I paid a bill and got sent to collections personalfinance

I financed a new set of appliances at a local home goods store. It was a large purchase of dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, washer, and dryer. I paid my bill every month on time. It was my second large purchase from them. The first purchase had been completely paid off for at least a year.

I had been making payments in the store and getting a receipt each time. I always paid extra since I wanted to pay it off quickly. Last June I made the payment in the store but started getting collection calls saying I needed to pay. I let them know I had already paid but they had no proof and kept calling. Even after taking my receipt to the store to prove I had paid, they called every day sometimes several times per day. I went in to pay my July payment and asked them to let the collection people know I was paying on time. The calls were non stop and really getting on my nerves.

The calls continued into August when the store manager changed my phone number in the system so the calls would stop. I said great but let's figure out why they think I haven't paid. It turns out the new cashier had applied June and July payments to my old account that I had paid off long ago. This store opens a new line of credit for each purchase. The manager said he would fix it but nothing ever happened.

I continued to pay down the account each month until it was down to around the amount I think was owed. I can't be sure because of interest and late charges. I stopped paying on the account when the balance hit about $1200. I had paid two $400 payments they refused to post to the account and had acquired lots of late fees and added interest. I wanted to make absolute sure I didn't pay anything extra so I skipped what should have been my final payment since they had been adding extra fees to my balance.

My credit has taken major hit. It has dropped 121 points because of this fiasco. I was/am still recovering from a 2011 bankruptcy but maintained 100% on time payments and was up to a rating of 690. I'm down to 569. I don't have anything else negative on my report. I have credit cards and an auto loan and all are payed on time or in full each month.

Specific questions:

1. How do I get this fixed? I have receipts showing I made the missing payments. I may owe a little bit more but I don't know how much I've been charged in extra fees and interest so I don't know how much. The store refuses to help. I've called the higher ups and have never gotten a call back. The store manager is useless. He says there is nothing he can do.

2. In total I've received 90 collection emails since this started. I no longer get calls but I'd guess they called somewhere around 100 times. I live in Texas. Does anyone know if there are financial damages I can claim for this sort of thing?

Submitted April 26, 2017 at 03:44AM by justasimplegal http://ift.tt/2qcdDh7 personalfinance