Greetings,
On June I visited a hospital in Colorado. The doctor's office charged me later an amount of money separated from the hospital bill. The Health Insurance took about 6 months to process the claim and then on December finally sent me the E.O.B.
The hospital contacted me and so did the doctor's office. On late January I started to receive calls from Wakefield & Associates in Aurora, CO. This woman kept telling me that I had to pay the doctor's debt at that moment and that I had to call her back with my credit card information so I could pay the debt that very same day. She made it very clearly that I had to call back and pay that very same day.
I talked to my parents, and my father recommended me to talk to the doctor's office directly to figure out what was going on. I called the doctor's office the next day and they told me my account was still open and they had not put it through a collection agency yet. I gave them my address and they sent me a bill. The woman from the collection never called me back until February.
On late February the woman from Wakefield & Associates called me and told me again that I had to pay that very same day. She basically used the same story she had used the previous month, telling me I had to pay that very same day and that I had to call her back with my credit card information. She always calls around 5-7 pm Eastern time.
The previous month, on January I had given them my physical address in order for them to send me a bill. She said that the address I gave them was false and that it had come up in their data base as if it did not exist. I told her it was a valid physical address of a residence and that I needed evidence if they wanted me to pay to them the amount of money they were charging. Again, she said I had to call back and give her my credit card information and I had to pay that same day or in the following days because they were closing the year.
With the money I received from the tax refund in the beginning of March I paid the hospital and the doctor's office bill, both the same day. It is clear on my bank statement that the amount due to the doctor's office was charged by the doctor's office. Still, this collection agency called again today March 25 to charge me again for this amount I supposedly owed. It was around $160.
This woman asked me again why I had not called her the previous month, which I actually had done, but no one answered the phone, and that I needed to pay. I talked to her and asked her for her supervisor. I told them I had paid the amount to the doctor's office directly. They did not believe me and wanted proof.
I told them I could not give them any information because they said my address did not exist and I did not know if this was fraud or something else. I told them they had to contact the doctor's office directly to confirm I had paid. My father told me I should be careful because they may want my credit card account information from this doctor's office. They threaten me and said they will put this on my credit report if I don't pay.
Some things I find fishy on this situation is that this woman calls at the same time, always at the end of the month (since Jan. 2008) with the same story that I have to pay that same day or else. Also, she has not been able to send me a bill to my physical address claiming is false or that it does not exist.
Please, help me, what can I do? What is going on here? Is this fraud? I get really nervous with these calls and I'm not sure what's going on in here.
Thank you. I'll appreciate feedback.
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