Accusation by former employer
I recently received a certified letter from my former employer accusing me of not returning and using some cell phone post separation date. :eek: I worked for this company for many years and was laid off 1.5 years ago. In their letter they ask me to pay them over 3 thousand dollars. Their accusation is totally bogus as I retuned the phone to my last manager. I called the company and requested some explanation of how do they connect me to a "ghost" phone. However the explanations over the phone were very vague; they said "call traces" relate to my emergency contact phone number. However they didn't even know that I was assigned a corporate phone for many years. Next time I called they said that they had received a report or some other kind of paper from police which according to them relates me to a phone. I asked them to provide the documentation to me but they refused... This could be some sort of intimadation technique.
Anyway in their letter they are asking me to pay the money within 30 days or else they review all available legal options. During the phone converstion they asked me to send a payment or a letter within 30 days with my explanations in writing.
This whole thing sounds to me like some sort of non-sense or misunderstanding, but what would you suggest me to do? Should I even bother writing anything to them? :confused: This is a publicly traded company and I live in California. Please advise.