My day had its moments, but it's been pretty good.
This was the most upside-down thing today (I'll try and keep it brief):
Phone rang, display showed "Potential Spam," so I let it go. Oddly, they left a voicemail.
Voicemail said, "This is the Business Office of <my local hospital>. Please call regarding your account."
Being that the number came through as possible spam, I was suspicious, because "business office" sounded just a little too generic to be legit.
I googled the number, and that came back as a real debt collection agency, albeit one with many Better Business Bureau complaints levied against it, and one noted for aggressively harassing little old ladies over $15.
That's when I remembered receiving a hugely inflated hospital bill back in the Spring, thousands of dollars, which I disputed, turned over to the insurance company, and never thought any more about.
Oh crap, this must be that, the blasted hospital, instead of getting back with me months ago, just pulled a jerk move and turned it over to a mafia-like collection agency. There goes our near-perfect credit score, for one thing.
I read horror story after horror story about this agency, haranguing people on weekends and the middle of the night, showing up at their place of work, calling their families and friends, threatening to garnish wages and implying violence, etc.
After thinking about it a bit, I dug out the old bill with my notes on it, then called them back to get the skinny, just so I knew what I was dealing with.
First thing it did was ask for my statement number, so I punched that in and it said that statement was no longer active.
That's weird...so I punched in 0 to get to a human.
"Thank you for calling Deadbeat Debtors, this is Alicia."
"Hi, yeah, I jut received a call today, asking to call you back about something."
"Please verify your name, date of birth, and mailing address, please."
<Well, she's awfully polite for a knee-breaker>
I gave her the information. Clicky-click-click she went on the keyboard.
"Oh, MrTasty, I see that you, sir, have an outstanding balance with us, from <my local hospital> that you've failed to pay, MrTasty. Are you prepared to pay this today, MrTasty?"
<I imagined her picking her teeth with very long, sharp fingernails when she said that>
"Uh...well...um...how...er...how much is it?"
"Well, MrTasty, it says here you owe us...<clicky-click-click>...$27.14."
Apparently, I'd gone to the hospital over the summer for some blood work, and one of the tests wasn't covered at 100%, and they'd never sent me a bill, or it was lost in the mail.
There I'd spent a good 45 minutes, sweating, thinking I was on the hook for that thousands of dollars of overcharges, imagining getting severely harassed for the next six months, having to hire a lawyer to fend them off, leaving me with destroyed credit, and I ended up owing them...$27, and legitimately at that.
And I had never seen one like this before (can't remember what's the model though). It's beautiful.
I've always wanted something like this but it's only now that I can afford it, I've been sleeping in a metal frame bed that's over 30 years old that I got second hand from my parents. I love how my bed looks now.
just so sorry you had to go through that on top of everything else!