A few months ago I checked my credit report and noticed a drop of 167 pts with a collections notice posted by Verizon. Not long after, I received a letter from a collections company claiming that I owe $1,000 + 18% interest for an iPhone I received in 2022. I have never missed a bill, nor been delinquent on any payments, so this was a shock. To make matters worse, I looked through my emails and Verizon account and couldn't find anything related to this owed amount! Below are the details of the situation:
In December 2022 I switched from T-Mobile to Verizon and joined during the promotion of receiving a free iPhone 14 Pro when trading in my old iPhone. I received tracking of my iPhone 14 Pro delivery scheduled to arrive a few days later. On the expected delivery date, I checked the tracking number from UPS and was alarmed to see it was marked as 'delivered' but hadn't been. Moreover, the delivery required a signature. A few hours later when the UPS driver drove down my street I flagged him down and asked where my package is and why it had already been marked as delivered. He said that someone stopped him in his truck a few hours earlier when he was on the other side of the town and showed him a driver's license with my name on it and provided the tracking number -- the two pieces of required information to intercept a package -- and took the package. I stood there in shock. I showed the UPS driver MY driver's license and asked if the person used a copy of my own license; he said the person's driver's license had my name on it, but his own photo, and he looked nothing like me. I immediately went to the police station and filed a police report. A detective followed up a couple days later and said this exact incident of larceny and identity theft is part of a string of others: Verizon iPhone's being stolen by the same individual making driver's licenses with the name of the recipient and (somehow) having the tracking numbers to intercept the packages from UPS delivery drivers before they would otherwise be delivered to the respective residences.
I called Verizon and explained everything. It took many hours of telling the same story to be directed to the right person to understand the situation and reship my iPhone. I provided Verizon with the additional context that what happened to me has been happening to others and that there likely is a vulnerability in Verizon's system where someone is able to gain access to iPhone delivery details well-enough in advance to make a driver's license and intercept. I recommended they brick the iPhone so the thief couldn't use or sell it.
Verizon reshipped my iPhone, created a new account for me, and reassured me the issue was resolved. Fast forward to today -- Verizon has sent a Collections agency after me to collect a debt from a Written-off Account that I was assured was handled by Verizon. In contractual terms, I ordered and iPhone and I never received it; Verizon understood this, which is why they sent a replacement. I spoke with the collections agency and shared all of this with them and despite even having a police report to validate my story, they maintain that it is only Verizon who can remove this debt. The only way this can be resolved is if Verizon DELETES the debt from my credit reporting because if it is either paid or zeroed out, it will both stay on and impact my credit for the next 7 years!
I am about to go to grad school and this false claim on my credit report has brought my credit score down from a perfect to high risk; I would have to pay DOUBLE the interest rate, making grad school unaffordable. I'm genuinely asking for help from a direct specialist to resolve this issue. I appreciate any and all guidance to fix this!!
