My wife got a checkup. I paid the bill on time, nothing special about it. A while later, I get notes asking me to pay. I ignore them, figuring the company will eventually find the money I’ve already sent them. My account is turned over to collections at some point. I get my bank statement, it has the cancelled check, the money has already been transferred.
Collections people call. I explain the situation. Give them the date of the check clearing, and the check number.
Yesterday (a month later or so), collections calls me again. They can’t find record. They say send us the cancelled check. I say, sure, no problem, be glad to, send me a self-addressed stamped envelope. They refuse. I say I’m not spending one single cent to clear up their problem. They say the burden of proof is on me. I frankly don’t know whether to believe them, and hang up.
I know I am being unreasonable not to spend a lousy stamp to get this all straightened out. It’s a principle thing… I did everything right, why should spend any more money? Let them spend it, they’re the ones who lost the records.
Now my actual question: Where is the burden of proof in this case? If push comes to shove, who is required to spend more resources straightening this out?
I gues faxing them a copy is out of the question – or do you begrudge the electricity and cost of the phone call?
In any event, the initial burden is on them. But if you were to ask this question in a courtroom setting, they have met their burden. They have (in a sense) testified that they have no record of your payment. It would now fall to you to refute that.
From a practical standpoint, of course, this is unlikely to end up in court. But the consequences for you are troublesome, even without court. The collections agency can report this as an unpaid debt to the credit bureaus, where it will remain as a stain on your credit for seven years.
And since there are three or four credit agencies – if you wish to dispute the issue with them, you’ll be using three or four stamps, at a minimum, to make your dispute known to them, not to mention the headaches involved in clearing it up at that point.
My advice, then, is to sacrifice your noble principles and send them a copy of the check.
Don’t think of it as selling out your principles. Think of it as a small price to pay to prove you’re right and they are wrong. After they have seen that you have in fact paid, demand that they send you a written apology and statement that you have paid your obligation. That will cost them in staff time spent, stationery used, and postage paid. Then you can feel remunerated, if you need to.
My suggestion is: send them the check. Then bill them for the cost of sending the check, the cost of sending the bill, and time you spent taking care of “their problem” (at a hefty consultant rate, oh, say, $200/hr). Then, when they don’t pay, you can start sending threatening letters…
You have no rights… I hate to say. They say you do… but you don’t. I know… I was in collections for awhile.
Don’t send them the original check… a copy (front and back) will do fine… along with a letter saying to take it off your credit record. Yes, they probably have already reported to every credit agency on this. Also send them a certified letter within 30 days of the first letter you got from them disputing the collection. NEVER admit you owe ANYTHING! And SEND EVERYTHING CERTIFIED… I can’t stress that enough.
If you don’t… it will say on your credit record as long as they update that you have a balance with them. And that could be indefinately. Yes… as long as you have a balance… it will be there.
The credit agency’s are suppose to take off things that are older than 7 years… or 10 for bankruptcy… but most of the time they need a reminder. And there are 3 major ones you have to check with. Experian, Trans Union and Equifax.
As an added suggestion, call the collector collect. Often, they’ll accept the charges, since a lot of real deadbeats don’t have telephones (being deadbeats and all).
I do like the idea of billing them – you could sell the account to another collection agency – for collection.