Consumer complaint received 2017-06-29
Company: Credit Service Company, INC
State: CO
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
This is a collection scam and mail fraud, 18 USC Sec. 1341. All documentation available upon request. This is how the scam works with details specific to me : XXXX, a hospital issued a medical for just over {$600.00} in XX/XX/XXXX. As I was late, they would not take credit card payment over the phone in XX/XX/XXXX. Nor would they give me the collection agency it went to. I kept calling back to get the names of all the agencies the hospital employs. I tracked down CREDIT SVC CO, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, CO XXXX who stated an amount due of just over {$600.00} the same amount as the hospital bill. After much drama they received a payment over the phone. They then received payment by mail - but failed to issue any bills with the updated balance due! From the time they were first contacted to receive payment, Credit Service Co - NEVER issued a bill i.e., {$600.00} ; or {$600.00} minus payments made. ANOTHER credit agency " XXXX '' agency thereafter billed for {$33.00} - so it would seem that that is the same company that is CALLING for payments, Credit Service Company. So, ( as opposed to CSC ) has now been overpaid, but with no refunds of statements EITHER, such as " credit, '' or paid in full. <P/>By XX/XX/XXXX, Credit Service Company has STILL had not issued a bill. Without a bill there is no legal standing. Instead, they repeatedly called but would not identify who they were ; but, rather, demanded to know who they were speaking with and if I would give a birthdate and/ or social security number - over the phone, without identifying themselves. No one gives that information over the phone to an unidentified caller. Purportedly, privacy laws prevent them - but it works both ways and there is no prohibition to identifying themselves. By XX/XX/XXXX over {$200.00} in payments had been made toward the {$600.00} medical bill ; with no bill issued or credited amounts. Rather, without written notice or to my knowledge, TWO DAYS IN ADVANCE ( XX/XX/XXXX ) of any ( unrecognizable ) bills, Credit Service Co reported not XXXX - but XXXX " unpaid bills {$110.00} ; {$110.00} ; {$110.00} ; {$150.00} ; and {$79.00} to XXXX and XXXX '' in various and duplicates but each an unrecognizable amount of " non-payment '' and each separate bill is a number of violations of FDCPA. The sum total is more than what is due after deducting payments ; but, the sum total is also less than the original hospital bill - IF THAT IS WHAT THESE BILLS WERE FOR! Credit Service Company on XX/XX/XXXX, TWO days AFTER reporting " non-payment '' to the credit bureaus, Credit Service Company THEN issued multiple invoices in these same unrecognizable amounts as above ; each in violation of FDCPA, in that there is no substantiation of the amount, no breakdown or explanation, and NO REFLECTION OF PAYMENTS, IF this is indeed relative to XXXX 's bill - but it violates FDCPA amongst other things that I should have to guess. These amounts appear then as random demands made through U.S. mails and which I received in XX/XX/XXXX. UTTERLY CONFUSED, I continued to pay on my now {$400.00} medical bill ACCORDING TO WHAT I HAD been told on the phone in XX/XX/XXXX by Credit Service Company - without issuance of any cognizable bill OR ANY bill EVER issued by Credit Service Company, I paid yet another {$50.00} with M.O. XXXX dated XX/XX/XXXX which was received and cashed by Credit Service Company. In XX/XX/XXXX, there were NO further or other bills issued by Credit Service Company and the money order was not returned. Nor, in XX/XX/XXXX. So, I sent another {$50.00} also by money order. And, another. The XXXX bill should be down to about {$150.00} but one never knows does one - and that is the scam : Under Colorado 's Consumer Protection Act, all terms and conditions have to be made up front. So, if the original hospital bill is say, {$500.00} - than however many items, if any, are on that bill - it still has to be on that one bill. As is basic rule of all there is no legal standing to collect without issuance of a bill ; and that bill must meet the requirements of FDCPA. By collecting over the phone, the Credit Service Company keeps the person in the dark as to what they owe, and for what and what payments have been credited to their account. ALSO, and I have since heard this from many, once the bill looks like it is paid or being paid they issue all these multiple, unrecognizable and legally meaningless bills that ca n't be disputed because they never existed. To dispute these out of the blue " issuance '' gives the bills credence - AND monies are paid ALL OVER AGAIN - without the original bill being paid. BECAUSE THESE ARE MEDICAL BILLS, CREDIT SERVICE COMPANY HAS ALL PERSONAL IDENTITY INFORMATION, which they then use to violate rights by then illicitly taking and using that identity information to make false reports to the credit bureaus - not ONE BILL but all these MULTIPLE LITTLE bills, thus multiple hits on a person 's credit report - and the only way a to remove these " negatives '' is to pay EACH, for whatever they are ( extortion ), KNOWING that these amounts are not owed and or have been paid completely, or even substantially. At best it is knowingly double billing through use of U.S. mails, making unsubstantiated monetary demands through u.s. mails ; knowingly issuing false credit reports and knowingly issuing false credit reports to obtain random sums.

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