What can i do about an annoying merchant that claims i owe them money?

i keep getting a bill from a company that i don't owe money to... they ignore my phone calls... they are threatening to send it to collections and tarnish my credit rating...

they must have me mixed up with someone else...

can i take any legal action for harassment? file a complaint with bbb? small claims court?

I agree with what the others said, but I have to add my story to the mix.

Quite a few years ago I had something happen to me that was VERY similar to your story. My first and last name are both pretty common. I got a bill from a collection agency that claims I owed money for something.

What it came down to is comparing the SSN of the person who they were looking for and mine. It turned out that, in fact we were two different people.

I would strongly advice you to call the company and talk to a supervisor. Tell them that you want to help figure this out and start asking questions. Hopefully you'll get someone that is reasonable and will work with you to prove the bill isn't yours.

Try to find out what the bill is for, what address is on the bill, etc. This should start you down the road to figuring it out.

If it comes down to it call the BBB and file a complaint. I would also pull a credit report for all three credit bureaus and check it against what you believe you owe. If there is anything strange on there, report it to the credit bureau and the police right away.

If you really are at no fault take them to court and make them prove it and sue for harasment..

File a complaint with BBB, and also see a lawyer about filing a complaint of harassment against the company.

Looks like you might be a another victim of identity theft. You have to go the Experian and request a free credit report. Anway, what it is you can get a credit report from the three major credit card companies. Then you have to request a freeze on your credit card. Then the Experian for example will send out a request for the merchant to investigate. But the merchant will not do nothing to investigate. What you will have to do is to get on line and read and they will tell you what to do. Too long to explain here.

Just check out the URL below

First, you need to make absolutely sure you are not responsible for the bill.

Sometimes you will incur a debt with one company and that company "sells" the debt to another company. That may be what happened. Check to make sure the debt is not a valid debt of yours sold to someone else.

Make sure it is not a case of identity theft. Someone may have created this debt in your name and they are trying to collect so they do not have to eat the debt. That is unethical and illegal.

Make sure it is not a debt you incurred and forgot about. Many a time someone did something after a few drinks only to forget about it when they sobered up.

Now it is funny also, if they want money from you for them to ignore your phone calls. Try going down to their office. Kind of hard to ignore someone standing in your face.

Best approach: by certified letter, demand that they make available to you copies of the documents that support their claim that you owe them money. If they can not supply a check signed by you, a contract signed by you, or even a credit card charge signed by you, then they have a pretty weak case.

If they do not supply the documents but continue to harass you, get a lawyer.