If you have excellent credit you can simply not pay and make them do the work. I had a $1500 dispute. I was getting tired of wasting time. When it went to collections I drafted the standard leave me alone. The funny thing is now the collection company has screwed up twice on some things. It is their prerogative to sue. I doubt they will. If they do it, it will be annoying but I can respond in kind with a countersuit. Oh and the credit score? Dropped about 40 points into the upper 700s. Annoying, but not worth just rolling over and paying.

You can of course negotiate as well.