Consumer complaint received 2018-03-08
Company: Grant Mercantile Agency
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
Back in XX/XX/XXXX, I got XXXX XXXX. It showed that I had a collection of {$330.00} for medical place. I assumed it was the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX because I had gotten XXXX XXXX through them XX/XX/XXXX. That was the date of the XXXX. It took 2 years of exams beforehand to actually do the XXXX so it is possible that I had an unpaid bill. Plus at the time my mom or the health insurance that I had were covering all my medical costs. 

Then I received a letter in the mail saying that I had an unpaid bill so I call the number and they said that I owed around {$650.00}. It didnt match the XXXX XXXX collection. Then I realized later that they were two different medical bills. The one on XXXX XXXX was actually through the Grant Mercantile Agency on behalf of the XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX. Like before, I didnt even know that I owed them money, because I had only visited this place once and I thought that the insurance had taken care of it. I never received a phone call or a bill or an email about the bill. If it had been sent to my mom, she would have taken care of it or I would know about it. 

Anyways, I called the number XXXX XXXX provide for the Grant Mercantile Agency around the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX and they claimed that I owed {$330.00}. The principle was {$250.00} and the interest was {$79.00}. I was only making close to {$800.00} a month at the time so I asked if I could make {$25.00} payments. They agreed and told me that I could only pay by check. I received the bill around XXXX XXXX. The bill was due XX/XX/XXXX so I wrote the check and mailed it immediately. Everything was fine until a received a bill around the 2nd week of XX/XX/XXXX for {$330.00} saying that they were going to revoke the payment agreement if I didnt pay them in 5 days. 

I called them and I was extremely upset. Then the lady I was talking to hung up on me. Then I asked why did you hang up on me? Then she said you shouldnt have yelled at me. Then I really did start yelling. She claimed that they never received a check. We went back and forth for a very long time before I started having a XXXX XXXX and I had to have my boyfriend speak to them in proxy. They told him that I should have paid online when they told me that I had to pay by check. He wrote down the directions they gave him to pay online. They said it wouldnt be due until XX/XX/XXXX. 

I tried to pay somewhere around XX/XX/XXXX. Their website was very confusing. It kept glitching. I even had to submit the form twice. Because them never receiving my check was fishy, I took a couple of snap shots of it. I paid the {$25.00} payment and was done. Never going to speak to them again! 

XX/XX/XXXX, I was put {$5.00} under in my bank account. This is how : I had {$28.00} in my account at the time. Grant Mercantile Agency charged me for {$330.00}. Then my bank charged me {$34.00} for the bounced fee which put me at - {$5.00} in my account. My bank was nice enough to wave the fee after I explained what happened. 

So I called the Grant Mercantile Agency the same day. They wouldnt listen to me at all. Anytime I tried to tell them what happened they wouldnt let me talk and would say that Im making things up so I can get out of paying and that I was just XXXX. I got to the point where I had a XXXX XXXX XXXX   where I dropped my phone and just curled into a ball in tears. My boyfriend took the phone and talked to them. Then I said screamed that I have proof XXXX! Because she wasnt listening to my boyfriend either. Then they gave us an email to send it to so I sent the photos and then they claimed that they were to blurry to see so we were obviously lying. Then I said I wasnt going to pay them anything until I had the full amount. 

Then XX/XX/XXXX, I got my tax return and decided to take care of the fee once and for all. I looked on my XXXX XXXX for the collection number and this time it said that I owed them {$1300.00}! Thats more than {$1000.00} extra! I kept telling her that I wasnt going to paying that and she would barely let me speak. She kept saying that I was vulgar and my check was invalid. I had to yell shut up like 10 times for her to let me finish what I had to say. I told her that she said that they had never received a check. I told her to remove the fees or they wouldnt get one cent out of me. Finally, the lady said that if I wanted the fees removed that I would have to talk to the supervisor on Monday. I hung up on her because this whole thing has been ridiculous. 

Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, I looked at the reviews for Grant Mercantile Agency. It turns out that they are pulling the same type of issues on several people, not just me. Someone said that I should report it. So I havent even called them back yet. I decided to report it instead.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation