Is It Illegal for a Company to Make a Negative Mark on My Credit Report Due to an Error in Their System?

Last year in Oct 2008, AT&T had a system error that reported me to a collections agency for a bill that I was supposed to have been credited for. When I received the collections letter I called AT&T the same day and spoke with accounts receivable who apologized, confirmed I owed no money, and said that my account would be credited and the collection agency informed I was not negligent. Immediately after I spoke with AT&T, I informed the collection agency of this and advised them AT&T would be contacting them shortly. Almost a year later, in Aug 2009, I applied for a credit card in order to build credit so that I can receive a car loan. I was denied because of a negative mark on my credit report. The only negative mark was from the AT&T account that I should have been credited for in 2008. I also began receiving phonecalls and letters from a different collections agency stating that I owe AT&T money on the account that should have been settled a year ago. I called AT&T and was connected with one of the supervisors, who apologized profusely, and said that there had been a system error. My account had been credited on one system, but not on the other, so the system with the error had automatically sent me to collections. She said she personally would see that all systems were updated and the collections agencies would be notified. Has AT&T broken any laws through negligent use of their system, resulting in me being falsely reported with an invalid mark made on my credit report as a result? Because of this undue negative mark, I was denied credit, when otherwise I would have received it. Is this something that can be taken to court? If it makes any difference I live in Oklahoma.

2 months ago - 3 answers