Ok, so I missed an appointment. I didn't call because I was working and just forgot. They charged me $25. By the time I paid (because they sent me a bill in October - I paid around November 1), they sent the no-show fee to a CA. CA shows it as paid. Crazy me, still had a copy of the money order receipt and the certified mail receipt. I am having the USPS send me copy of who signed it (the docs office). I paid $5.00 for the service by com pleting Form 6401. So I am waiting on that. Do you guys have any suggestions on the best way to handle this? I guess my issue is that the CA shows it paid and I never had any dealings with them or even received a letter from them. I am a bit of a transaction rat which results in my hanging on to all of the paperwork. Glad I did! Anywho, I now have copy of the certified receipt, the original receipt from the money order, proof of who signed for it at the doc's office. I am just waiting for the 6401, so I have SOLID proof that the doc was paid. THEN WHAT???? That's where I am with this thing. Thanks for any help.
Talk to the Dr's office (e.g. the billing dept) nicely with your paperwork and explain how there must have been a "mixup" because you paid this to them but somehow the collection agency is reporting it on your credit report. Ask them to see if they can take the account back from the CA so that this won't continue to report on your credit report. I emphasize NICELY, because that is more likely to get things done to your satisfaction. However... I don't have all the law in front of me but I believe that an account must be over 30-days late (as in if it was due on Oct 31, it's not late until it hasn't been paid as of Nov 30). So sending the bill to the CA on Nov 1 (or whatever they did) seems a bit odd and possible a cause of action to sue for damages. The argument could be made (in front of a sympathetic judge) that a collection account indicates a seriously late account and, especially since you have all the paperwork, this account was never such an account and therefore reporting it as such on your credit report is grossly inaccurate. This could be a long and uphill battle, hence my suggestion to try the nice approach, first. Perhaps some of the other legal minds have some other suggestions?
The best argument is really a failure of consideration since no service was rendered. However, that is probably to far advanced for a rather simplistic problem. I would probably dispute it through the credit reporting agencies and if that didn't work, contact the physician.
