I received an erroneous bill from this company also. It's a business that buys old usually noncollectable junk debt and attempts to associate anything or anyone with such debt. I received a bill like thousands of people across the country have stating I owed hundreds or thousands of dollars. In my case it was for someones defaulted Verizon bill for hundreds of collect calls from a Prison totaling 998$?! Report them to the Attorney general of your state. Then contact the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), the FBI, your local police department and Better Business Bureau. Also contact the credit bureaus to resolve this matter. The Attorney Generals of other states have successfully sued such companies and won money for the victims of these types of scams. Afni and other companies like this are semi legit so far under the law and they can ruin your credit unfortunately and have ruined many good peoples names. And there is nothing lower or more despicable in this world than the destroying a good honest persons reputation.
They have their own complaint site: afniwatch.blogspot.com and if you like that then look at collectionagencyhallofshame.blogspot.com as well bud hibbs own excellent site.
Good luck.
My 93 year old father received a collection notice today from Afni, Inc. It is for $868.45 for AT&T Mobility. First of all, my father has never had a cell phone and if he had one now he wouldn't know how to operate it at his age. I called AT&T and she said there was no account number, which was on the notice. She gave me a number for the fraud department and on Monday I will be calling them. I tried calling the Afni number, busy all the time as some of you stated. I am so glad that I looked up this website and found that this was a fraud..Why doesn't someone do something about this. Im sure there are some older people out there that just go ahead and pay this.
I had a similar problem a couple years ago when a phone company was charging my father for internet service. He wouldn't know how to turn a compuer on. They had been charging him for 11 months. They told me they would give him 3 months back. I told them that wasnt good enough and they wouldnt budge. I called our local tv station and they came to my house. Within 5 minutes of talking to the phone company they said they would send the 11 months charge to him. That mad me very happy.
Thanks everyone for writing your story, it helped alot.
I also am on the receiving end of this AFNI scam. They have me as a past due of $1004.86, AllTel. However, they will graciously accept $502.43. I do have an active AllTel account in good standing. What in the world can one do to get them shut down. I don't appreciate the aggrivation, time, energy, etc. that has to be devoted to stop this nonsense.
I have never had a phone with ATT, I have sprint and verizon which right now are open and active accounts. I found on my credit report that I owe ATT $100.00. Afini is who is charging me, saying that it was opened December 2008. I haven't opened up any account in December but my Verizon account in which the bill is paid and up to date. I want this off my credit report. I have disputed it with Experian two times and they still will not take it off...
uh hello this seems to be the biggest misunderstanding of a law i think i have ever seen... has anyone on here actually read the FDCPA or FCRA? The law protects you from taking legal action or credit reporting over seven years. But there is NO statut on the collection of a DEBT, that means the company can collect it send you letters, and cont. to contact you unless you send a cease communication letter. And as for afni putting it on your credit that is the biggest line of BS i have ever seen... even if afni was a shady company and attemped to submit it to the credit it would be turned down so quickly you would believe it, so moving forward read the actual laws from the govt website or actual contact the FTC they will be more then happy to explaine the laws to you correctly.
My wife just received a collection notice in the mail yesterday from AFNI in an attempt to collect $225.56 for a land line phone from Verizon New York Inc. 1) We have never lived in New York, 2) We have never had land line service with Verizon, and 3) It came with her maiden name (we've been married 10 years). We sent a certified letter to them today to dispute the debt and I am soliciting counsel at the present time to pursue litigation in the matter, regardless of AFNI's response.
I have been having problems with Afni Collections with a Cingular bill which has been paid, but according to my credit report it has not been rectified.
If anybody filed a complaint with this company did that rectified their problem..
f*** Verizon and f*** afni on behalf of the employees...poor training, lack of supervisor support/supervisor call avoidance...and when their ### training and inconsistent policies and procedures come to fruition, the employees take the fall...even after explaining their understanding of what they were trained to do... the sup can just shrug and say it looks like an attempt at fraud, when it was re bundling to assist the customer...also customers should know that operators are pressed hard to sell even inn you are calling to cancel, and get fired for not making enough sales, hold time has nothing to do with the operators and they don't want you to be on hold either...and it is the supervisors that refuse to take sup calls. there is no employee support, there is only barking and finger pointing, and if an operator takes the time to help you and guide you through your issue, there is a sup standing over them, barking for their call time. I have worked for years in the hospitality industry and convention services for a big resort, I also worked phones and billing. I am currently in school with a 4.0... I am far from illiterate, and I get customer service... I have never ever witnessed such gross mismanagement and employee abuse. As a previous Verizon customer, I am familiar with their tricky billing and dumped them in 2008. I don't think this is all Verizon trying to trick people, but I do think that their outsourcing with afni, who hires anyone, but has poor human resources, is the reason there is so many billing issues. Call centers are hell. and yes there are disgruntled customers...yes there are some that want something for nothing, yes there are some that don't seem to want to pay there bill, but I also think that some of this is poor training. The sups care more about their stats from their team, so they can get bonuses then they do the employees under them. Pushing operators off calls, and being hostile about it when the person is legitimately trying to retain and assist customers should be a crime...and the VTO/PTO system is criminal as well...and if you don't sell enough, they FIND a ### way to write you up... like your meticulous notes disappearing... all in all... this is a b.s. system... no I do not work there... I would never ever work there, nor will I EVER have a Verizon product because of this...because, if an employee is not trained properly, and they are too busy throwing the entry level employees under the bus... you very well may have a fraudulent bill. why am I writing this? too many friends and family have worked there, good decent people... my kid wanted to apply there...hell no. not ever. They would prefer that you sell more products to people that can't afford it and let them dig themselves a grave than letting an operator work with the customer and retain the customer. I really questioned some of my family and friends and thought, "what the hell kind of place is this, and does Verizon KNOW this is going on? or is this exactly what they want?" of course all corporations want money...but at what cost in the long run?
excuse my language...