ameritect 'secret second acct' billing after switching carrier.

ameritech, Mi

during the blackout Aug 13-15? a few years back, I went to stay with a relative during the power outage, being that i was a single woman living in an apt building.

I came home about an hour after they got the power back on, and my phone had been turned off.

I called ameritech (cell phone) and they said i was late, ect.

I asked the woman if she had heard that there had been a blackout on the northeast end of the united states, and i felt it was unfair for them to turn off the phone for nonpayment, when no electricity was running, Anywhere around. Everything was closed, and i was not even at home, but staying with family.

They didn't care much, which really bothered me. I believed i was charged a reconnect fee - to be held like a deposit on my phone line. It was 100 dollars. - On top of what my bill had been. I paid the full amount plus the deposit and told the woman on the phone as soon as it came back on i would be changing carriers.

They turned the phone on, i became a customer of TalkAmerica.

Then i rec'd a bill from Ameritech, for over 200 dollars!

Since i had made over-the-phone payments for the last 2-3 years prior and had always spoken to a representative, i was confused! They had made me pay the full amount to turn the phone on, and they sent me back my 100 dollar deposit for the phone being turned back on.

Also, the bill was dated almost a year prior! Why had i never heard of this 'outstanding debt' before? I called, and they said sometime in the previous year, they had 'split' my account, and that was the amount from my 'other account' that i still owed.

My secret acct, apparently. Because i had never rec'd a bill, nor heard a peep about it to any of the well over 25 customer service operators i had made payment to. -- Also, why wasn't my phone turned off if I had this huge outstanding bill from almost a year ago? -- It had been shut off for a small amount that i owed, less than 60 days late. -- And when i called to reconcile the acct, no one mentioned this other bill either.

I told them i worked in accounts payable and i had never in my life heard of a company 'splitting' a clients account and keeping a secondary secret account. They told me i had to pay it or have my credit ruined.

I told them to send me a copy of every single bill they had sent me in the last year.

They did, and in the middle was ONE bill for this amount, with a different account number, that i had NEVER seen before. It was malarky.

I never paid it, because i feel it was a false bill, a penalization for switching carriers from the 'almighty ameritech'. It is still sitting on my credit report, ruining it. I don't care. I refuse to be strongarmed into paying bills i don't owe.

I was recently mentioning this episode to another woman from my area, and she exclaimed 'My God, that exact same thing happened to me! it was like 200 dollars!!!'

But she said she paid it, for fear of having her credit ruined. Isn't this extortion?

Noelle L