Complaint Rating:

I just got my bill in the mail from AFNI claiming that I owe them $400 for a Bell Atlantic bill from 1998. I called AFNI and the first gentleman was very rude to me. I told him that I was never going to pay for a bill that Bell Atlantic or Verizon had never sent directly to me and that i would need to confirm it with Verizon first. The man then told me that it needed to be paid and that he would write it down and unwilling to pay.

I just recently called them back and another gentleman, very nice man, said that because it was so old that they would reduce it by half to about $200.00. He also mentioned the name of an ex-boyfriend of mine was also apparently on the account as well. I told them I would call them back on Friday after I talked to me ex.

I called Verizon Communication to ask them about this and, sure enough, I was told that they sold everything about my account to AFNI. So Verizon has no record of my account and has no information about it. I was told that Verizon Communications only holds on to accounts as far back as 7 years. All accounts before that have been sold to AFNI to collect on, along with any information associated with those accounts. I think Verizon needs to rethink their practices. How hard is it to at least keep a record of the customers name and how much they do in fact owe for the account.

So it does seem legit and, unfortunately, we will have to pay for it.

It still seems a bit fishy to me but at least they brought the amount down to something affordable.