Florida Times-Union

George of Jacksonville sent this letter to the Times-Union:
We spoke this morning about a collection agency calling my home acting as though I am some sort of criminal. I have received a voice message from Robin H. indicating that your computer system shows $116.00 credit on August 8, 2000. I want written confirmation from you signed by an officer of your business that this matter has been settled, that the collection agency has been informed to stop calling my home and that there is not a negative entry regarding my credit rating. I expect a prompt response to this message.

I am forwarding this information to the consumer affairs WEB site and the state of Florida, Attorney General's office.

This newspaper continued a service that we had cancelled in writing in Sept.-Oct. 1999. They continued to bill us. We sent another letter. Today, 8/11/00 there was a message on our answering machine from a nasty collection agent -- 1-800-381-3328 x221.

I want this nonsense to stop and I want to make sure that my credit rating has not been affected by this stupidity. I asked the collection guy who at the Times Union ordered this collection, his response was it was machine to machine!!!

What does that mean? Have we gotten so high tech that businesses just blast stuff out no matter how it affects their customer -- sad!!