Consumer complaint received 2022-04-13
Company: TekCollect Inc.
State: PA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive notice of right to dispute

Complaint:
I am subscriber of dental insurance, in XX/XX/XXXX adult daughter was pushed into getting work done on last days of the year because they thought she had unused benefits ( $ $ ) in her dental plan, she was told that services would be paid by insurance. At dental office, person who verifies insurance was not in and no one ran the pre certification resulting in them billing daughter for full amount. Tried to work this out with dental office, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, PA but to no avail. Filed complaint with FTC regarding the handling by dental office. Fast forward to XXXX, Bank notified me that there was a collections filing in my name ( subscriber ) that brought down credit score to XXXX 's was XXXX. We received nothing from collections and did not know what it was for. The bank only had collection company name TEK Collect. My wife XXXX  the name and called the number. It was the dental office bill of my adult daughter that has been in dispute with dental office for years. We received nothing from dental group saying to was going to collections nor received anything from this collection agency and only found out because bank on XX/XX/XXXX saw it on my ( subscribers ) credit report. Report from bank shows opened on XX/XX/XXXX. Because bank was on us to get this fixed my wife she called collection people and informed them that this was reported on subscribers credit for adult child. Later we find out that the dental office was not allowed to go after subscriber for adult child but they did. At first we could not remember all the details to this mess because it was years ago, but after going through e mails and files these last weeks, we uncovered the full story. Collection people told my wife she needs to go to a bank that day and pay the full amount and they will remove it from the credit agencies but she needs to wire the money that day. My wife felt very uncomfortable with this tactic, and not even receiving a letter from TEK, she called dental office, no one returned call and after many attempts from us someone finally called my wife who gave them an earful. We notified TEK on XX/XX/XXXX after speaking with them and getting no where with this dental office low level employees. We XX/XX/XXXX e mailed XXXX XXXX from TEK COLLECTIONS, on XX/XX/XXXX that we have been advised that they need to validate the debt, told them again this was not a debt of subscriber and it has been in dispute with dental office for years and should not have been filed under subscribers name. We asked them to explain why a detailed statement was never sent from Dental office and why the EOB 's do not match what they did send and why they did not cash check that was sent to them years ago, we also asked them for a copy of the signed agreement that they went over with adult daughter at her visit. We asked that it be removed from collections until this billing dispute is resolved. We understand that the credit bureaus wait 180 days before listing medical debt on credit reports. So we do not even know how long collections had this before notifying the bureaus for we have received nothing, one would think a certified letter is warranted for something as severe as this matter resulting in a major hit to a credit report. And almost a month later still have not received anything in writing from collection company. Collection company said to open junk mail because their bills look like junk mail. Like are you kidding me.

I need them to remove account from collections and transfer back to dental office. We need dental office to honor their written reduced amount they will accept even though my daughter feels it is not correct and she was pushed into the services. Thankfully, We no longer receive calls from collection company on cell or at work because we informed the debt collector that we filed a complaint with the PA Attorney General Office. As of yesterday it has NOT been REMOVED from the credit report.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation