Consumer complaint received 2020-07-31
Company: American Collections Enterprise, Inc.
State: DC
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Auto debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
This incident involves three companies : American Collections Enterprise , Inc. XXXX " ACEI '' ), XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( " XXXX '' ), and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( " XXXX  '' ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I was in an accident where a XXXX insured driver, XXXX XXXX XXXX, was at fault. XXXX claim number is XXXX. XXXX paid for my car to be fixed and I was given a car by XXXX to use while my vehicle was in the shop. After returning the rental car when my vehicle was fixed, XXXX was billed for the amount of {$470.00} for the 16 days the rental car was in use. XXXX decided to only pay {$290.00} for what they estimated should be the price for a rental car. XXXX  only billed XXXX and I never received nor heard anything again after dropping the rental car off from XXXX nor XXXX. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I noticed that a derogatory account showed up on my credit report. The derogatory account was for a collection agency, ACEI. After investigating with ACEI  on what this was for, I found out that this was for the XXXX  leasing for the accident that XXXX was supposed to cover. ACEI sent me the paper work they had on file. That was the first time I saw the bill to XXXX for {$470.00}. A person at XXXX noted on the bill that they only received {$290.00} from XXXX. There was renter information on the bill for myself but all of my contact information was wrong, but it was billed to XXXX 's address for for XXXX to pay. XXXX should have taken care of this since it was their insured driver at fault. 

I contacted XXXX to inform them that their bill was showing up on my credit report and asked why they didn't pay this bill and how to resolve the issue. They argued that they didn't owe the full amount because it exceeded the estimated 10 days to fix my vehicle. I told them that it was out of my control on how long it took to fix my vehicle and the rental car bill included weekends as well. They realized that they had made a mistake and thought the bill was for 16 business days instead of the actual 11. They agreed to pay XXXX an additional {$140.00}. 

I contacted XXXX to make sure that they received the additional payment. They did receive the {$140.00} from XXXX, but an outstanding amount of {$120.00} remained on the bill because of derogatory fees. I contacted XXXX again to explain that there was still a balance on the bill. They refused to pay it because they don't pay derogatory fees. I thought this was ridiculous because these are derogatory fees for their bill they ignored. This is a bill to XXXX that was never billed to me and is now showing on my credit report. 

I contacted ACEI and asked if they would drop the derogatory fees since my renter information was wrong on the bill, I was never contacted by XXXX nor XXXX, and I was not at fault for not receiving a bill that wasn't actually billed to me. They agreed to wave those fees but an amount of {$44.00} remained. By this time, I could not deal anymore with this matter considering the amount of time I had spent trying to fix this. I payed the remaining {$44.00} even though this was billed to XXXX and they should be the one 's to pay this amount. I never thought I would be in an accident where I was not at fault and have to fight so much with the other driver 's insurance agency. If XXXX is doing this to me, they are doing this to many people. 

If I was billed for a rental car, I would have paid it. XXXX was billed for this rental car. They should have paid their bill!

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation