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Merchants' Credit Guide ripoff attempt, belligerent, verbally abusive, Chicago Illinois
Hi,
I received a letter October 24, 2005 from Ken Hughes, Collection Agency Representative for Merchants' Credit Guide Co , 223 W. Jackson Blvd Chicago, IL 60606 (also PO Box 18053 Hauppauge, NY 11788-8853), about a debt I do not owe.
I called the phone number listed, 888-249-1033, to find out what this letter was and I was told it was for a hospital bill I had incurred 12/25/00. I told them I had never been in the hospital on Christmas Day. The man that answered the phone became verbally abusive toward me almost immediately. He continuously interrupted me, each time I tried to explain, he yelled at me, he insulted me and then he became belligerent and said, "What? do you think we just pulled your SS# and Birthdate out of the air"? I told him no I didn't and before I could get another word out he had interrupted me and started yelling at me again. I finally raised my voice enough to be heard over his bellowing and told him "if you would shut up and listen for a minute I am trying to tell you this is NOT my bill." At that point he replied, "Oh no! you are not going to tell me to shut up, I will just mark this as refuses to pay and turn it in on your credit report", then he hung up on me.
I called again and a woman answered, when I tried to give her my file # she sarcastically said, "I have it." I tried to explain to her that this was NOT my bill. At first she seemed as though she was listening as I tried to explain that I have NEVER been in the hospital on Christmas Day. Then she told me that it was a bill where I had brought "Danny" to the hospital. I told her I did not know anyone named Danny. This is where she started raising her voice and sounded as though she was quite aggitated and became extremely rude and told me that I was going to have to write a letter of dispute and PROVE this was not MY bill. She also said "if this is NOT your bill then why did your insurance company pay off. I told her that MY insurance company did NOT pay off because it was NOT my bill and I told her I was not going to write a letter of dispute because I pay all of my bills and I was not going to exhaust any further effort to PROVE this wasn't my bill and that they were going to have to exhaust their resources and effort to PROVE that this is my bill. She then told me, "I have your credit report right here in front of me and you do NOT pay your bills. I told her "Lady, IF you had MY credit report you would know that I DO pay all my bills so now I KNOW that you do NOT have MY credit report. She became very aggitated with me then and she began to scream into the phone about how sorry my credit was and that she was NOT going to have the "likes" of me calling her a liar! Instead of hanging up on me she put me on hold. I hung up and called the hospital I supposedly visited that Christmas Day only for them to tell me that there was no record of me ever being there on Christmas Day of ANY year.
After that I came to my computer to look up this company because I wanted to get further information and register a complaint with them. That's when I found this site and I'm glad I did. Now I know I could have became another victim of this SCAM. Why is this kind of company allowed to exist?
PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS COMPANY GET AWAY WITH THIS ANY LONGER. There is no telling how many people have been duped into sending money to this company! I am appauled at the behavior of these two individuals but I am more shocked at a company that would condone this type of action.
Better to put your trust in God than to put your trust in man Psalms
Shelia
Jackson, Georgia
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Giselle
Raleigh,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
Should never call these people!
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, October 26, 2005
You shouldn't call these people. Everything should be in writing. You should dispute the debt in writing and tell them they need to provide validation of debt. In other words, they need to prove that you do indeed owe the money they say you owe. Always send correspondence via a trackable method so that they cannot claim they didn't receive your letter. Please note: I'm not an attorney and only an attorney can give you legal advice. I'm just passing along the suggestions that were given to me when I had to deal with a similar situation.