Jun 15, 2010
After doing a google search of their number and finding this forum, I called them back. They were pretty rude, told me how much I supposedly owed and who supposedly provided the service, but I had to ask for the date of service. After hearing it was for August of last year, I remembered that I had received an MRI at Sentara Obici but I also remembered receiving a bill from them. When I asked the credit collector's representative again about who they were collecting for, they told me Suffolk Radiology, but they refused to provide a phone number for me to reach the radiology group. When they rudely told me that I had failed to respond to bills sent by both Suffolk Radiology and the R & B Corp., I asked where they had sent them. Lo and behold, they were sending them to an address that was similar to mine, but that doesn't even exist in our town - we all know how the mail carrier doesn't usually figure this out and get it to the right place anyway.
So, off I go to google Suffolk Radiology and talk to them. The first thing they asked for was my account number. How was I to know, I had NEVER received a bill from them. Got past that and was told that I had failed to respond to three bills that had been mailed to me and that they were forced to send the bill to collections. When i told them they had the wrong address, they said "you do live at ***, don't you". I said no and was then asked when I had moved. I told them I had lived at the address since April of 2004 and that I hadn't had problems receiving bills from the hospital and other billers. She quickly checked my name in the Obici hospital database and sweetly said "Oh, is it xxxx?" I responded yes, and she said she would have the bill sent back from collections. Now, what about my credit report though??? I'm going to have to monitor it and get an attorney involved to write a nasty-gram to all concerned to clear it up.
This could have been avoided by Suffolk Radiology IF:
1. they had checked the Obici database after no response from my second billing.
2. they had simply called me to verify I was receiving their bills.
3. they could have even done looked at the local phone book!
It all boils down to common courtesy on their part!