Trying to Pay Bill - Verizon Cannot Locate Account but Sent to Collections (RUINING MY CREDIT)

[jach1]

I am writing this to seek help from anyone whose experienced something similar. I have the means and desire to pay, but cannot seem to get through to Verizon and it is now threating to ruin my credit. Im only 25 yrs old and concerned I wont recover, despite trying so hard to pay this.

I used Verizon Home Internet in NYC. My roommate, who the service was originally paid by, moved for business school and we transferred my email and credit card to pay the service over the phone. We only had a month remaining on our lease, so I requested on that call to have the service only paid for a single month and cancelled afterwards. The operator confirmed they would cancel it, but that they would still send me an email to create an account and manage the service. 

I never received the email to create the account, but my card was billed correctly for that month. I returned the modem / router before the final day of service and called again to confirm service closure. I thought it would be settled. The month following I had replaced my card with a higher tier with my bank; I was surprised to receive an email from Verizon that I was overdue payment for the second month (where I was fully moved out and assumed, rather had confirmed twice, it was cancelled). I tried to call to pay and then subsequently cancel the account service, but could not access a support agent because it was associated with an account number that I only had the last 7 digits to.

I called relentlessly, visited the in-person store, sent a message via Facebook, but they could not help me PAY the bill because I did not have the account number (I was receiving emails, had the full credit card details, my SSN, the original order number for service, etc.).

This went on for months, I was called by a bot telling my to pay but was unable to get a representative each time. After ~3 months, service was cancelled, but ~6 months after I was shocked to see my credit score absolutely tanked (I assume they sent it to collections). The bill was over $400. It completely ruined my credit - from ~790 to 564 in one statement. I was obviously worried so I tried calling again and was not able to get through; even when entering my SSN for delinquent accounts they claimed they had no records associated with my SSN.

I am absolutely lost on what to do at this point. I wanted to pay even the first bill (which I felt was the mistake of Verizon's employee / customer support to begin with but I wanted to give both the people I spoke to the benefit of the doubt). Even now, I would STILL pay the $400 to remove the mark on my credit, but I cannot even get a representative to SPEAK with me. I am incredibly frustrated and just defeated.

Can anyone provide advice on what to do here? Can I call the Credit Bureau or maybe try to find the collections agency (I havent recieved calls from any agency so far and its been 6 weeks)? Is there a way to report this somehow to atelast get a response from Verizon?

I want to pay, I can pay, I have spent hours of my life at this point trying to do so, but now I am utterly defeated thinking I may not be able to buy a home because of this bill and retaliation on behalf of Verizon despite their mistake and inability to provide customer service at all to get this resolved beyond an automated phone call.