Consumer complaint received 2015-08-03
Product: Debt collection — Medical
Issue: Disclosure verification of debt — Right to dispute notice not received
Company: Allied Collection Services, Inc. (Nevada) (NV)

My wife gave birth to our son in XXXX, 2014, which was a high risk procedure and led to significant expense. We received numerous medical bills and thought we had paid all of them. However, XXXX remained for original creditor, XXXX XXXX, MD, which went to collections in XXXX 2014. The original balance was {$600.00}. My wife was contacted by the debt collection agency, Allied Collection Services, in XXXX, and they advised her that, unless she went into their office within 2 days, they would be forced to take legal action against her. She was understandably upset, so she went into their office, infant in tow, where they convinced her to sign several forms, including setting up a payment plan. She setup the payment auto-debit, according to their terms as they discussed in the office, and they withdrew a couple payments. However, in or around XXXX 2014, Allied filed suit and obtained a judgment against her, claiming she had not honored the terms of the payment arrangement. Upon review of the payment documentation, they required an initial payment of {$50.00} and subsequent payments of {$25.00} per month. My wife was led to believe that she only needed to setup the auto-debit for {$25.00} per month so she " missed '' the first payment. Upon securing judgment against my wife, Allied Collection Services secured a wage garnishment order against me as well. Upon being advised by my employer of the wage garnishment, my wife contacted Allied Collection Services to attempt to resolve the matter, but they refused to offer any reasonable alternatives ( other than payment in full along with significant additional collection costs ). My wages were garnished until XXXX 2015, at significantly more than {$25.00} a month. At no time did Allied Collection Services ever attempt to contact me prior to, during, or after garnishing my wages, which seemed like a fairly straightforward and simple thing to do. Nevertheless, I did not believe I had any option and allowed the garnishment to proceed. Upon completion, they secured enough money to nearly double the original debt. Further, although Allied had never made any contact with me, or attempted to do so that I am aware, they placed a derogatory tradeline in my credit file, the only such derogatory information in my credit report, and significantly impacting my credit for the next 7 years. I feel it is unconscionable that they were allowed to do as much as they did without first attempting to contact me. It was unconscionable that they created such a false sense of urgency for my wife when they knew full well that they could arrange a payment plan with her over the phone. It was unconscionable that they were so aggressive, so quickly after receiving the collection account, and that they said XXXX thing about the payment plan requirements but embedded different information in the fine print of the documents they pressured my wife to sign. And it is preposterous that I was forced to pay nearly double the original debt, which had not even been with them for 1 month at the time they secured judgment.