Helllo, I have a couple of problems that I believe the group here has the know-how to help me with: Problem 1: This is a more immediate & costly PITA than Problem 2 (detailed below). A medical collections is on my husband's CR. It is impacting credit rates on existing accounts. A call to the MD billing office today revealed it was for an emergency room visit for my husband 10 days prior to the birth of our 2nd son. Problem: my husband never went to the emergency room. The MD billing office is researching it--asked for a week to resolve it. They are usually very good, but this is having real-time repercussions, and to be honest, I don't want to leave this up to the dubious good sense someone else. What do we do with regard to the CA? We never received a bill, an EOB, or anything from the CA/hospital/doctors at all. If we hadn't checked the CR, we would never have known it existed. How do I dispute this and with whom? Better question: how do I make this go away forever? Problem 2: I have a phone bill that has recently gone over to collections. I don't believe it is on my CR...yet. +I switched phone carriers on 10/14/05. Received a bill 11/05 for Oct. usage. Paid it. +In 12/05 I was billed for Nov. usage by my old carrier, even though there was no usage and they were no longer my carrier. +I was told not to pay the 12/05 bill since I was owed a refund anyway. +They issued a credit in 1/06 but they applied the credit to the 12/05 bill instead of issuing a check for the unused 11/05 bill. $33 remains in the balance. +They sent it the balance over to collections in 02/06. =In summary: the 11/05 bill (for 10/05 usage) was overpaid and the 12/05 bill (for 11/05 non-existent usage) is an erroneous bill. I did procrastinate on it and didn't follow up until 2/06 (after the CA letter arrived) at which time I realized that the residential division of this phone company had been sold off to another company (I was notified of this change, but since I was no longer a customer--so I thought--I didn't pay much attention to it). I am currently talking with the new company to straighten this out. But it was the old company that sent it into collections, and the new company doesn't know anything about it; they are supposedly researching it. The new company had no idea it was even in collections; they were going to bill me for it. Which, by the way, doesn't make sense. The old company transferred my account to the new company on 2/1/06. The CA letter states the creditor as old company but the date as 2/16/06. It's a bit of a mess. Anyhoo, I've got to get a letter out to the CA disputing the validity of the debt within the next couple of weeks (I want it off my plate by this weekend, actually). I had posted my questions on a different financial board where I had been very active in the past, but received only a few suggestions. The most promising was to obtain a copy of the switch order, but a call to my current carrier was not helpful; they will only provide a letter confirming that the phone service had been changed over to them: it will show that they provided phone service for the same number at the same address to the same customer. Good circumstantial evidence, but apparently, not a smoking gun in the world of collections. What should the letter say (any sample letters would be a huge plus)? What should I include with the letter? How do I get this ball back into the court of the new phone company since the CA didn't deal with them originally and the old company is still doing business (just not residential in my area)? In both cases, I'd really like some sort of an outline of steps I'll need to take and a link to any sample letters that you can think of. And if I should CC: any agency on the letters, please let me know. Thank you all for any help you can provide to me. ~Neglectarino
Regarding the medical billing problem, medical billing is often screwed up. If you get on top of it promptly, while the account is still owned by the OC, it may be simpler to get it removed when they are not getting paid due to their own billing or claim errors. If it is not your account, it is just like any other misidentification, except that you do have your own doctor to assist in resolving erroneous bills from the hospital he uses. Assuming you have received nothing in writing from anyone, you must proceed in writing to dispute with all parties, since you cannot assume anything about anyone's competence to fix this, or how promptly they will fix it. Check with your insurance company and see if anyone has submitted a claim. Dispute in writing with the CA, since they are reporting it. In your dispute, notify them that no one in your family obtained ER services on that date. Request that they remove their TL. Include a copy of the page of your CR, with all unrelated information removed. Send it CRRR. Send a follow up letter to the doctor's office, including a copy of the dispute you sent to the CA. When you have delivery confirmation of your dispute to the CA, sent a dispute to the CRA, again CRRR. Check all CRAs to make sure it is not on the others.
Regarding the phone service change, get a copy of that switch order. It does establish the time of your switch, which clearly was not carried out correctly. Common sense says you would have no reason for two providers of the same services. Since the carriers are not using common sense, send written complaints to your Pulic Utilities Commission, along with a copy of the switch order to establish the date. Local TV, radio, or newspaper consumer reporters are also effective in fixing these types of problems, since they are fairly frequent, and they usually have a different contact person than the usual customer service or collections drone.
Thanks for your suggestions, in particular about the TL removal--I wouldn't have thought to ask for that specifically. With regard to the switch order, that's been a bit difficult to obtain but I'm calling the Board of Public Utilities tomorrow a.m. to see what I can get done there. The phone companies, both past & present have been somewhat unhelpful, but I suspect that's because I haven't yet pushed the right buttons. Once again, thanks for the suggestions. If there are any links to sample letters either here or elsewhere on the web, I would love to look at them. ~Neglectarino
Always follow up every phone call with a memorialization letter. Send Certified, print USPS delivery confirmation, keep a file copy. The phone company CSRs may not even be noting any details of your contacts in their systems, besides which they probably erase them periodically, or at least claim to.
