by Jack Lee
When I got home today I found among other things in my jammed full mail box, a bill. It was from North State Radiology Medical Group. I could see through the envelope’s window the inside correspondence was in pink. Pink is never a good sign, it’s the bill collectors way of telling you they are getting serious.
I opened the letter and sure enough, it was a nasty-gram labeled “Final Notice” in large bold type in two different locations and there was a stern warning also in bold print, “If payment is not received with ten (10) business days your account may be placed for collection without further involvement by North State Radiology Medical Group. Then it went on to say how my credit was going to be adversely affected, yadda, yadda. But, you know the kind of letters creditors send out, they can get really nasty and when you get one that you don’t deserve. . . you have a right to be angry. And I’m angry!
I was angry for two reasons, one I don’t take kindly to being threatened and was not past due. Less than a month ago I had paid 50% of the bill and made arrangements to pay the other 50% the following month and that due date had not even arrived yet.
So, I called the collections number and gave them my account number, name and date of birth and then I was transferred to another young lady in billing. She was nice enough and explained that my account was over due and that they had sent me four notices to pay. Which was true, I paid on the 3rd notice because I was waiting for my insurance to pay and last month I wound up in a fight with my insurance company (Blue Shield) which denied my claim calling it a pre-existing condition, which it was not and that is where me and the stodgy old insurance company will have to work it out, but I digress.
So I calmly and politely asked the collections girl, “Doesn’t my account show that I paid half the balance recently?’ She didn’t seem to know this and asked me to wait while she checked. A moment later she came back on the phone and said, “Yes, it looks like you paid $275 on February 14th.” Yes that’s correct and I was going to pay the balance the following month, so why am I getting this threatening letter that says you’re going to turn me in to the credit bureau? Her reply, “Well sir, we sent you several notices and if you had come in to arrange payment you would not have received this letter.” Ah, but that is the whole point, I did come in, I did arrange for payment and that’s exactly why you have the payment of $275 from last month, I said. She was getting a little frustrated with me, but she explained, “Sir, there is nothing in our records to reflect that.” So, that means somebody on your side made a mistake because I came in, I paid half the balance and I arranged for the other half to be paid this month (I have a witness). The person who took my money told me it would be fine to pay the balance next month and 30 days hasn’t even gone by yet, but I get a collection notice sent to me? (I was fishing around for a simple apology) IInstead of an apology I got it pushed back onto me again, “Well Mr. Lee, that’s just the way it works, but if you pay it by the end of the month nothing will happen because it’s still in house.” No, that’s not how it works, I am telling you your employee made an error in not noting my payment schedule. I was trying to stay calm and I went on… my point is, the collection notice was sent to me only because your employee made a mistake and failed to note that I would pay the balance in 30 days. This means it was your mistake and I should not have received this notice, right? Now the tone in her voice changed to being more firm, she said, “If you pay it by the end of the month that will be fine, nothing will happen!” I gave up. No way was I going to get apology or even an acknowledgement that they made a mistake. So I just said fine I’ll send in the balance.
Talk about poor customer relations, all she had to do was say something like, “Mr. Lee I can see by our records that you came in and made a payment and I’m sorry if we failed to note that you set up a payment schedule. Please disregard the collection notice we sent you and go ahead and pay it as agreed. But, nooooo, she just couldn’t admit being wrong or take any responsibility for sending me this nasty collection letter…geez, what every happened to caring about customer service?
Next, I have to take on my insurance carrier and now I’m thinking, if this is the best we can do with private pay and private insurance, just think how scewed up it would be if we had Obama-care! lol