Being Asked to Pay a Cable Bill I Don't Think I Owe

by Lorna
(Sunnyvale, CA USA)

Long story short, I originally had an account with Comcast for cable service up until March 2009 in Sunnyvale, CA. I moved to a different residence in April 2009 (still in same city) and closed my account with Comcast and personally returned all equipment and paid any outstanding balance at that time. I was given a receipt of zero balance, which I kept for 1 year before throwing out. At that point my understanding was I that I was completely squared away with Comcast and washed my hands of them. Recently, around late April 2011 I received a debt collection letter from a debt collection agency in regards to, what they claim, was a balance that I had with Comcast. I NEVER once received any statements or letters from Comcast in regards to the amount they are claiming I owe them. In speaking with Comcast Regional Corporate Office Escalations they claim they sent out a statement in April 2009, and that no other media or form of information was sent to me thereafter to notify me of the balance. I never received this statement that they claim they sent.

What I would like to know is if I have a case here. Certainly, there must be laws, either Federal or State that protect consumers like me against any bogus claim after a certain amount of time, their inability to provide sufficient notice to me within a reasonable about of time, or collect debt BEFORE sending it to a collection agency. The bottom line is that there was a 2 year gap of no communication from them-I was completely unaware of this bill and they expect me to pay this bill. I would like to take legal action. Before I do that, I wanted to get professional advice first on whether I have a case or not. I feel rather helpless as a consumer being taken advantage of by a big corporation, whom won't do anything about it and just expects for me to pay a two year old claim. Surely, companies can not go around demanding or claiming amounts of money from consumers, especially after 2 years, and nonetheless expecting payment.

Please let me know, or contact me if you would like more details about this. I hope you can point me in the right direction.