I used to ship with DHL for our online sales items. DHL had a bad habit of miscalculating weight grossly and overbilled us many times. I spoke with my rep at the time and he informed me to dispute the incorrect charges through the online sytem and they would bill my credit card the correct amount. For most of the year of 07 we shipped with DHL sometimes disputing the incorrect fees through their system. We quit shipping with them early this year due to the hassle of their incorrect billings among other things. If a bill was disputed the amount would be removed from the statement and my card charged for the remainder, the online payment system said paid in full. Now about 8 months since our last shipment with them, and with absolutely no warning, calls, or mailings, we have recieved a notice that a debt collection company now has our debt for all of the disputed amounts. I called DHL and they stated there is nothing they can do that all of our disputes were denied? Ive checked my credit reports and Ive not seen anything. Also, Ive noticed the collection agency is only sending this statement to our old now defunct business name, with no mention of my name personally. All of this with the reminder that DHL has recently announced its closure in the US. Im not sure how much info to send to the collection agency if any? Ive not contacted them yet, and think it may be a waste of time to try to explain the disputed charges and everything. Ive printed screen shots of the dhl online billing system showing the invoice number and paid in full next to it along with credit card recipts for the payments. Would a debt validation letter be my first step in this confusing situation?
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If they can not name you on it, then why worry about it?
If you are concerned send them a copy of the paid in full, that should take care of it.
Im not certain if they can or cannot name me for sure. I had a Bk in 04 and have worked very hard to improve my credit since. I would hate for these guys to march along and hit me with a neg on my credit. I just found it interesting that my name wasnt on the collection anywhere. I also recieved a call on my cell asking if this was our old biz name. I replied no, as it is no longer in biz. The caller hung up, caller ID showed the call to be from a collection company, a few days later the notice showed in the mail. Im not sure what to make of it or to be comfortable in stopping it if they have my info etc.
Since it has already been six months, the debt should have been listed in your credit report by the CA if it actually owes your debt. Now since the CA is sending you the bill, you can definitely send them a DV letter by certified mail to check whether they actually have the right to collect your debt. If they cannot provide you with proper validation, you need not pay it back. Now as you say that you have paid in full, there is no need for you to worry, because they cannot sue you to the court without validating the debt. Now if they sue you to the court, the payment receipts will be a powerful instrument against them.
Maybe it s not showing up under your name because of the fact that they listed it under the old company name. I would go ahead and send the DV letter to get this debt taken care of. I can not believe DHL will not help sort this out. I know DHL does have a habit of under or over billing. My sister selld crafts from a web site and uses them to ship...until recently. Same problem wiht them.
I made up a DV letter today and will see what happens. Basically after reviewing all of the paperwork, the amount owed is exactly all of the incorrect weight dispute amounts over the entire relationship with DHL. The customer support was extremely unhelpful and only said repetitively that the dispute amount was denied. In short, whatever DHL says you owe, you owe reguardless if the packages are incorrectly weighed extremely often. Ugg glad I dont ship with them anymore.
Hi Guest
Even if they validate the debt, you should check the validation properly and dispute the validation if you do not agree with it. Moreover, if after validation you think that you need to repay them, you should go for PFD agreement, if you find that they have listed the debt in your credit report. If they cannot validate the debt within 30 days from the date of receipt of your letter, you can always send dispute letters to the bureaus asking them to remove the listing from your report.
This is a good idea. If they can not validate the debt and you feel that it is not owed you can dispute it with the bureaus. I can imagine your frustration when it was DHL overweighing mistakes. If it would go to court you should keep all the paperwork you have on the debt for proof. I relize that you do not want this on your credit record and congradulate you for working so hard to rebuild your credit. Keep us posted as to how this turns out for you. Maybe if they do validate the debt someone will work woth you on reaching a repayment amount.