Originally Posted by
rickair7777
For $399, your biggest concern here is not the money or the principle of the thing...it is your credit rating. This day and age a single unresolved delinquency can make you ineligible for a home or auto loan.
First off, find out if they have reported this to the credit agency. If not, I'd pay them before they do.
If they have already reported it, they will legally not be able to remove it from your credit report unless it was placed there in error. If the company made a mistake charging you or possibly if they did not notify you before sending it to collections, that would be grounds for getting it removed.
As annoying as it is, they have a lot of leverage over your future borrowing ability on this. That may be why they waited so long...in Feb 2008 nobody would have cared about this small of a debt, but now they have you over a barrel.
But I don't OWE them! They payroll deducted my uniforms. And I find it hard to believe that it took them 52 months to discover they didn't deduct it from my check. That's right, I bought the uniforms in new hire training and they apparently found that they didn't charge me until 52 months later. Smells fishy to me.