I'm at my wits end

Okay, here's the deal.

Back when we bought our house, we also signed up to get a whole-house water filter. The finance company was very good to us, we had payments of $120 every month to pay it off. It should have been paid off in 4 years.

Then I lost my job.

The finance company demanded that we pay them before we paid anyone else. They wouldn't take no for an answer. They are responsible for some of the house payments being late, because once we paid them, we didn't have enough for the mortgage.

It's been 4 years now. We don't have the water filter anymore. They call us, they are now calling my wife's employer. We have bounced checks because they take money directly out of our account.

Last I checked, the $3500 that we owed to pay off the water filter, we still owe $3500 on it. The payments we have been making? Only for the interest. We can't afford this anymore.

So I want suggestions on what I can do. I'm not talking to them because I can't pay them. Every time we do pay them, we wind up in MASSIVE financial jeopardy. So any thoughts will help.

I'm opening up this post and asking for help on Twitter too, so just keep that in mind.