Winnipeg woman on the hook for $1.3K cable bill she says isn't hers (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 9 hours ago by ValueSubtracted@startrek.website to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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McKay filed a complaint with the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, an independent organization that helps customers in Canada resolve complaints related to internet and television services. Rogers replied to that complaint in an email, saying McKay didn't have the authority to dispute the account because it wasn't hers.

"The complainant has expressly confirmed that they are not the account holder and are therefore not authorized to submit a complaint on behalf of the account holder," it said.

McKay said that when she tried to dispute her debt with Equifax, one of Canada's largest credit-rating agencies, Rogers told them the account is legitimate and that the debt is hers.

"So, on one hand … they're telling me I don't have any authority to complain about how this is being handled or about the fact that I'm being held responsible for something," she said.

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[-] Firebirdie713@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 7 hours ago

Copying a comment I left on a post about a woman from Edmonton dealing with a similar fight with Equifax and their ilk:

I am in the US, but I had to fight them over the course of several years after a rental agency sold an old debt to a collection agency right after the COVID shutdown happened. The rental company claimed I owed several thousand in damages to my old apartment, my roommates and I had taken them to court and won, meaning the debt was dismissed legally. If they wanted to try to collect it, they would have needed to sue me to reverse this decision.

I sent both credit agencies all of the proof, including the legal paperwork for the judge's dismissal of the debt. They refused to accept it and remove the debt because "the collection agency confirmed they had the right info". The collection agency refused to stop reporting the debt, even when I provided them the same proof. I had to scrape up another few thousand over the next five years to pay a lawyer to threaten to sue the lot of them in federal court before they removed it. And in the meantime, my credit score tanked, and I was repeatedly denied housing, needed credit like car financing, and even was denied opening a bank account.

Both of these companies are operating with flagrant disregard of the law, besides the fact that they shouldn't exist in the first place. The problem is in the fact that we woukd need a massive class action to do anything, and no one is willing to do that. So they keep getting away with bringing people's lives to a halt. I was lucky enough to have a partner to help me through it, but I know so many others who weren't so lucky.

[-] VicksVaporBBQrub@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago

Here in the US, small claims court limits are now at $10,000 and 10 years. The good news being if monies are under that amount and aged nearing ten years old are not worth going into court for the debt collector (and more worthwhile for the defendant to proceed into court).

Pros- higher limits, courts may be in your favor.
Cons- credit scores, only affects those that need credit for reasons.

McKay is doing all the right steps and has plenty more time and options ahead of her.