I had paid a bill to the orginal creditor, a hospital, after I felt that Account Recovery Bureau was being unethical. To begin with this was only a $335 bill. I noticied it on my credit report earlier last year. I sent them letter after letter asking for verification with no response. Finally in September of last year, Accounts Recovery sent me a statement stating the I may qualify for relief from this bill from Wabash County hospital. So I called as soon as I got the letter. I was told Wabash county hospital is no longer offering reliefs. So i asked about a PFD, I was told Wabash County Hospital does not offer PFD's. So I asked about settling, you guessed it, I was told that Wabash county Hospital does not offer settlements. I was a little upset, I felt that they tried to dupe me into calling by offering relief. I also had the impression that the Hospital not the collection agency owned this debt. So I sent the payment in October to Wabash County hospital. Once the payment cleared my account, I sent the copy of the transaction to Accounts Recovery Bureau and informed them this was paid, to please see the transaction attached and re-verfy this debt with orginal creditor. I was ignored.
I disputed this with Equifax stating that it was paid with orginal creditor please have it re-verified. It was verified and updated so now it looks like this is a new collection as of 11/12 which is a no, no when trying to get a mortgage. I was told that I couldn't close on my house till this showed as paid.
I tried the Hipaa dispute on the Hospital to which the CFO sent me a letter stating that the account was paid and some HIPAA information that guarenteed that it was not a violation.
I called Accounts Recovery and spoke with a not so nice lady. I told her I had the transaction from my account and a letter from the CFO that stated this was paid and that I had previously sent them this information asking them to re-verfiy the debt and mark my account as paid. She told me very rudely that if I had paid it Wabash would have reported it. I said well apprantley they didn't. She made the comment that I must have paid another account with the Hospital, I told her that I have only been there once. She asked me for the hospital account number, this is now 2 years old, how am I too know that. So I told her no I didn't have it, she snapped at me about if I only had one visit why wouldn't I know that. How many of you know your hospital account # by heart?
I then reminded her that I had proof of the payment and a letter from the CEO. She said I would have to send them in and then she would decide if she would verfiy. I got her fax number and immediately faxed them. I called the next day and the next and the next making sure they received the fax and was always told that it was being verfied and that it would take some time. Now i deal with China and customers all around the world and I can get things sorted out within 48 hours, why after a week of receiving my fax had they not maded one phone call.
Once i knew they had my account listed as reverfication, i disputed this with Equifax. The only CRA showing this account.
Plus after a week, I finally got a hold of someone at the hospital who knew how to help me. I told her I was basically called a liar by this CA and asked if she could call them and report the payment. She did and let me have her direct line in case i had more trouble.
I waited4 days, which was today, and called Accounts Recovery again. I was told my account was paid on Feb. 18th. I said no, it was paid in October. I asked when will this be marked as paid. He said 30 days.
It has been 4 months since i made this payment. Isn't there a law that states they only have so much time from the date that this was paid to report that? I feel that they are doing this on purpose. Normally it wouldn't matter about 30 more days but this is holding up a closing.
