Hi, so I'm pretty ticked off right now; be prepared for a rant. I'm located in PA if that is helpful information.

I set up my gas account last fall when I first moved away from home. I received my first bill for the activation/lighting charge, and proceeded to set up my online account. I paid this bill within the time frame, and for two months everything seemed fine. I then received a first collection notice in the mail, with a slightly different account number than the one on my other bills. I called the company because my online account said that I didn't have any balance due, and this bill looked different than my others I had received. They told me I didn't owe anything, they didn't know why I got that. Received second collection notice a week later; online account still showing fully paid. No evidence of this charge ever appearing. Call in a second time, told I don't owe anything. Another week passes, 3rd collection and I just ignore it. A year goes by, my account is normal and my bills are paid on time automatically withdrawn from my bank account.

I get a call out of the blue from a collection agency claiming I have a bill overdue, but the lady could not give me any information on it so I assumed it was a scam. Told her I'd call her back, I wanted to check with the gas company because my account said I was paid. I was very careful to not disclose any information to her because I didn't know what was going on.

I call my gas company right after. Takes them almost an hour to find what was going on; at this point I've now had 3 people tell me I don't owe anything they don't know where this bill is coming from. They then say I have a separate account this charge was placed on, and it was never paid since it was credited to my main account. But the account on the bill in question was the same account number I paid it to. Each collection notice had a slight variation in my account #, and my normal gas bill is an even different account #! They're all very similar, but have a different number of zeros in the middle of them. I'm then told I have to pay all these fees to have it cleared since it has been sent to collections. And I can't see this charge anywhere on my online billing account, they want me to pay them over the phone with a check. WTF is going on? My credit score dropped 23 points this month (granted I have had a card for only a year now) I assume because of this. They told me it would stay on my credit score and I had to pay the fees since it's a year overdue because of them crediting the charge to my wrong account number.

Do I have any path of action to have this removed from my credit score/ not have to pay the additional fees? I understand I still owe the main billing charge. The gas company claims I had to have typed in the account number incorrectly, there is no way it is printed wrong (even though it is) so they would not accept just the balance.

So this isn't a ton of money, but it ticks me off that they're doing this to me. It's messing up the very little credit I have, and I don't see why I should be paying extra in fees because of their error. Meeting with our campus legal office in three weeks; would like to know if there's anything I can do in the meantime that would help later or get them to stop calling me.

TL;DR F*ck utility companies, charging me late fees/sent bill to collections even though they told me I didn't owe anything on three separate occasions. Also will not let me pay online like I usually do, I have to pay by phone with a check/ also charged a fee to do that. What can I do?

Pictures of my bunny as a thank you for the help :D