I agree with j78817 – the collection agency never provided you with any service/product – the original company did. So it’s them you owe for that. Pay them.
Reinforced by the many horror stories I have heard – and some personal experiences with collection agencies. They all seem to be dishonest, don’t report settlement of the debt. etc. I would never deal with them.
I find that a tad hard to believe. Yes they could hold the debt over someone’s head in perpetuity, which gives them leverage, but I think a buy off would be the proper economic choice generally.
Eta: unless I guess it’s a collection company specializing in easier debts. Hmm.
There are basically 3 ways a business can go about collecting a debt, and each has different rules for the debt owner and debtor:
In case #1 the debtor continues to deal with the business. In case #2 the debtor could deal with either, but the business is within it’s rights to insist the debtor go through the collectin agency. In case #3 the debtor must deal with the collection agency, the business has no longer has any say in the matter at all.
Since the OP is getting mail from both the original debtor and the collection agency, I’d be willing to be this is the arrangement they are dealing with.
I work with a university’s loan collections department and this is the arrangement they have. The loan collections office can recall the debt from the collection agency any time they want. So I would call the original debtor and see if that can be arranged.
Planet Money recently did a podcast on this issue. I was shocked how much quasi-legal and plain illegal stuff goes on in debt collection. I’d pay the school directly if that’s at all possible. If not, can they at least confirm that the agency contacting you was actually engaged by the school?
Hm . . . thanks for all the advice everyone. The correct course of action still seems murky. Originally I kind of assumed what kayaker suggests, that the collections agency is the owner of the debt, so I should connect with them. But, based on Kimballkid’s experience, it sounds like maybe debts can live in a weird purgatory, and contacting the university directly might work best. I think I’ll do that and see if that’s how it works for them, if they can ‘recall’ the debt.
For a while? Bah, you got off easy. I got a new land line when I moved to my current address in March 2000. Apparently Jason and Robert, who had the number prior to me, stiffed the cable company, as I got lots of calls fromTime/Warner. Then they turned into collections agency calls. To this day, Portfolio Recovery pops up on the Caller ID at least once a week. I tried answering a few times to see if I could talk to someone about get off the calling list, but it’s always a robocaller demanding to be called back. Fuck that.
Believe it or not, I actually had a positive experience with being sent to a collections agency, but that should probably be another thread. (Short version: Hospital billing department repeatedly fucked up billing my insurance over a six month period, eventually sending me to collections. Collections agency billed my insurance correctly on the first try. No harm to credit report)
Don’t be afraid to block the number. Make them put it all in writing. That gives you more protection if you should need it and prevents harassing calls.