Well, I dealt with a very rude man a week ago and thought I would share my experiences. We had a hospital bill from an ER visit for my daughter several months ago...she hurt her hand in gymnastics. Anyway, we are blessed with wonderful health insurance (knock on wood!) and our ER bills are always covered 100% or very close to.
So, I thought nothing of the bill I received a few weeks after C. went to the ER. I just figured the insurance had not paid yet and well you know...that certainly it would soon.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I have no idea how this happened but anyway, we received a call from a collection agency and they told us a hospital bill for $548 had been handed to them by our hospital for this ER visit. My husband said that couldn't be right and that we would talk with the insurance and our hospital.
I ended up calling the insurance company to see what the matter was, they said they couldn't process the claim because they needed more information, I said "what?" They said, it was coded wrong at the hospital...they had coded it as a "car accident." Well, it certainly was not a car accident and I called the hospital and they submitted the correct bill and I thought that was that.
Apparantly not.
About 2 weeks ago the bill collector man called again. He told my husband they still had not received any money. My husband was working and told him that we would call our insurance and figure it out. He forgot and I did too.
2 days later, the bill collector called again and I spoke with him. This is when it got ugly. I told him that we had not called the insurance yet but that I would take care of it right away. I swear he snorted and arrogantly stated, "It shouldn't take you a week to call your insurance company!" I replied, "Well I'm sorry but I have a busy life and I forgot..." Something like that.
So then he asks when they are going to receive a payment and I said well obviously they were not going to receive one from us because the hospital had recently resubmitted our bill to the insurance because it was originally coded wrong.
Then it got truly hideous. Again, that snort and he says, "Yeah, right, we hear that excuse all the time." I started to shake. I raised my voice and said, "Well, I am telling you the truth...it's not an excuse." Then he says, "We know where your husband works and it looks like this is heading toward garnishment." I reply, "I am calling the ins. and the hospital right now!" And then I hung up.
So, I call the hospital and luckily, a friend of mine that works in the billing dept. answers. It took at least 10 minutes until we figured it out but guess what? The hospital had already received payment IN FULL ($548) from our insurance company a couple of days prior AND the best part was that they had notified the collection agency that payment had been received. I was ecstatic...how many times in life do you get to says "take that a$$hole!" to mean people?
Not often enough.
So, my friend faxed the information again to the collection agency. I hung up the phone and dialed the bill collector. I was ridiculously sweet and told him that the hospital had already received their payment and that perhaps he should learn how to handle his job appropriately AND that it was extremly unprofessional to threaten someone with garnishment when a bill was already paid! He didn't say much, not even sorry so I said I wanted to speak with his supervisor.
He snorted/laughed again. "Well, I am the supervisor here so that's not gonna happen." I could feel myself losing my temper and my husband was in the kitchen with me so I handed the phone to him and whispered, "Don't get us in legal trouble but let him know he is an a$$hole."
My husband did just that in a calm, professional manner...he is so good at that!!
I was so worked up my entire body was shaking when the exeperience was finally over.
So, that is my story of the arrogant bill collector. It felt so good to say..."I told you so!"
Arrogant Bill Collector
June 11th, 2009 at 09:32 pm
June 11th, 2009 at 09:39 pm 1244756366
Yep, bill collecting is crazy business. I have similar stories for those calling for charities. One should never be threatened to give to a charitable organization.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:30 pm 1244763007
June 11th, 2009 at 11:33 pm 1244763201
June 11th, 2009 at 11:41 pm 1244763687
June 12th, 2009 at 01:37 am 1244770653
Not often enough.
lol, so true, so true.....
June 12th, 2009 at 02:20 am 1244773211
I would have told the @$$hat you dealt with just that. B.S., "supervisors" don't do grunt work. Even if he was a *supervisor*, you would have knocked him down a peg or two by telling him he was doing grunt work. LOL Priceless, IMO!
June 12th, 2009 at 02:33 am 1244773987
June 12th, 2009 at 02:30 pm 1244817058