I disputed (in writing) a small portion of a dental charge with the doctor but he sent it to collection. I sent the collection agency the crappy standard letter to validate and dispute, which included a request to prove they were licensed to collect in the state, to identify who the person in charge is, and to prove that they were authorized by the original creditor to collect on their behalf. They sent back a copy of my original bill with a cover that said, essentially, "validated" and immediately reported the collection to CRAs.
This is still in dispute, if for no other reason than the collection agency added interest that did not appear on the original contract or subsequent bills. Can I do anything other than try to get them to remove the listing in return to pay? This has f'd up my otherwise excellent credit.
Note to future self: Pay it, even if you don't really owe it; the hassle isn't worth the trouble.
Help me codename47, you are my only hope!
[edited for clarity and typos, as usual.]
Message edited by: jidteach on 2009-06-20 16:36:28 CDT
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If it is still being disputed, the collection agency must report that to the CRA that it is under dispute. If not, you can sue the heck out of them. CN47 can shed more light here, but fighting collections and winning is not rocket science... Also, just FYI - creditboards may be a better forum for these questions.
quaters said:Which standard letted did you use?See this post, especially page 3 into 4. I used the letter that everyone is bashing.
christoj879 said:CN47 will be here to show you how to profit off this shortly Fingers crossed.
I should say, having read some more, that the validation may have been okay for everything except the interest. Even though I disagree with the original charges, they are listed on documents from the doctor along with dates and payments, etc. THERE IS NO PROVISION for interest anywhere in the documents.
jidteach said:Note to future self: Pay it, even if you don't really owe it; the hassle isn't worth the trouble.I wholly disagree with this on principal.
About ten months ago, I found out Comcast had billed me for service three months after I stopped service, returned equipment, and paid the account balance. Today, I received mail from CA stating they were dropping the collection. My credit report was was also updated today which raised my TU score by almost 50 points.
Coming out of this, I would definitely recommend that you don't put up with companies giving you the runaround. If this happened to me again, I also wouldn't bother waiting the recommended 30-45 day or whatever period before retrying/escalating to the next low-level drone. Just go for max impact, file a complaint with the state medical board and BBB. Best of luck!
=========== wall of text ftw! ========
Last Fall I called Comcast customer service to try and resolve it. Despite promises from various levels of CSRs, no one really cared enough to resolve the error. Don't bother disputing with TU, my multiple disputes (I was lazy and it takes two minutes) just resulted in a remark on my credit report along the lines of "disputed by customer, meets FCRA requirements".
I don't know how it would have turned out with the CA, my first CMRR correspondence prompted a reply requesting more information so they could identify my account. I didn't get uppity and try to CN47 them because Comcast misspelled my name so their request seemed reasonable.
I mailed my second CMRR letter but got impatient after a week and filed complaints with the state's BBB and FCC against Comcast on Friday, June 12th. I received correspondence from "Executive Care" on Monday, June 15th to rectify the error. It was an annoying process, although I did learn quite a few interesting things from CN47 and creditboards.
jidteach said:quaters said:Which standard letted did you use?See this post, especially page 3 into 4. I used the letter that everyone is bashing. Next time try this letter:
I'm still confused if they really sent confirmation other than "validated". Did they send a letter saying they were legally allowed to collect on the debt?
christoj879 said:CN47 will be here to show you how to profit off this shortly one year of litigation, complex pleadings and multiple appearances in Federal Court... and your reward... if you're successful... will be $1,000. where do I sign up?
jidteach said:I disputed (in writing) a small portion of a dental charge with the doctor but he sent it to collectionSo when you talked on the phone with the dental office they said "F U, we did all of that work" ?
jidteach said:I disputed (in writing) a small portion of a dental charge with the doctor but he sent it to collection. I sent the collection agency the crappy standard letter to validate and dispute,
Note to future self: Pay it, even if you don't really owe it; the hassle isn't worth the trouble. .]
I also disagree to just pay even if you dont really owe it. The issue here is that you dont want the hassle/bother of proving your case.
The format of the validation letter does not matter. CN47 usually says to use the simple "I dispute, please validate". Your letter conveyed the same information. You just didnt bother to do anything further after receiving the validation.
When a collection agency comes back with a "heres the validated debt" response, and there is no real validation, you dont just give up and let it affect your credit. You need to sue. If you arent willing to do that, then yes its easier to just pay up in the first place, bend over and take it like a man.
I too disagree with the just pay it to avoid the hassle/save your credit approach. Is good credit really worth it if someone can just threaten your report to extort payments? By reporting, they just potentially brought in the FCRA to the picture.
Did the CA report the debt as "disputed" to the CRA's? If not, FCRA and FDCPA violation. obtain paper copies of your reports to verify this.
I would beat them up over the added interest. If it isn't in the agreement, I'd say that they were trying to collect an unauthorized fee in violation of 15 USC 1692(f). Are they including the interest amount in what they reported to the CRA's?
Also PS - both my AMEX cards were cancelled as a result of the CRA listing. B of A dropped my credit limit $3K. Now you have them on actual damages. 3k plus whatever your cancelled cards were worth, plus statutory damages, potentially 3x your actual damages if you can tie in your state's deceptive trade practices act into it. Now you are talking at least 10k. Is that worth your time?
one year of litigation, complex pleadings and multiple appearances in Federal Court... and your reward... if you're successful... will be $1,000. where do I sign up? I disagree with this statement. First of all, litigation is an uncertain beast, and it may take 1 year, 6 months, 3 years, or 30 days. It just depends on what the other side is willing to do, what you are looking for, and how expensive you make it for them. This sounds like a small time collection agency, so they may not know that FDCPA cases are horribly expensive and not worth fighting and you just might have to teach them that lesson. Alternatively, they could make you an offer out of the gate or when you start pounding them with discovery.
I'd estimate that hiring a decent lawyer to defend such a case would run at least 4-5k per month, which means the case could cost anywhere from a few grand to 50k. At some point, someone is going to say "why are we paying 5k to our lawyer when we could just give this guy 5k to go away." I have NEVER recieved just 1k in any of my cases. The average cost of one of these cases is 3500 or so and that comes from the debt collectors themselves. In this case, I'd estimate that your claims to the other side are at least 10k. Depends on what your lost credt is worth and what they reported.
In all my cases, I have had exactly 2 appearances in court. Most of the time you will spend waiting on the postman. I'm not sure what complex pleadings you are referring to. Most of it is the complaint, discovery, and a few motions.
codename47 said:Did the CA report the debt as "disputed" to the CRA's? No. codename47 said:If not, FCRA and FDCPA violation. obtain paper copies of your reports to verify this. I have a printed copy from someone who ran my credit on residentscreening.net. Does that count as paper?
codename47 said:Are they including the interest amount in what they reported to the CRA's? Yes.
codename47 said:Now you are talking at least 10k. Is that worth your time? I think I love you...I mean, not in THAT way...
So is my next step to file? Where do I do that? I don't need every step in the process, just give me an idea. Do I write them and threaten or just sue? And what the hell does "sue" mean, file in fed or state and which court, and...and...?
[Edited for another typo...jeez]
Message edited by: jidteach on 2009-06-21 14:33:59 CDT
codename47 said:Now you have them on actual damages. 3k plus whatever your cancelled cards were worth, plus statutory damages, potentially 3x your actual damages if you can tie in your state's deceptive trade practices act into it. Now you are talking at least 10k. Is that worth your time?So you're guaranteeing a result of "at least" $10,000 here?
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