Collection Agency Woes...

[bainsidhe]

Blas, I agree with others who've posted that things should be in writing. Though many collection companies abide by laws and are completely legit, many aren't. At least with a paper trail it won't become a case of who said what. Right now, they can tell you a total over the phone and it will change in 5 minutes. Nothing stops that from happening, which is why hard-copy documentation is important. Just my thoughts.

[iradney]

Get a letter from the bank, copy PRB's letter, fax it to em. Call em to let them know there is a fax on it's way, and to confirm that they have received it. Keep the transmission receipt of the fax as well, to prove that it did go through. Make another copy of the letters and send it via registered mail, so they have no excuse.

[Darkforge]

i'm just going to say a few of things.

-Never send ANY original documents, always send copies.

-if you send anything in writing, always post via a service that you can get a receipt of delivery for (such as a courier company that makes the recipient sign for delivery) so that they can't say they never recieved the letter.

-if you make a phone call, record it and state clearly that the phonecall is being recorded. beware if they say anyhting along the lines of "i think you owe $xx", or "it looks like you owe $xx" as they are not definite clauses and the amount could vary.

-do not give them any details about yourself other than the bare minimum to identify yourself, which should be your first and last name, and an account number if you have one.

I've been in similar businesses enough to know that this is the only way to make this work.

(I don't even want to know how much i've spent on postage alone that peopel "havent't recieved")

[blas]

I did call them today.

Apparently, it's not their mistake, it's MINE. Oh yes...the wonderful cuntrag I spoke with said that yes, they did receive a payment from me on the date that I told them they should have received it, but no, it didn't go to them, it went to my other account, the one I have with the clinic, and they will be expecting my double payment soon.

Before I even thought of sending any type of payment, I called the clinic. Thank God for the kind receptionist who helped me. She smelled fish as well. She said that the collection agency has NO access to my account with the clinic, and that the clinic did receive a payment from me, one day before the collection agency got a payment from me. The clinic does in fact keep track of my payments to collections, and yes, the collection agency (as in NOT the clinic) got that payment from me, and yes, it WAS seperate from the payment that I gave the clinic.

The only thing here is that my payment to the clinic is still pending, because I still have charges pending through insurance (because a week before these payments, I had a Pap and a shot), because insurance works so slowly that sometimes it takes a month or so for those charges to show up.

The receptionist did offer to attempt to roll over money from the payment that I made to the clinic towards what I owe the collection agency, but it will take a day or two because what I owe the clinic is a debt with interest rate involved. But even if that works, after insurance is done pending with the clinic, I will still owe the clinic something...and that's NOT what I wanted. I will probably NEVER get that $200some that I sent the collection agency. Whatever they did with that money....well, I don't have it, and they did something with it....anything but putting it where it belonged.

The only thing that really, really sucks here is that that money was meant to get rid of these debts forever. That was enough money to get rid of the debts for BOTH accounts. Now I will still owe someone something. But hey, at least it will put a FINAL (this time!) end to the collection agency and their bullshit.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Blas, google the Fair Debt Collection act and read up on it. There may be something there that can help in this instance, especially if the collector is trying to use shady or underhanded tactics. Not sure what it may have to say about this particular situation, but if you owe any debt at all, it pays to be familiar with the FDCA.

[blas]

Well, a little update. That was quicker than I thought....the clinic called me around 3:00 this afternoon (I was in the middle of a deep sleep) and was told that the transaction went through, but supposedly I still owe the collection agency $30 and some odd cents.

I called my mom before I went to bed and since she's a secretary and has been through crap like this before, she suggested making a letter to the collection agency.....I wonder if tomorrow I should just tell her to forget it now.....or if I should still send one along with a copy of that transaction from my bank, letting them know that what they did was pretty sucky on their part,

[bainsidhe]

Would contacting your bank help? They might have a record of the account that cashed the check. It's terrible you're being jerked around like this, but it may be something the bank can help with.