MANSFIELD — Teddy Vail says it’s worth the expense to hire an attorney to file a consumer lawsuit over the $6 datebook Sears sent his mother.

Since 2003, a series of collection agencies has contacted Margaret Vail, sometimes with more than one call a day, to pay for a mail order item she never ordered from the retailer, he said.

“A lawsuit over $6 is frivolous. But a lawsuit over five years of harassment is not,” the Hanley Road resident said.

“It’s not just one aggravating collection agency. It has become a collection agency hell. We feel it’s more like a case of extortion than a case of bad debt. Finally, we just got fed up and decided to do something,” Teddy Vail said.

The civil case was filed in Richland County Common Pleas Court last month.

Margaret Vail named Citibank USA (purchaser of Sears Master Card) as a defendant, along with LVNV Funding LLC, RPM, University Fidelity Corp.

Credit Indicator, Allied Interstate Inc., Sherman Acquisition, Zenta, Globa Vantedge Inc. and Northland Group.

“They’re bothering an 80-year-old woman,” attorney Deborah L. Mack said.

“For years and years, this has been going on.”

Sears Holding Corp. spokeswoman Kim Freely said last month she could not comment on a pending lawsuit.

The lawsuit contends Sears sent an appointment book to Margaret Vail around Nov. 26, 2003, then began to bill her. After Vail told Sears she never ordered it, the company said it would credit her account if she would mail it back it to them, court papers said.

The Ontario Sears store refused to accept the item, since it does not deal in mail order items, and the Mansfield-area resident was unwilling to pay postage to send the datebook back in the mail, Teddy Vail said.

His mother possessed a Sears credit card for decades, paying off the balance each month. Teddy Vail said he always liked the store’s Craftsman tool line.

About a month before his mother received an appointment book in the mail, Sears sent a ballpoint pen she’d never ordered. The Mansfield woman said she ended up paying not only the cost of the pen, but an additional $35 late payment fee that ended up on the bill because she’d left town for Canada during the first billing cycle.

Though she paid for the pen, she balked at the datebook.

“They had really stung me. With the next thing, I said ‘No,’ ” she said.

“It was like somebody decided ‘we’re going to send stuff to her, and she’ll pay for it,’ ” Teddy Vail said.

Over five years, anywhere from 6 to 10 different agencies have asked his mother to pay for the unsolicited datebook, Teddy Vail said.

“We just heard from another brand new one last (month),” he said. “The collection companies have harassed us. They have called Saturdays and Sundays. Some of them call seven days a week.”

Citibank spokesman Sam Wang said he was not familiar with the court case and could not comment on a lawsuit or customer issues, because of privacy concerns.

Vail said he must have explained the situation to collection agencies 30 times.

“They listen patiently. Then they say, ‘Well, can we work something out here to get this paid for?’ It’s like they’re not really listening. All they want is the money.”

Teddy Vail said the amount the credit card company claims is owed has risen to about $130.

He paid $200 in fees to file the lawsuit, he said.

“Yes, she could have paid for it a long time ago. But that’s not my ma.

I know it sounds frivolous, but you’d have to be here, getting phone call after phone call after phone call, for five years. There’s a principle involved — feeling like we’re being extorted and strong-armed by these collection agencies,” he said.