phathom

Ok, so my wife went to the local community college during summer term, she signed up for online classes so she could work a normal schedule and do school in her spare time. She ended up dropping the classes because she needed a teacher there to explain stuff and she was going to enroll in classes when we had money for her to go back. The college sent us a bill for $811 this fall saying that it was for unpaid for online classes that she had taken fall term. Only problem is she never took any classes fall term. The classes they say she took, she isn't even eligible to take because she didn't even meet the prereqs for the classes. She never signed up for them, she never logged in to a single class, never had any communication with any teacher, nothing. The college will not even look into the matter of what happened, checking with teachers, checking logs, etc. They said the only way they would is if we paid the balance in full and then filed a dispute. Obviously we are not going to give them money for something she never even signed up for let alone took. So we get no more notices or anything until today, fast forward 3 months and we get a letter from department of revenue saying that they sent us to collections for this and they are going to garnish my wages, take it out of our tax return, and even right out of our bank accounts if we do not pay this. How do we stop this? The college won't even look into it all they want is a check not an answer of what happened and they won't admit blame. I called my lawyer and left a message with a brief summary of what happened and sent the Department of Revenue this email, "

Dear Sirs, My wife and I have recently received a notice from the Oregon Department of Revenue, reference#xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
In this notice it states that we owe Portland Community College a sum of$811.00. We owe no such sum. They are alleging that my wife Samantha took classes this summer and did not pay for such classes. She did not sign up to these classes, furthermore she was not even eligible to take any of these classes due to prerequisites and never attended any class, because she did not register for any of the classes they are alleging. We have talked to representatives from the college and they are not cooperative to investigate any of the before mentioned. The only solution that they suggest is to pay the amount in full and then file a appeal. We are not in a position to give them money for something that we did not do and wait for them to investigate and possibly give it back. Please look into this for us and give us any advice you can about getting this matter straightened out. We are still trying to work the situation out with the college, but they are under no right to put us into collections or take money from us for something that did not happen and is a result of some human or computer error on their part. I am in contact with my lawyer now about this matter and will be seeking his council on this matter. Please get back to us at your earliest convenience.
Thank you."

Any recommendations other than what I've already done to avoid them literally stealing our money?

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-snooch to the nooch