The Credit Saga Continues...

I need to preempt this rant with a few financial thoughts. I was raised by two very fiscal conservative parents. They believed that you save, save, save and pay your mortgage off ASAP. They also taught me that you only buy what you can afford and you pay off all of your bills immediately if you can afford to do so. (If the rest of the country followed these rules, there would be no financial crisis!!)

Luckily I listened to this advise early on. I was always a decent saver and I was obsessed with my credit. (Another financial rule passed down by my parents.) I never had reason to get a credit score but it should be extremely high because of these practices.

Now for the saga...

Like my fellow blogger and brother, dirtycopper, I own a big, black fuzzy Newfoundland. As a responsible pet owner I take Guinness to the vet for yearly checkups, etc. In October of 2007 I took my 130lbs worth of fur to the local hospital for some maintenance. After receiving treatment and getting the overpriced pharmaceuticals, I approached the receptionist in order to pay my bill for the visit.

The receptionist apologized for the delay but they were having voluntary maintenance done on their computer server and had to calculate the bill manually. After a few minutes I was presented with the bill. I paid in full and received my receipt.

Less then 24hours later I got a phone call from the billing department. They said that they miscalculated my bill and I owed them an additional $70. They continued by apologizing for the inconvenience...the bill is in the mail.

A few days later I received the bill and contacted the vet. Like a good used car salesman I was unable to immediately speak with the person that could actually solve my problem. I had to repeat my story several times to the same type of employee that was unable to properly prepare my bill. When the time came to connect me to the proper authority she was not available.

Like many people I am extremely busy. Between my job, family, honey do's, coaching and volunteering I often find myself without enough time to accomplish my daily tasks without adding extra repetitive non sense. I don't have endless opportunities to recall these people to have to explain the story again before being connected to the same person who was again, not available.

After a year of playing phone tag, speaking with all of the wrong people and leaving messages with explainations I was finally blessed with the opportunity to experience the American tradition of collections.

I called the collections agency. After giving her my account number she said something to the effect of so I would guess that you would like to pay this? So I told her the following...
After telling her the story I explained that I have never had a credit account with this hospital. I have always paid my bills immediately. I should not be penalized for the incompetence of the employees that can not perform 2nd grade math or do not have better reading comprehension then a 3nd grader. I equated this late bill to a car salesman calling me the day after I purchase a new car saying that I owe the dealer an additional five thousand dollars because the price negotiated and paid for was too low...they miscalculated it.

I ended the phone call by giving the collections agent some financial advise. I told her that I would be sending a letter to her and the hospital outlining this incident along with receipts. After they received this letter I told her to not contact me via phone, email or letter because it would only be a waste of stationary, employees time, postage and resources. I would never pay this bill no matter what they propose to do to my credit and I thought I would help them keep costs down.

Of course it didn't end there...I called to make an appointment for Guinness's yearly appointment. (Yes, I really went back. The vet service is great. It is the billing department that bites.) They wouldn't make an appointment until I spoke with the head of billing. They connected me and of course...she wasn't available. (What a surprise.)

She finally called back in a timely manner and we spoke. After I explained to her the entire story (I guess she never listened to my many messages) she asked me to send her a letter with the receipts so she could investigate my claims. (Another department must have gotten my letter.) I gladly complied.

What is next? Of course I will have to see this through just to have an ending to this saga.