I’m a five dollar deadbeat

I owe UNC Healthcare five bucks. Or at least I did at one point. Only my credit report seems to care anymore, it seems.

Last April, when Bellsouth began threatening to sock me with someone else’s phone bill, I ordered up a copy of my credit report just in case. Aside from the usual house loans, car loans, and credit card accounts belonging to my brother, Jeff, I noticed something else that didn’t belong: an unpaid bill for $5 for “medical services” that went to collection. Yes, UNC actually sent my $5 unpaid bill to collections.
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Off the hook!

I called AT&T Small Business Services today to check on the status of my long-standing unpaid-bill dispute (as well as my short-standing new bill dispute). After dealing with an initially confused rep by the name of Daniel, I got confirmation that I’m no longer listed as the responsible party for these accounts. Hallelujah!

I called the NC Attorney General’s office to update my file with this information. The specialist working the case asked me if AT&T was going to contact her with an update, to which I laughed. Huge corporations have little time to trifle with such things as the law, you know (thank goodness the telecom immunity bill has been shelved, for now at least).

AT&T gives up?

Wow. My ongoing saga with AT&T/Bellsouth appears to be reaching its conclusion. What’s more, it is concluding in my favor! I had a message left for me yesterday from Ms. Fuller, a representative at AT&T Southeast (which I assume is AT&T’s new name for Bellsouth). She referenced the N.C. Attorney General Consumer Protection filing and apparently was empowered to make things right, because she put in an order to AT&T’s collection department to drop the matter and to remove it from my credit report (if it has been sent there, which I don’t believe it has). She said because it was a business line that AT&T Small Business Services needed to actually act on it, but said she would send her request straight to them.
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