Consumer complaint received 2022-12-29
Company: First Federal Credit Control, Inc.
State: FL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
I had an initial medical consult with my Doctor who was part of a practice that had dozens of doctors on XX/XX/XXXX and a minor procedure done by her at her office on XX/XX/XXXX. I had XXXX  insurance at the time, however, I planned to pay the entire bill out of pocket because it was under {$1000.00}. Weeks later I got a call from the billing dept. asking for payment and I told them to send me the bill to my mailing address since I did not receive mail at my home address ever ( lived there from XXXX ) and I have never been able to receive US mail there because the distance from the road to my house was too long for XXXX to XXXX and I could not put a mailbox by the road. Months went bye and I never received a bill. Since the doctor was a personal friend, I assumed it was taken care of between insurance and that she discounted the balance and never really thought about it again. 

XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I get notice from XXXX XXXX XXXX that my personal checking and savings accounts were closed by the bank for a reason they refused to tell me and that cashiers checks were being sent to my mailing address for the balances. Several days later, my personal credit card from XXXX was declined, I called to ask why, they said my auto payment from XXXX checking account bounced. I gave them new bank acct information and paid them from another bank. Then the credit card was released for use since the payment for the monthly balance went through immediately. Two days later the XXXX credit card ( mastercard ) was closed by XXXX and they sent me a letter saying I had derogatory information on my credit report and I could get a copy from XXXX to see what it was. 

On the Credit report it showed 4 separate collections entries from First Federal Credit Control from XXXX Ohio. All 4 were for non payment from XXXX ( the doctor 's office ) " Collection Reported on XX/XX/XXXX ; Assigned XX/XX/XXXX '' All 4 had the same dates associated with them. One was for {$71.00}, One was for {$130.00}, One was for {$52.00}, One was for {$99.00}. I called them yesterday on XX/XX/XXXX and asked what these were for and they said they were 4 different medical insurance claims and because they were actually {$99.00}, {$52.00}, {$130.00}, and {$70.00}, ( each had some # of cents ), they must have been insurance breakdown charges. I told them they had no right under Florida to create 4 separate collections entries on my credit report out of that bill. They said something to the effect of they have been operating for many decades and they would know if it was not in compliance with the law.

I also called the doctors office which is now under a different management company name but same billing department people. I spoke to them and told them they never sent me the bill because the person who I spoke to in XXXX was obviously lazy and didn't bother sending the bill to my mailing address as I requested. I told them i need a copy of the bill so I can see if it was the doctor 's office that improperly broke it into 4 separate bills ( I doubt ) or if it was the collection agency who uses that as a tactic to put more pressure ( 4 collection debts instead of 1 ), which ended up ruining my credit and causing a cascade of problems as all automatic ( ACH & electronic payments ) against both my checking account and my credit card account started failing in XXXX after they were closed. 

As of today, I still have never received my bill from my doctor 's office and I need it to determine who engaged in this predatory collection tactic in violation of Ohio ( ORC ) Section 1319.12 ( G ) - compliance with Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 91 Sta 874 ( 1977 ), 15 U.S.C. 1692 as amended - subsection 807 ( 2 ) A - " false or misleading representations '' regarding the " character '' of the debt. and subsection 808 ( 1 ) " Collection of Amount unless " such amount '' is expressly authorized by " the Agreement creating the debt or Permitted by Law '' Please help, my credit is destroyed because they never notified me.

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