Consumer complaint received 2021-07-23
Company: Procollect Services LLC
State: ND
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit

Complaint:
My complaint starts on XX/XX/XXXX when Procollect Allegedly served us with a summons. They did not follow proper Service of Procedure Laws of North Dakota. The Affidavit of Service States they serves XXXX XXXX XXXX name protected because he is a minor but can provide evidence of affidavit of service as well had documentation of the minors address of residence ), Co-Resident. 

XXXX XXXX does not reside at our address and was only there to bring our mail in/check on the house as we were in XXXX Arizona for treatment of my husbands XXXX XXXX and he was undergoing major surgies. Procollect then ILLEGALLY entered the affidavit of service containing this minors Full Name which is against North Dakota Law and is in violation of his privacy as supported by ND Rule 3.4 ( a ) ( 1 ) ( C ). 

Since we were never properly served we had no knowledge of the summons and a default judgement was entered against my husband and I on XX/XX/XXXX. Even then we werent aware of judgement as the papers from the Clerk of Court were sent to the wrong address as documented in the court documents I obtained myself when I went to court house on XX/XX/XXXX to verify judgement. It was not until my husbands wages started to be garnished in XX/XX/XXXX that we were even aware of said garnishment. Even then we disnt know of it because Procollect had a prior judgement for medical bills and we just assumed it was the remaining balance due of approximately {$900.00}. That was until we noticed the amount that had been/continued to be taken from my Husbands paychecks ( over {$3000.00} as of his last paycheck XX/XX/XXXX ). 

i discovered this was a different judgement when I checked our North Dakota Supreme Court website on XX/XX/XXXX and at that time is when we became aware there was in fact a 2nd judgement entered against us by Procollect. I contacted Procollect on Monday XX/XX/XXXX and requested all documents/alleged bills related to the current judgement, after having to make numerous calls and even being hung up on by XXXX the owner/Supervisor they stated my papers were ready to be picked up. 

The 1st set of papers I received were not the correct ones and I had to call back to request the correct documentation. After a few run arounds Procollect finally gave me the papers I needed. When going thru the alleged bills we were unknowingly sued for I realized not only were there bills Procollect never verified with me that I owed, there were bills that my husband had no legal obligation to ( medical bills from prior to marriage as XXXX is not a community property state and also medical bills from MY son, my husbands step son, that has a legal binding agreement for medical expenses in my divorce decree with my ex husband ), there were very large bills that hadn't even been processed by insurance and also bills from a XXXX XXXX account that should have been paid off but do to hospital error one for {$2100.00} didnt get ran thru insurance and my clear balance was unknowingly applied to. Because of Procollects negligence my husbands wages were not only being illegally garnished because of improper service in pursuant to XX/XX/XXXX rule 4, but he is also being garnished for unverified debts that he has no contractual nor legal responsibility for and also being garnished for bills we dont even owe! 
Upon pulling the court documents and going through the papers I not only discovered that we were improperly served but I also noticed that the amounts on the complaint DO NOT respresent the amounts entered to the court on the Signed Affidavit of verification, amount due and assignment. The complaint and the amount Procollect sued us for was Principal Amount {$3200.00} and fees of {$110.00} for a total amount of {$3300.00}. However the amount that was verifed in the 2 affidavits signed and filed by XXXX XXXX business manager, XXXX, was only {$2300.00}. An " error '' of {$900.00} MORE than the hospital stated what was owed. 
Because of the negligence of Procollect in this matter we as a family have suffered severely financially, emotionally and physically do to unneeded stress, loss of sleep and loss of much needed income to support our family and pay for our day to day needs. I have made the hospital and Procollect aware of the mistakes, the fact XXXX has no legal obligation to my bills prior to marriage nor is he responsible legally or contractually to his step sons medical bills and BOTH refuse to stop the illegal garnishment. 

XXXX also feels as though his privacy has been invaded because his employer was contacted and his wages were illegally taken for debts he didnt owe. I am more than willing to share the Dr Bills at a later time in a more secure way as those contain PHI I am not comfortable with sharing until needed. I will attached the affidavit of service but I will be crossing out the minors name but can also provide that in a more secure manner or you can look at it on ND supreme court website as it is currently public ...

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation