester, Minnesota
U.S.A.