Fraud, collusion or just gross incompetence?

So, ever hear of Easy Reach personal 800 service? I didn't think I had, but I, apparently, had this service initiated August 22nd, 1990. Guess it was a free service, then. AT&T decided to start billing for this service in March of 2014. Supposedly sent out notices, but my service record showed an address from 24 years ago. Well, the mail was returned and I was sent to collections; IC System to be exact. I point this out because IC System did not attempt to reach me, old address, you know. So, I was reported to the credit bureaus. I discovered this quite by accident when applying for a car loan in August. Denied due to a very delinquent bill. So, I begin the process of trying to get this figured out. Too painful to recall the hours of calls to IC System and AT&T. Eventually paid the bill just to get it removed from my credit report. Ahhhh! Sucker paid the bill, let's go after him, again. Received second collection notice from IC System December 5th. Different amount, but same account. So, I try, once again, to figure this out. 28 AT&T agents and a day and a half later, I think this might be resolved, at least to AT&T's satisfaction. See below: "Good morning Douglas! I am a peer of Josh's that you have corresponded with regarding this account. Please accept my apologies in advance for the inconvenience you have experienced in trying to get this account closed and adjusted. I am in the process of taking care of credits on the account. Once I have processed the credits, I will then be able to send you a check for the credit balance. I have also notified our accounts receivable group to pull the account back from the outside agency that you received notification from. This will insure no negative impact to you. I appreciate your time and once I have posted all the credits to your account, I will send you another email. Have a wonderful morning! Sincerely, Tammy Y Social Media Manager MyAT&T Social Media Team 6:00am to 2:30pm CST ref:_****:ref Hello and good morning again Douglas! I have processed credits to your account for the billing in question for account xxx-xxx-xxxx. Your revised credit balance is $x. A refund check from AT&T will be sent to you for this credit balance in the next 30 days. The service was canceled effective 12/24/14. Since the cancellation date was after the billing cycle began, there will be one more invoice mailed to you around mid-January 2015. I will take care of any needed adjustments on this final invoice and will send you an email around mid-January 2015, to advise the credit has been issued. I have notified our accounts receivable group to insure that the outside agency is notified this was in error, so there is no further attempt to contact you regarding this account. If I can be of any further assistance regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me. Have a wonderful morning and New Year!" Well, shouldn't I be relieved?!? So many errors here, It must be gross incompetence, right? Well, not so fast. I've been an AT&T customer since 1976. Think they could bother to check for my current address? By-the-way, they still haven't asked for my current address, so I guess the refund goes to the address from 24 years ago. Of course, it will be returned. Money saved. The phone number is different from the one they say was billed incorrectly. So, who's getting that refund? I was turned over to collections (remember IC System) and would not have known anything was wrong except by accident. Pretty slick, but I guess it will just be a mistake I'll have to live with for however long it will take to clear my credit. Oh, no bill from AT&T, so I still don't know why the charges were different from the two times I was sent to collections. In conclusion, write down this number (it'll probably get changed after this, but worth a try because I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to get mysterious bills from AT&T): Executive Appeals:***, option 6. Good luck!!! By-the-way, this is a LegacyT issue. Old landline.

[Edited for privacy-please do not post personal or unique information such as but not limited to full names, employee ID numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, etc.]