Quote:
Originally Posted by IROC
Last summer my primary care physician had me wear a heart monitor to look for a potential arrhythmias (didn't find anything). Anyway, the device prescribed by my doctor was mailed to me by a third-party medical device company, I wore it for a month (that was fun) and then per their instructions I mailed the device back to the company using the bag/printed mailing label included in the initial shipment to me.
Simple, right?
About a month after I mailed it back, I receive a letter in the mail from the medical device company telling me that this was their second attempt to contact me as I had not returned the device and that if I did not return it immediately, they would turn the issue over to a collection agency and I would be billed for $1500. I had never gotten a "first" attempt to contact me on this.
I immediately call the medical device company and tell them that I mailed it back per the instructions a month before. The woman on the phone asked me some questions, (did I use the included return envelope, did I take it directly to a US Post Office, etc. - which I did on both accounts) and she said that "these things happen" and that she was going to mark this as "lost in transit". I asked her if there was anything else I needed to do and she said no, that I was "good to go".
Fast forward another month and I get a letter (last Friday) from the collections agency saying I owe $1500 for not returning the device!!! I call the collections agency and tell them the story and they agree to put the collection on hold for 14 days for me to contact the medical device company and get it sorted out.
I call the medical device company and tell them the story again and they claim they have no record of my previous conversation where they told me they were going to declare it "lost in transit", but that they would look into it and promised to call me back the next day.
They never called back and now I am having trouble getting back in touch with them (their website appears to be down). While searching online for contact information for this medical device company, I found many complaints from people experiencing the same thing I am (they mail the device back, the company says they never receive it and then they turn it over to collections).
I am still holding out that the medical device company will do the right thing, but what are my legal options here? I didn't do anything wrong, but can't prove that?
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Iffn it were me, I'd contact the office of my my local congress-type person.
You'd be surprised how many phone calls and letters have come out of my representative's office on my behalf, and how effective they are.
One time I even got the DMV spanked and apologizing. it was beautiful.
They get a staff flunky to threaten the bad guys, the bad guys fall in line, and the politician gets a cheeep vote for life. Win win.
Note it helps if they have your name on file in their active donations list.
best investment ever.