Charles Barrowman

Review of AMCOL Systems

Beyond Inept.

Beyond Inept.
If you receive a bill from them DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY ASSUME THAT IT IS VALID. A long story below will explain.

I took my daughter to a doctor's office in June/July of 2017 when we went on vacation to Hilton Head. For the sake of round numbers, we will say the bill was $125.00. I forgot to pay the bill until December 2017.
The bill got reported to AMCOL for collections in January 2018 (after I'd paid). I never received any notice that the bill was sent to collections or that anything further had happened.
In May, 2018, AMCOL placed a derogatory mark on my credit for a "missed" payment/delinquent account.
In June 2018, we received our first call about the outstanding balance. When I called them back, they said I had a delinquent balance of $150 and proceeded to state that "they can accept payment over the phone." I think most people would have just paid then and there. Instead, I told them that I'd never received written notice as to the debt owed, which is required by the FDCPA, so I told them they needed to send me a written statement of the debt owed. I also advised them that it is a violation of Federal Law (FDCPA) to report against credit without such a written notice so they needed to remove the mark from my credit before I filed a claim against them (and the very contritely did so).
When I received the invoice in the mail (because apparently they don't realize that there are faster ways to send things in the 21st century), the invoice was two pages. The first was a cover letter stating the debt owed was $150 ($25 as a collection fee). Again, I think most people would have just paid the bill then and there. However, The second page was the actual invoice from the doctor's office showing where I'd made the payment of $125. I verified this against my bank statements. However, when I called AMCOL, they needed me to send them a copy of the invoice they sent me, because apparently they can't even access their own systems. For good measure, I sent them a copy of my bank statement (redacted) showing when the payment was made. They said they'd investigate. I asked them to call me back when the investigation was complete. This was all in about July 2018. They said "well, you'll only receive a call back if there is a problem."
Fast forward to months after July 2018, when I've not been contacted again. I assume it is all taken care of. Makes sense, right?
Wrong.
In February 2019, I receive another bill, stating there is an outstanding bill of $25.00. The $25.00 is attributable to the collections fee for the account... you know, the one that never should have been sent to collections. I then have to advise them that they have documentation in their system showing the amounts are not owed. Apparently they found the documents, because on the phone they finally state that they are making the adjustment to my account to zero it out.
I'm now praying that they did their job correctly (finally) so that I don't have to deal with this any more. It is asinine that I'm dealing with their ineptitude over a year after I paid a bill.

Again, DO NOT ASSUME THE INVOICE IS CORRECT. Check your records.