Consumer complaint received 2021-11-16
Company: USCB, Inc.
State: VA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX sent bills that they never notified me of to their debt collection agency USCB America. USCB America made zero attempts to call me and sent me a letter in the mail, and then claimed over the phone that mail is the only way they do notifications of debt. Upon receipt of the letter, their offices were closed for the weekend and I was referred to a voicemail box to leave a message. In response, I received a phone call on Tuesday from a robot claiming to be from that person 's office simply restating that I have a debt and need to call the same number I tried to call before which also directly contradicts their statement that they only do business through mail and not phonecalls. 

The billing notification from USCB America was dated XX/XX/2021. It was received on XX/XX/2021 after their business hours had ended for the weekend. These types of delays in our mail have been extremely common during the pandemic and I have received letters and packages as much as a month or more later than their post date. 

I was incapable of paying the bill when it arrived because their online payment system is intentionally obtuse. They charge each line item to a different account number and give XXXX option to pay it all in a lump sum online. I received a list of charges under different account numbers that all would have had to be paid separately on their form, until it reached a line that simply said " Additional '' with no account number, as well as a line that said Interest with no account number as well so even if I paid the amounts listed with account numbers there was still another {$94.00} and {$4.00} that I could not pay online and would continue to accrue interest until their offices open. 

On the initial communication from USCB America, they were charging me {$4.00} for interest that had accrued from before they had notified me of the bill, and then charged additional interest EACH DAY after before I had received notification of the bill. 

I asked for them to waive the interest that had accrued due to the late arrival of the letter, and difficulties with their website and they refused, simply restating that interest accumulates each day it is unpaid. The person over the phone directly told me I had to pay each item separately if I wanted to use the website. 

When I asked for a full list of the account numbers and charges, they listed off a list of accounts and charges that drastically differed from what was in the letter. When I asked about the discrepancy, the agent went silent and told me that interest would accrue if I did not pay it today. None of the account numbers were the same and the values did not line up with anything listed on the line item of the letter sent to me. 

I was not notified of what interest rate I was supposedly paying, when it started to accumulate interest, or how much interest would accrue if I attempted to resolve these issues and wound up paying the debt to get them to leave me alone. This behavior is unethical and clearly designed to forcibly add interest that is impossible to avoid onto the bill for their own profit.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation