Pay or it's going to collections!

[Ree]

GREAT stories!!!!!!!!

Yes, and apparently, your father's situation wasn't as unique as one would think.

http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/zero.asp

I have been receiving that same story forwarded by friends in my email since I started using the internet, so when I read your story, it seemed familiar.

Sure enough, Snopes confirmed that this same situation appears to happen a lot.

Perhaps I should have waited to post this until I found out if your cheque for $0.00 also crashed your bank's computer system.

[Becks]

GREAT stories!!!!!!!! I wish I had one to add, but I'll just content myself with laughing some more.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I got hounded every month by (I think) Bank of America after I closed an account with them. Seems I overpaid something by 11 bucks and some change. Every month, for several months, they sent me a "bill" showing that they owed me 11-some bucks.

I'm thinking, wouldn't it be more efficient to send me a check and be done that send me the same notification that they owed me money on a closed account EVERY MONTH? But hey, I guess I'm just too stupid to understand big business.

I was so tempted to send the "pay this amount" back with "then send me a check, dumb-dumb" written on it, but since that was the obvious answer, I wanted to see how long it would take them to reach that solution themselves.

The answer, it turned out, was pretty long. One of the geniuses in that office finally thought to send me a check, but it took them the better part of a year.

[repsac]

This one is rather hilarious. It even ended with the collections agent laughing so hard that well, I thought he might have a heart attack.


It begins:

My father had to go to the doctor to get stitches. They ask him for insurance, which he says he doesn't have. However he has medicaid. Medicaid pays for all his bills. This one was covered. Meaning no charge.


It gets...weird:

Mail comes one day, there's a bill from the hospital in it. My dad reads it over several times and then looks at me. "They billed me." he says and offers it. I read how much he owes and laugh. His current total to pay is 0.00 dollars. We enjoy the laugh and then toss it aside

It gets...weirder:

Several more letters come. All saying that if we don't pay the 0.00 dollars they are sending the bill to collections. Some part of me suspects people don't read these things when they mail them. One bill is up on my fridge.

And then...

Yesterday, we get a phone call. It's a collections agency asking for my father. I take the call since he's out at the doctor. The agent goes down this long pitch about how it'll screw up his credit, how they'll take us to court and all. After a bit, the following conversation happened.

Me: Do you happen to know how much he owes?
Agent: (testily) Of course I know (starts pitch).
Me: No, listen, it's important. Could you confirm the total for me?
Agent: You should know it. (again short.)
Me: Look, humor me please? I just want to check my records.
Agent: FINE. (after a few minutes) This can't be right...
Me: Let me guess...Nothing?
Agent: Uh...yeah. Wait a minute here...that can't be...it's not right is it?
Me: Yeah. It's right.
Agent: (starting to laugh) Uh...I really don't know what to say.
Me: Tell you what, I'll send the payment in RIGHT away.
Agent: (Laughing harder) In what? An empty envelope? Wait...do that. Here's my name (rattles it off) and case number. Send me the payment by way of a check. I want to frame that.
Me: Will do.


I sent a check out made out to the collections company for "Zero dollars, and Zero Cents". I wonder just what they'll make of that...