I have recently recieved a collections letter for ~$30. I replied back with a please validate letter and recieved an acceptable validation.
The debt is from some lab tests I had done as part of a routine checkup last year. Here's the rub though, I was never sent a bill from the hospital. Had I recieved the bill I absolutley would have paid it on time. Its just $30 after all. I contacted the hospital to find out why I was never billed.
They informed me that they had mailed out the bill and it had been returned as a wrong address. After 6 months they sent it to collections. I inquired what address they sent it to and discovered that they had, on their own, used the old address on my drivers license (4 years old) instead of the current address that I filled out on all my paperwork. To make matters even murkier their own records show my address as my current, correct address. The woman I spoke to could not explain why they sent it to my old address (which I had never given them outside of a photocopy of my licenese) or how it even got entered into their system.
She than tried to lay the blame on me by asking if I'd recieved an EOB from my insurance company which surely would have indicated I owed money. While true, an EOB is not a bill and not a tool to be used to figure out to whom one owes money.
I'm not sure what to do at this point. I have no problem paying the 30 bucks I owe, but this has been a huge hassle for me and I certainly don't want it ending up on my credit report becuase of their billing error. Any advice?
