Hello everyone and greetings from California,
I've read through the threads and have found some answers to questions I had, and have also learned that Rickenbacker (www.scollect.com) isn't a favoured agency among the members here.
I understand that the statute of limitations for medical debt in California is four years. The "issue" I have been contacted about is apparently three years old. Rickenbacker is attempting to collect for a lab that processed a specimen for one of my wife's exams.
I am currently going through my back statements, and have contacted my medical insurance company for copies of records that they may have in regards to this matter.
Initially Rickenbacker identified my wife's OB/GYN as the one who turned the issue over to collections. I contacted my wife's OB/GYN, and they have no clue about this. They contacted Rickenbacker, and magically it was "The Lab" that turned us in.
Rickenbacker told the OB/GYN's staff that they had informed us that it was "The Lab", and never identified the OB/GYN. If that were true, why would I have contacted the OB/GYN? How would I have even known it was the OB/GYN?
Man, my wife has survived biopsies,exploratory surgeries, cancer, open heart surgery, gall bladder surgery. I can't even name all the doctors she has seen. Why the hell would I just pick out the OB/GYN if he hadn't been identified by name?
I contacted "The Lab" and they said that we did not pay on a charge from May 2005. I told them that I had never received a bill, and we compared mailing addresses, and apparently they have the correct address.
I asked "The Lab" if they had any proof of having mailed, or contacted me in any other manner in regards to this issue. They refused to answer when I asked if they have any phone records, mail return receipts, declined or refused mail receipts, or tracking numbers. Their silence implies to me that they have absolutely nothing to even prove that they contacted me, or attempted to contact me. For all I know, they just made up the bill out of thin air.
Rickenbacker's rep. "Tommy Banks", he refused to give his legal name, said that my wife's credit has already been impacted. He also refused to record the conversation and to allow me to speak to his supervisor. All he did was repeatedly demand payment ($15.00 over what the lab says I owe). He then hung up on me.
My most recent attempt to contact them resulted in having them simply hang up on me when I identified myself.
Do I get a lawyer and sue?
What's the next step?
Thanks for any input.
By the way, I pay my debts. All the lab had to do was contact me.
John
PS. Both my wife and I have extremely high credit ratings. That is why this is an issue for me. Family members have already told me to just pay the damn thing, and move on. It is a matter of principle for me, and I'll be damned if I let anyone ( who doesn't even have the stones to use his real name ) push me into admitting (by paying) that somehow I'm a deadbeat.

