October 22 I was the front seat passenger in a car accident. Two friends of mine and I were heading down a street and were coming up to the corner of another street, I looked up and saw that there was a white vehicle with an elderly gentleman and his wife in the left lane (This was a 4 lane road with a left turn lane). The elderly man was not in the oncoming Left turn lane and did not have a turn signal on, I looked down for a second and then back up and the man had turned left in front of the car I was in. My friend who was driving tried to avoid their passenger side door (Due to the elderly woman being in it) and turned her wheel slightly. We were driving about 45 MPH when we hit their car. I was the only one with a seat belt on, the driver and the backseat passenger were both unbelted. The backseat passenger had hit my head rest with his face. Many passersby saw the accident and called 911. I had no license or a car at the time of the accident. I went to the hospital on a stretcher by ambulance due to being 2 months pregnant and not being able to breathe. It was deduced that I had probably had hairline fractures on my ribcage that could not be seen by x-ray and my pregnancy seemed to be fine. I was released with pain killers later that night and told to lie down and rest. I was off work for a couple weeks. The week after the accident I had an ultrasound appointment to see if everything was fine. The Radiologist could not find the baby's heartbeat and so my doctor had another ultrasound scheduled the following week. I also attended that appointment and again they found no heartbeat and determined that I had had a miscarriage and my body was unaware of it.By Saturday of that week I had a DNC and that was the end of that. It was a very painful time and I do not like having the reminder of it.
Geico Direct was my friend's insurance company. The police had wrote the elderly gentleman a ticket for not using a turn signal, failure to yield for oncoming traffic and reckless driving (I believe). I do know that the accident was caused by him according to me and all the witnesses that were there or saw the accident. Geico Direct was courteous and paid all the claims as fast as possible. However, one slipped past them, a paperwork screw-up.
Fast forward about three years. The insurance company thought the male backseat passenger was the driver (Also my roommate). When in fact a female friend of mine was the driver and the person that was insured by Geico Direct. It took a while for the screw-up to get fixed as I did not know that the bill for $50.00 hadn't been paid to the ambulance company. It wasn't until a company called NCO Financial Systems Inc. Began sending me collections notices that I realized it hadn't been paid. Late 2003 I started getting bills from the company called NCO Financial Systems Inc. For the ambulence bill after I was able to get them to tell me what it was for. I called Geico Direct and NCO Financial Systems on several occasions to get the situation cleared up. NCO Financial Systems did not want to give the information to the insurance company that the insurance company needed to pay the claim. NCO Financial Systems wanted information that the insurance company could not give them. After playing phone tag between the two companies for a while, faxing them info (Because NCO Financial did not want to deal directly with the insurance company at that time and were absolutely rude every time I called, I was finally able to get them to send me paperwork to send to the insurance company (NCO claimed that they didn't have a fax machine), I had thought once again the claim was paid. Then a company called JBC Legal Group, P.C. Began sending me collections notices. On numerous occasions I called them and Geico, sometimes up to three times in a day I had dealt with them. JBC Legal Group, P.C. Had very rude people answering the phone, sometimes yelling at me when I tried to explain what the problem was.
By July 15 I had found out from Geico Direct that they had issued a check on 3/2/04 to NCO Financial Systems Inc. For $50.00, by 3/10/04 NCO Financial had endorsed the check, and by 3/12/04 the claim was paid according to Geico Direct. I was able to get a check number and such when JBC Legal Group made the claim that "The insurance company lied to you. The claim was not paid." (Those were the person's exact words). That was after I gave the check number to the representative on the phone, after many more phone calls between Geico and JBC Legal Group, I was able to get Geico Direct to send me 2 copies of the endorsed check that NCO Financial Systems Inc. Had received. On September 25 I was told by JBC Legal Group that all I needed to do was fax them the copy of the check when I received it.
On October 4 I had my father (Who has access to a fax machine) fax the copy of the check to the number JBC Legal Group gave to me for their fax with the proper Attn: to the supervisor and the proper account number upon the cover sheet for the fax. On October 25 I was informed by my step mother that JBC Legal Group had called their house (I have not lived with my Dad since before 1999 and when the claim was filed for the accident I had the same phone number I have now. I have no idea how they got my Dad's number to contact me). I called JBC Legal Group back to find out what they wanted (Once again assuming that it was finally taken care of). When I called the first woman I spoke to was rude, telling me that I hadn't paid the claim, when I told her that it was, she started to raise her voice and told me that no it hadn't because they never received a letter from NCO Financial. I asserted myself finally after being cut off by the woman numerous times and told her that I had sent a fax to one of their people and if they were losing paperwork or NCO was losing paperwork that they had a huge problem. She transferred me to the supervisor (The gentleman I put the fax Attention to). I was told by him that he never received the fax, that it Was not forwarded to him and that I needed to refax the information to them.
So on October 25 I had my father re-fax JBC Legal Group the copy of the endorsed check. I tried to call them before closing to make sure it was received and was told I had to call back in the morning. On October 26th I contacted NCO Financial and was told to fax them the copy of the endorsed check (Apparently they do have a fax machine). On October 26th I also called JBC four times and was told they hadn't gotten the fax and the supervisor I was dealing with was not at his desk. I am STILL trying to contact the guy after recieving a letter today (October 28) that is dated October 26 saying that I had made payment arrangements (I disputed this from day one of this ordeal because the insurance company was responsible for the bill) promised on 10/15/04 and that I failed to "honor" that obligation. This is after MONTHS of telling them that the amount had been paid to the company they are servicing the account for!
I don't know for sure if this breaks any laws let alone what I should do about it. I am to the point where I was thinking of getting a lawyer, this situation being brought up repeatedly always stresses me out. It is a constant reminder of what I lost at the time, I just want it over with. It would also be nice if they weren't threatening to screw with my credit. I want an apology letter from these Jerks! I need advice or help or something! Should I be getting a lawyer, send them a previously settled debt letter from http://www.debt-n-credit-letters.com/previously-settled-debt-letter.htm or just send them a scanned picture of my butt?:)
Dazed and Confused
Kentwood, Michigan
U.S.A.
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