I have to pay for it? Since when?

[Misanthropical]

I call people to tell them they owe money, which leads to all kinds of hijinks.

I just love (sarcasm) it when they tell me they never used it, so they shouldn't have to pay. I don't use my cell phone, but I still have to pay for it. I rarely use my home phone, but guess what? I STILL HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.

This is the first they heard of it, so why are they in collections? I look at the screen and see they have letters sent to them, multiple times about their over due bill.

They claim to never have gotten the bills, even though they tell me we have their address down right. Yup, because if I don't get a bill I just think the company is going to eat the cost.

I love it when they think if they pretend we are telemarketers that will make the calls go away, even better when they scream "DON'T CALL HERE AGAIN!" and slam the phone down. Hey guess what, YOU'RE STILL GOING TO GET CALLED.

I'm blind, old, a mental case, so I didn't know what I was signing. Sorry, that is not going to work either. And, yes, I did have a man claim he was mental.

[Phone Jockey]

Wow, does that ever sound familiar! I've received e-mails from customers, fuming that their accounts went to collections when they didn't know anything about it! Well, we've sent mailings & called your home, usually leaving voicemails about it. I don't think these ppl are just not checking their answering machines, they're just ignoring the fact that they have to pay for services rendered. It's not even about use, it's about the AVAILABILITY of the product/service. Yeesh.

[Bright_Star]

Are people that stupid to think that if they don't get a bill then they don't owe nothing? What world are they from?

[GolfCart34]

You know what? I have a cell phone that I hardly use, yet I still pay for it every month! I think my bf uses his line on my account more often that I use my own phone!

The one time I did get pissed over a collections call was when I had to go to the emergency room without health insurance. The bill came to $800+ and they agreed to put it down to $700 since I didn't have insurance and put me on a payment plan of $50 a month until the debt paid down. Well, the hospital moved in the meantime and I wasn't getting bills from them. I tried calling and couldn't get through to anybody. Then I got a collections notice that said I had to pay the bill in full in x number of days. The notice also had the new billing line (since the bill I had had the old billing line on it). I sent in a payment on my credit card with that bill just to get it paid off and be done with it. Two weeks later I get a collection notice for the bill. I called up the billing department again and said I mailed a payment and gave my card over the phone to pay the bill. I thought that was the end of it... until I was on vacation, needed to buy gas, and they billed my card again! This was 10pm and I had to buy gas, so I called up my credit card company, explained the situation, and they put a disputed charge on the card for the duplicate charge and gave me an emergency line of credit. I called up the billing department the next day and complained about the duplicate charge, even though they said they wouldn't charge me again when the bill came in since I paid over the phone. They said they would reverse the charge and I should be all set. I've worked retail so I knew it would be about a week before the charge came off. It took nearly two weeks for them to even reverse the charge. I told my bf that even if I were dying I wanted to go to the hospital in the next town over which I heard was much much better.

[Horsetuna]

I had that happen somewhat, Golf Cart.

I was canadian and had to be hospitalized in Colorado Springs due to altitude sickness... Because of my postal code not accepted by their system, they said I wouldnt' have to pay (I dont getit, but whatever).

A few months later I got a bill at my canadian address for the amount. no big deal... dad said to file it away to the province and it should do it.

so I called the hospital, telling them it could take 90 days for it to get processed. they promised to note the account.

Next month: FInal Demand. I was so upset.

I was more upset at the fact that the government only covered fifty dollars of a 300 dollar visit.

So yeah, partially my fault, but a bit decieving of them, twice. I did end up paying it.

[Brightglaive]

I can understand when the bills haven't been paid and notices have been sent and the people are several months overdue on their credit card/ credit line. But how about this situation: I'm 5 days overdue and haven't received a bill yet and collections is now calling me 7 Times in one day (3 were voicemail) and demanding payment. And then this happens (this was the third call we answered that day):

QT: wife
SCE: stupid collections employee


QT: Hello?
SCE: Hello. Is brightglaive or QT there?
QT: This is QT.
SCE: umm... yes, can I talk to your mommy?
QT: This IS QT!!
SCE: Are you sure? You sound like a child.

SCE then proceeds to tell my wife that she needs to pay the payment right then and there and that there would be an $8.00 convenience fee for paying over the phone. When told that we intend to pay it on our payday (which was 4 days away) now that we know about it and have already requested earlier that day that they send a bill to us, the SCE gets NASTY and starts yelling at my wife telling her that she's a deadbeat and should pay her bills on time and it was my wife's fault that the bill didn't get paid on time..... (here's an aside for a moment)

BTW the company in question does not have any online services for checking your account or due date or paying online for finance services. Add to that that we did not even know what our account number was or what the finance company's telephone number was because they are an obscure branch of a multi-billion dollar company that surprisingly enough does not have any online services except for it's bank and credit card division.

.... (coming back to the conversation) She should have known when the due date was and should have been in contact with the finance company by calling their phone number and if we didn't pay right then we would get the same call like this every day and blah...blah...blah................My wife hung up on her.

I'm the type of person who is very calm and very polite. That is.... until you reduce my wife to tears. Then the lion in me comes out and I will TEAR YOU TO SHREDS. Now I know that the next guy who called me was not at fault so I very politely shredded him. The phone call went something like this:

BG: me
CA: Collection Agent

BG: Hello?
CA: is BG or QT there?
BG: This is bright.
CA: Yes I am calling about your account with XYZ finance company. It appears you are late with your payment...
BG: (cutting him off) and if you will check the record you will see that it is only 5 days overdue and I have talked to 2 other people TODAY and my wife talked to 1 other person today about this. You will also see that we have stated that we will be paying this on our payday which is on friday AND that we have requested that a copy of our bill be sent to us TWICE today. Now...Do you have my address?!?
CA: Yes... Is it 123 ABC lane anytown, anystate 00000 zip code?
BG: Yes that is correct. Now the last agent that called me and got my wife was female. I want it noted in this case that she was rude, unprofessional and abusive to the point of making my wife cry. You will also note in the case that because of that and the fact that you are harassing me and my wife by calling more than 3 times in a day that any further correspondence will be done by mail. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?!?!?!
CA: Yes, sir. I'm sorry sir for the inconvenience and I apologize for what was said to your wife earlier.
BG: Make sure you note that any correspondence regarding this case is to be in writing from here on out!
CA: I have sir. Once again I am sorry for the inconvenience. Have a good night.

(the part that is bold and underlined is represents where I got a VERY Steely note in my voice and I became very forceful about what I was saying even though I was not yelling or screaming. Even when I asked him if he understood, I was not yelling or screaming. If my words were weapons then you would see a huge menacing war club with steely spikes at that point. When you hear that kind of note from me the emergency sirens and klaxons and lights and flags and signal flares should all be going up. It's kind of like climbing up a rock slide and just as you are pulling yourself up over the edge of a huge sharp boulder you hear a rattle from a rattlesnake that is sunning itself on the boulder and realize you are nose-to-nose with it. )

[Misanthropical]

Brightglaive, those collectors were breaking the law with what they did. Where I work if that had happened, someone or several people would have been promptly fired and escorted out by security. They are very strict about following the law and not being rude to the people we are calling.

My supervisor sits right by us, so he monitors us all the time and if it even looks like we are about to become rude, he stands next to us to remind us of the rules.

Also, my husband is the same way as you. If someone makes me cry he will tear them to shreds. I rarely cry, so if I am, it means something big went down.

[Marnier]

They claim to never have gotten the bills, even though they tell me we have their address down right.

To play devil's advocate here......I live in an area of high theft etc, my mailbox is right in the open and available to the public. I rarely get mail anymore because of it being stolen. And i've had issues in the past of me not getting a payment on time because I never got it. Not the company's fault but not mine either. Fortunately if someone stole my identity they would be sadly disappointed.

[Tito]

Are people that stupid to think that if they don't get a bill then they don't owe nothing? What world are they from?

Judging from stories I've read in the past over at the PFB forum, I think that some people honestly do feel that way. Whenever I don't get a bill when I should, I always call the company to find out what is going on. Apparently, that is too difficult for some people.

[Ljt09863]

To play devil's advocate here......I live in an area of high theft etc, my mailbox is right in the open and available to the public. I rarely get mail anymore because of it being stolen. And i've had issues in the past of me not getting a payment on time because I never got it. Not the company's fault but not mine either. Fortunately if someone stole my identity they would be sadly disappointed.

not entirely true....it isn't your fault you didn't get the bill, but when you don't get a bill, woulnd't you wonder why? and shouldn't that lead you to call the company and say,"hey, i didnt get a bill this month, whats going on?"

i made a big boo boo recently. after we moved in august, we set up internet service with a local provider. we got our first bill a month later. and then three months after that, i realized i didn't get two bills, and a third one should be due soon. i guess i wasn't used to this bill coming, i just blanked on it.

i honestly don't know why i didn't get a total of three bills, but i finally got a letter from them saying i owe three months of payments, and i had to pay alot of overdue payments.....

if it had been another bill, and i hadn't received it, i would have been on the computer, or on the phone asking why. the way i see it, is it is the companies responsibility to send the bill, and that is it. if we do not receive a bill when we know it is coming, it is our responsibility to figure out what happened, and to get it straightened out.

the company sending the bill has NO way of knowing youdidn't receive your bill. also, they have no way to tell if you really dind't or just saying you didn't recieve your bill because you don't want to pay.

[NotSoInnocent]

<snip> it's about the AVAILABILITY of the product/service.

I had to have a conversation along that line with my SISTER when she'd moved into my apartment. (Yes, I know... I'm a soft touch when it comes to family.)

She came in, brought a dog that I hadn't known about before she moved in, would stay gone for days at a time... and then tried to pull the "But I'm hardly ever here! Why should I have to pay the full amount of my part of the rent and utilities???"

How about.... You're not paying me for the time that you're actually here... You're paying me for the ABILITY to use the apartment/phone/internet/water/trash/food and for a place to keep your crap and your dog.

*shrugs* She still owes me almost $1,000 and I doubt that I'll ever see it. At least I don't have to put up with her crap anymore...