letter to a lawyer

A few years ago I leaned back in my chair, and the chair broke and I smacked my head on the floor, I had some x-rays, saw a doctor and I submitted the bills to workers comp. At the same time I joined the diabetes club and had some test done and something happened with the billing and the charges got comingled, so I wrote a couple of letters and some got paid and some didn’t. A lot of the charges are of the 8.99 variety which add up, and the insurance industry is so screwed up, one office visit can generate 4-5 letters of service and separate charges. So I got a letter from a collection agency asking for 108.51 but no explanation, I called and left a message, got a call back and it got ugly and she hung up on me so I sent the following letter, when I write letters of protest they are always at least 1000 words, and written in an annoying manner, so all punctuation and grammar is intentional. enjoy






law offices of lawyer dude
11111 main street
suite 6079
city


notation: claim of diagonstic

march 23, 2011

dear Mr. lawyer dude

TO BEGIN WITH I RESPECTFULLY DISPUTE THE CHARGES AS LEGITIMATE.

i received letter (see attached) on march 18th respectfully submitted from a legal assistant MS collector, it is in regard to a claim in the amount of 108.51 from diagnostics, and the amount was not itemized; i had a incident a few years ago that involved workers comp, i was also having some tests done at the same time and some of the billing got compiled together, as all procedures were done by the same hospital- --------, and the doctors that provide the service -------partners.

i called on saturday/sunday and left a message at the number 999-999-9999 and dutifully entered in the extension number provided 9999, and left a brief message stating that due to my ongoing concern with workers comp if eye cannot verify what the claim is for eye cannot pay.

at 10:32 am mdt, monday march 23, 2011 i received a phone call presumably from your associate the legal assistant a.k.a MS collector, i cannot be sure because I had a hard time hearing what she was saying and i believe she had a hard time hearing what I was saying, a bad connection is the likely problem and maybe part of the problem i which I found a little disturbing and I will follow up with, which could have been avoided, but unlikely as our conversation turned ugly rather quickly, I informed her that I did not have the letter in front of me, and i had to repeat this a few times.

there was no invoice attached or itemized statement detailing what the alleged debt is, since (as I have previously stated there is a worker’s comp dispute that involved the mixing of charges for the workplace incident and some other health related charges) i could not tell what the charges are for I am not in a position to tell what is legitimately mine and what should be handled by the good people at our human resources department. i tried to explain this to your associate who I believe to be a female, and if I am incorrect please give my most sincerest of apologies, but she appeared to focus on payment, which I understand, your business is collections, you get assigned debt from presumably all fields, endeavors and associations , and you collect a portion of the proceeds and everybody wins-the creditor gets the majority of the claim, the debtor pays what is owed, and you collect your fee, i understand this, but apparently your associate chose to speak to me as you would a ill tempered child, and frequently spoke over me, the bad connection notwithstanding, led to a poor communication and frankly let to hard feelings on my part; when i asked for an invoice she set her sail for insisting that I call the aforementioned diagnostics, which I found troubling as i have dealt with the workers comp claims and in every instance was sent a detailed invoice which I either took to the good people of our human resources department to take care of, or cut a check; when I pressed for an invoice your associate claimed that due to patient privacy she could not, but I was free to call the creditor; this was insulting as her demeanor was most unprofessional, but i’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she (again assuming I was speaking to a female) may have had a troubling or insulting call prior to her contacting me.

i said if i cannot determine the nature of the claim, then I have no choice to dispute the claim, she immediately went into lawyer mode and alleged i was not making an sense as she said “how can you dispute a charge when you don’t know what it is”, now re-read that again and let it sit in, if you went to a restaurant, had a good meal, and got a non-itemized bill for $108.51, you would naturally ask for a detailed list of what the charges are for; i countered the logical counter retort essentially inquiring, how can i be expected to pay anything when I don’t know what the claim is for, she countered again she could not tell me what the charges are for, and I told her I’ve only gone to _________ hospital and clinics and she said that I didn’t understand that if a hospital sends out blood work and independent lab will do the work, and I asked is this for blood work, (wondering if she can’t tell me what the charges are for is the reference to blood work is an example or if she can tell me what the charges are for and doesn’t want the trouble of getting the invoice out to me which is either an example of laziness, company policy, incompetence, poor customer service cause why do the work when you can get someone else to do it, or a combination of all of the above) she told me that she is trying to give me the number to diagnostics which is unacceptable from my position because it appears to me she is only interested in collecting and not determining if it is legitimate because i suppose if the claim is not valid, your company collects nothing; we continued to go in circles I asked her for her name and she retorted “it’s in the letter sir” which was confusing to me as we had already established that I did not have the letter in front of me, she abruptly hung up on me which I find to be demeaning as you hang up on your high school girlfriend when she tells you the limo you want to get isn’t big enough, or if someone becomes abusive, no good bye, no “good day sir” no “i can’t continue in this manner if you want to dispute the claim kindly send a letter”; I cannot emphasize enough how unprofessional I found your associate to be and hanging up me is frankly childish.

i am going to fax this letter today along with the letter i received and I will follow up with mailing this taking advantage of the good people at the US post office confirmation technology, furthermore I do not want any verbal communication as it would be pointless and counterproductive , when i receive an invoice I can make a educated informed decision on if the claim goes to the good people at our human resource department of if I need to cut a check, further i want no verbal contact with this person as i will return the favor and hang up on her, i’m done with her, apology not needed nor probably warranted from her view point, listen to the tape.

once again I I RESPECTFULLY DISPUTE THE CHARGES AS LEGITIMATE DUE TO LACK OF ITEMIZATION



respectfully submitted this day march 23, 2011