Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

In the summer of 2007, I attended graduate school in VA. Unfortunately, I dropped out during the first session. I started receiving tuition bills in July, then collection letters a few months later. In November of 2007, I received a letter from the collection company that was working for my school. They said that if I sent my school a check for $5,000 within 10 days, that they would waive the remaining $1,750 and my tuition balance would be paid in full. That same day, I mailed the check out to my school---along with the letter from the collection agency describing the tuition reduction/waiver. A week later, the check was cashed by the school. I called the school in December of 2007. They told me I was "paid in full" and that I owed them nothing. I then called the collection agency. They told me I was "paid in full" and that I owed nothing.

Over fourteen months went by and I didn't hear a word or see a letter from my school or the debt collection company. Then, in March of 2009, I started receiving bills from the school for $1750. I called them and said this had been waived in 2007 and that the letter I sent to them had explained it. The person on the other end of the line said there was no such letter in my file. Well--after 14 months of no contact, I sadly did not keep my copy of the tuition reduction letter. Big mistake. I just ignored the bills until October of 2009. In mid-October, 2009, I called the collection agency and asked if they could just reprint the tuition reduction letter that they sent almost 2 years earlier. Their response "well, we have you down as being paid in full, so we cannot legally go into your account and reprint bills or letters regarding balances. You have a zero balance." So, it was 2009---almost two years after I was told by both groups that I was paid in full---and the collection agency had not even been contacted by my school. Since then, the collection agency called the school and has started sending me bills again---which are completely fraudulent. I have called and written and emailed the collection agency and they have told me that they will not reprint the tuition reduction letter, although in 2009 they admitted that they mailed it to me in 2007.

I have written certified letter after certified letter after certified letter to both the school AND the collection company and they all go unanswered. No one has explained why the tuition reduction letter is missing from my file. No one has explained why I had no contact for over 14 months. No one can explain why I had been told I was paid in full by both parties. No one will explain anything. They only send bills. By the way, I DO have an email from the collection agency stating that I was paid in full--not sure if that helps.

This is a breech of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Law, as they are grossly misrepresenting my balance owed (which in reality is NOTHING!)

IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO???

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