I think my user name gives you a pretty good idea of how I feel. Am needing some advice on how to go about sueing a collection agency NCO. They have so crossed the line. Background information to help out. I have a soon to be 13 year old who when two became seriously ill. Docotrs tried several ways to save my childs life to no avail. Insurance at that time through work was decent insurance however like many insurance companies in order to have a new or what was considered experimental procedure paid for you had to jump thorugh hoops like you would not belive. My child did not have enough time for everyone to jump through those darn hoops. The decesion was made to proceed in the hopes the child's life would be saved. All doctors and the hospital agreed if insurnce would not pay they would eat the bill. The procedure did work and saved my child's life. He had continued treatment with the same doctors and hospital for twp more years when we moved to another part of the country. We never recieved any bill for this procedure even though we knew insurance did not pay. We where told on more than one occassion to forget about it not worry about it they where joyful in saving a childs life. Fast forward to about 6 months ago. Get a collection letter from the NCO. After some effort was able to find out it is this old forgiven hospital bill. Learned from contacting the hopital that it was bought out by some other company and the person I talked to was pretty sure that all the bad debts from the old owner was sold off. I am not stupid I know about SOL and such so I send a letter informing NCO the SOL is expired on this debt and to mark it so in their files. Big mistake cause then the calls and threats started. According to them medical collections do not have any SOL. I tell the person they are either lieing or thier superiors have misinformed them causing them to lie. This Friday they so crossed the line. someone called from their office and the child who recieved the treatment answered the phone. Child is waiting to hear if he has been excepted for an advanced program for school this fall so when they ask if this is the child they confirm it is. This low life scum then tells my child tell your parents to pay their debts, if they could not pay for you being sick they should have let you die and then hung up. My child was stunned highly upset to the point they became ill and vomited. How do I make these creeps pay will my child's testamony make any difference in court or will all they have to do is deny this and be able to get away with it. They have been threatening to sue us now a I so wish they would so this could all come out. I am beyond mad I am livid how low will these creeps sink?
I'm really sorry to hear about your problems and the suffering you and your family have had to endure through the years and then to have this happen. I can't give you any answers about what you can do to fend off NCO but what they did is more than enough to stagger the imagination. I hope that you will seek the advice of a good litigation attorney because I think you have more than enough grounds to win a big lawsuit.
Send them a letter saying simply. "Please put all future communications in writing to the above address." Let them put the comments like that in writing so that you'll have concrete evidence against them. Next, document the entire conversation as best as your child can, put it into writing, (Do a search on "Memorializing" or "Memorialize" and you should be able to find out more about the hows and whys of this step.) If your child was upset enough to need medical treatment as a result of the conversation with them, document the required treatment, and provider information. What I would do is send the memorialization to the BBB as a dispute. Do a search on www.bbb.org on NCO, get the BBB's address and mail the memorialization as a dispute. The BBB office which they should be under is Philadelphia area, but their response more than likely will come from their NY office. This adds to your paper-trail as well. You will want to consult an attorney, NACA can refer you to a local attorney, which you may even be able to e-mail a quick question to, and you may even be able to get a free consult. Ask the lawyer about both communications I suggested, and if they agree, send them out. The one asking NCO to only correspond in writing to them directly -- I recommend sending to both the NY and PA offices, (You can search for them on the board, search for NCO AND PA AND NY with my id as the poster, and it should come up) certified return receipt requested.
****************************************************** NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ******************************************************* >Memorialize Your Convo's! http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55502&highlight=butch
I am so glad that lb knows where to find these threads that pop into my head. As you can see from the thread, it'ld be better to memorialize the conversation, and notorize it today since its only been Friday - Monday. Even if you memorialize it the way that your child has already said it happened (just like you did in the post), and his physical illness from the distress of what was said, it'll make a powerful memorialization. You'll want to include as much detail as your child has provided to you though, but keep it professional, even if your stomache is turning from disgust. You need to keep to the higher road.
Re: Re: crossed the line It was easy: I just did a search for butch>When the results came up I simply scrolled down to Memorialize Your Convo's clicked on it then copied the url from the address bar and pasted it in my reply.
Re: Re: crossed the line A search for Butch is cheating, all good stuff comes from Butch. Hmmm, that came close to borrowing an advertising campaign. Hmmm, maybe we should keep a thread bookmarked at the top. "Butch Posts", and have a search for Butch posts be the link there.
Re: Re: Re: crossed the line I don't follow what you're trying to say here. Please clarify ****************************************************** NEW MEMBERS READ THIS. http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=410243#post410243 ******************************************************* >
Re: Re: Re: crossed the line Too bad the member profile search, doesn't work the same way as the search by user name on the search page. If it did, then those Butch links would have done the search, and it would have worked right, like this one did.
Re: Re: Re: crossed the line You can see them, bastards for the clear violation of Fair Collection Practices Act. You can go to www.ftc.gov and look for collection agency, tons of stuff will pop up. Bad-Credit-Advisor.com bad credit repair
Simple. It means this: Butch: "You da man! We aren't worthy to be in your presence (well slightly overstated, but close). MadAsHell-: I am glad to see you are getting support. I read this prior to any replies and I was utterly, totally speechless. It just made me want to cry. What can someone say! This is beyond heartless.... there really aren't polite words to describe this abuse of this tender young heart. I'd like to see this in court with a full jury trial I hope you get big $$ for this one! Please keep us updated.
Re: Re: Re: crossed the line I would purchase a device to record conversations with anybody you aren't familiar with. Heck, get into the habit of recording them anyway. What I have started doing is if I don't recognize a number that comes up on my caller ID, I immediately begin recording the conversation, and say "Hello, this call is being recorded." With that statement, you have provided disclosure. My device emits beeps audible to both parties. If they continue the conversation, then they agree to the recording of the conversation. If not, then they hang up. That simple. Stand your ground. This raises the legality of the recording. It is not illegal for you to record the conversation for yourself. It IS illegal to play it back for a third party, i.e. one who did not take place in the conversation firsthand. Your attorney does have the right to listen to the conversation. When you record the calls for yourself, you have a means as which to create a transcript of the call. A transcript is admissible as a memorialization. The actual recording of the call can be admissible in court, if the court deems it necessary. I'm sure one could persuade the court to listen to the recording, because vocal inflection and tone are quite hard to duplicate in ink. LOL In this instance, an audiotape would be golden...
