Nightmare of a Day

What a mess today was! First of all, I got a letter today from a collection agency saying that I owed $1200 for a debt to Shell Oil. Well, I've never had a credit card from Shell Oil, so I was confused. Also, the letter was in my maiden name that I haven't used for 15 years! So, I called the collection agency and they told me that I would need to send a letter to dispute it. I told him that I'd never had an account with that company and he said that my previous address was 12th St. in Huntington Beach, CA. I haven't lived there in probably 17 years!

I got off the phone and was trying to figure out what this could have been, so I called Shell. They had no record of me ever having an account with them. Then, I looked up the collection company on the internet and found a letter from someone written to the BBB about how they had gotten a letter just like mine stating that they owed $1900 for a Sears card debt. Like me, they had never had an account with Sears. Then, they filed the letter of dispute and a month later got a call from the collection agency saying they still owed this money. The person told the collector that they had mailed a letter of dispute and that they had never had a Sears card and that they weren't liable for the debt. The collector said to them, "You're just trying to get out of paying your debt!" and hung up on them! Sounds like a SCAM to me!!

I called them back and told them that I had contacted Shell Oil and that they had no record of me having an account with them and that this sounds like mail fraud and that I would be contacting my local Attorney General to file a report. The woman said, "Ok, you do that then." I also told her that I had looked her company up on the internet and that several other people had claimed that they did the same thing to them and that it was on the BBB website. I said that it sounded to me like this company is trying to scam people out of their money and that they weren't going to get mine! The woman on the phone said, "Ok Ma'am, no need to call back then." Unbelievable! I just feel sorry for the little old ladies who get a letter like that and actually pay them thinking that they owe it. I'm going to report this for sure.

THEN, we went to buy some paint to paint Arlin's bedroom before the new carpet is put in. When we got home and went to get the paint out of the back of the van, it had spilled all over the back on the carpet and everything!! So, we have to go back and get more paint, they are going to reimburse me for the blanket that the paint spilled all over and pay to have the stain cleaned if I can't get it all out. I got most of it, but couldn't get it all. I'm going to try in the morning with paint remover to see if I can do a better job when it's light out.

What a day!!