Uhh...why did you call?

I got home and found a letter from Sears [it's really from the idiots at Citibank];

Which says "We received your inquiry concerning your account. In order to assist you we need additional information..."

So I called, thinking that maybe this was a result of my letter to Billing Complaints.

The first Customer Service person asked me for just about every piece of identifying information they had, then immediately said "Oh, I can't talk to you, I have to transfer you."

"Oh suuure," I said. I knew where this was going.

Sure enough; Hello Collections!

Did I want to make a payment? I explained that I had received a letter from them. "That's because the account is in arrears."

I read her the letter.

"Wait a minute while I read the notes on the account" she said.

"I'm sure there's a lot of them," I joked.

"Are you dealing with Fraud about this?" she finally asked.

"Amongst others," I replied. "Do you think they sent it?"

She thought so.

I then asked if maybe Billing Complaints could have sent the letter, but she was doubtful. She said she'd transfer me to Fraud. I was on hold for about five minutes, and then the music changed and suddenly I was getting the main menu again. I seemed to be on hold for ever.

I hung up and called the number on the letter again, and asked if I could be transfered to Fraud. The Customer Service person said she couldn't do that, though she did have a number for them, so I wrote that down and called Fraud.

Which begs the question; if the letter was sent by Fraud, but I can't reach Fraud through the number listed, then did Fraud send the letter?


I spoke to someone in Fraud and - long story short - he had no idea if they sent the letter, and if so, what they wanted. He did say that they hadn't received the affidavit I had sent (what a surprise.) I pointed out that the date on the letter (August 31st!) was actually after the Fraud sent out the affidavit.

He did think that once the affidavit was received it would take 'about a week' to clear up...

he also said that I should get a letter from Fraud saying what they had done.

So we wait. And Collections will be calling in another couple of days.

And I guess I'll never know who - or why - they sent the letter.