I got a letter in the mail recently from a collection agency regarding a debt to buy.com for $55. at first I thought it was a scam, but I recognized the dollar amount - it was the CA Internet Security + 2gb usb drive deal from a while ago. apparently buy.com couldn't verify my credit card info, and upon looking at my old bills I couldn't find the $55 charge.

thing is, buy.com never notified me of the problem, but they did ship the order (so of course I assumed the order went through fine). I logged into my buy.com account and checked my order history and saw that the order status was "credit verification", and it does allow me to enter a new credit card number.

what's the best course of action to address this? should I enter a new CC# and write a letter back to the collection agency asking for proof of the debt? I admit I haven't called buy.com yet, because I don't really know what I'm supposed to ask them. sorry for being such a n00b, and thanks for any advice.

No real advice, but why not just pay the $55 to the collection agency? Will that blacklist you at buy.com if you do?

Wow, that's really rotten of them. Sorry, I don't know how to deal with it, but I'm interested to find out how this all turns out for you.

I had a problem with my wife's credit report and the local hospital. I called up the hospital and asked them about the charge. They took my credit card info over the phone and paid it. I haven't followed up with a credit report to confirm the collection account was removed, but the clerk confirmed that they would notify the collection agency that the account was paid in full.

That will teach you, you should have bought it at CC for $30 after the PM! It would have saved you not only the $25 difference but this hassle as well

Seriously you should contact BB and have them take care of it. If you pay the collection agency it can show as a non pay on your credit, whereas if you have BB take care of it (whether they charge your CC as they should have or they comp you the cost because it was their mistake, not yours) it will be retracted from the collection agency as if it never happened.

I just followed up and the collection account now states:

"Paid,Closed/Collection account."

I would think having "Paid,Closed/Collection account" would still be considered negative on your credit report. At the very least, it wouldn't help your credit.

I would suggest contacting buy.com and telling them you will pay but that they need to have the item removed from your credit report (should have them confirm in writing) especially since they never notified you.

I'd explain as you did, saying they shipped the goods and you honestly believed the transaction went through fine. Now you want to make it right and pay but that you require them to remove that item from your credit report as they never notified you to fix the problem, which you would have done.

Yes, this is a 'Potentially Negative' item on the credit report. I would definitely recommend making any calls necessary to get the entire collection account off your credit report.

Step 1: Go to http://www.creditboards.com, ask your question there
Step 2: Do not do anything until you get advice from experts there

NOTE: Do everything in writing, nothing over the phone unless it's followed up in writing before you proceed

Yes, this is potentially a legitimate debt, and you want to repay it. Fine, but you want to be sure the negative item gets removed from your report when you repay. Do not do anything until you get some advice from experts, because a wrong move could leave you with a negative on your report after you pay the debt.

I used to work in collections, and unfortunately this kind of stuff happens all of the time. The laws in your state may be slightly different, but here is what I suggest: 1. Call the collection agency to dispute the validity of the debt. At that time they must remove the negative "collection" from your credit report and they have 30 to prove the validity to you. If they cannot do so it in this amount of time, it cannot go back on your credit report. Always ask to speak with the manager and make sure that they recite the mini miranda to you (it starts... This is an attempt to collect a debt and any information collected will be used for that purpose.....). 2. Try to contact Buy.com directly to plead your case. Make sure that you are nice and plead your case, as unfair as it is, they really can handle this as the individual answering the phone sees fit. 3. Make sure that this is all done within 30 days of the date printed on the date of the letter. It is much easier to remove negatives before the collection agency is actually listed on your report as a debt. 4. Pay the bill ASAP. Even if you do not agree with the tactics that they used, pay and fight your battles later.

I hope that some of this helps.

thanks for all the replies. I'm going to send a letter via certified mail today asking for proof of the debt (found this sample letter). then I'll call buy.com and try to get through to a supervisor and explain the situation. if they agree to recall the collection, I'll ask for confirmation in writing. then I'll pay the $55 to buy.com directly. I suppose after all this is said and done it's time to check my credit report...good thing this was a FAR deal, otherwise this could end up an expensive 2gb usb drive

unfortunately I was out of town when the letter came (it's dated 12/5) so hopefully there are no hurdles in getting this handled.

see if you can get a direct phone number to someone at buy.com who takes care of this stuff.

push them enough and I bet you can get it resolved.

I sent the debt validation letter to the collection agency, and tried calling buy.com but couldn't get through to a CSR. I did update the order with a new CC# and the charge just showed up on my account, so I'll wait and see if the collection agency responds.

I'm thinking what others have said, which is update the credit card at buy.com, let it charge through, and then state to the collection agency that "I currently do not owe the debt to which you are referring, and I deny any present liability on the alleged debt to which you are referring" - and do not comment further. Run all three credit reports. Then put the debt in dispute with whatever credit bureaus they have reported it to, and let them try to prove that you owe this debt. Be very careful what you say, over the phone, and in any letters.

It may or may not work, but it may be worth a shot.

As always, this is not legal advice, and you should consult a qualified attorney in your area if you feel that you need legal advice.

Get one of the free credit reports from here and see if it shows up.

I am wondering how bad it impacts your FICO if there is a collection, i.e. potentially negative item referred by unsmart3d?

I think it's a relatively big hit, even for a small amount...I paid the charge through buy.com, and haven't heard back from the collection agency yet...I do need to check my credit report though, hope they didn't touch it

If your account was sold to a collection agency, then paying buy.com is probably not going to help. The collection agency probably paid buy.com $10 for your account and will now collect the full amount $55 from you or ding your credit.

I have read somewhere that collection amounts under $100 do not affect your FICO score and major lenders (mortgage, car, etc.) do not consider those collections.

Even if buy.com tells the collection agency that you have paid in full, try to get in writing from the collection agency that the account has been paid in full.

I once had a dispute with Budget Rental Car (as shol es..) and they sent a collection agency after me one year after the dispute. So i paid the amount. And then a year later another collection agency came after me for the same charge.

Try to be nice to the collection agent. They are used to dealing with deadbeats so if you are nice they definitely like it.

Buy.com do this kind of bad things nowadays. And I thought amazon was bad enough!

Not long ago I ordered from Amazon but the items arrived had some parts missing. I called and was told to contact the mnfr. I emailed Amazon's CSR center again and immediately a second package was sent out.

Sounds great till now, right? Then they charged me the full price for the 2nd package. I called immediately and was told the send back the defective unit. When I did, they charge me on the shipping and the money to cover the repair of the defective unit.

During this, they basically went through all the CC# I had registered with amazon to see which one allows them to draw money.

What's going on with all these CSR centers of different companies nowadays. So poorly trained. I would prefer they don't even have a CSR center at all in the first place.