I just want to...

...give a single finger salute to the crooks over at NCL Financial. They have made my life a nightmare for more than 3 months.

It all started back in June when I went to the emergency room in Las Vegas with pneumonia/bronchitis. I was on vacation and extremely ill, so ill, that my mom found it necessary to take me to the ER. Beginning in early August the bills began to roll in. There were bills from the nurse on duty, bills for the antibiotics they administered via a shot in the butt (ow), bills for the anesthetics prior to the shot in the butt, bills for breathing treatments, and bills for the specialist doctor. In any regard, knowing I had received treatment and it was considered out of network by my insurance, I paid whatever bill came my way. Or so I thought.

One day early in September, I received a call on my cell phone from a 1-800 number. There was a voicemail from an automated system stating that they were attempting to collect a debt and that I needed to call back right away with a specific case number. Seeing as how it was a generic message and that I knew I always paid all my bills, I ignored it. Well, unfortunately the calls kept coming. They were coming 2-3 times per week at first and then it got to be almost every day. Even on the weekend! For several weeks straight I was getting a call at 6:03am on Sunday mornings. Gee, these people really know how to piss someone off.

I finally called them back early one morning and to my surprise, I was put on hold for 10 minutes which turned to 20 minutes, then 30, then 45! I hung up disgusted. The calls kept coming. It made no difference if you picked up the call because it was always the same automated system. I tried calling again later that week and same thing. Put on hold for 25 minutes. It was so aggravating! Finally in October, I called back again and this time I was passed from operator to operator until FINALLY someone took my call. I did not want to give them any personal information, but before I could even speak, they addressed me by name. Apparently they had caller ID. The operator said that I had an outstanding bill for $26.62 from the ER which I never paid and now they were going to damage my credit that I had worked so hard to build if I didn't pay them. Were they threatening me? I told them that I had NEVER received a bill and if I had, I certainly would have paid it. I demanded that they send a bill in the mail and I would pay it if it was legit. I made them confirm my address. The operator agreed and then hung up on me!

Fast forward a few weeks. I did some research online and found that this outfit is extremely shady (changing their phone numbers all the time) and often try to collect debts well outside the statute of limitations. In case you aren't familiar, the way debt collectors usually work is that they "buy" debt from creditors for a fraction of what the debt is worth and then do everything they can to collect because every penny above what they paid for the debt is pure profit.

Anyway, more than 4 weeks went by and I never got anything in the mail. No calls, nothing. I thought the nightmare was over. Until last week. The dreaded calls started up again nearly everyday. It is so FRUSTRATING to see that 1-800 number pop up on the phone. It's like a predator slowing stalking you. So last Tuesday I called them back. This time I was really irate. The person on the phone was accusing me of being a deadbeat and they were going to do everything they could to "ruin my financial future and prevent me from ever getting a mortgage." I stated (again) that I have never gotten anything in the mail. The guy at x2225 said that they had sent me three bills and obviously I was not going to pay so they were going to start charging fees if I didn't pay up. Of course I was not going to give these crooks a credit card number, so I demanded that another bill be sent out. He told me that they had sent one out on November 10th. Well this was the 11th and mail doesn't appear in my box by magic dumbass. I made him confirm my address and as it turns out, he didn't have my apartment number.

So today I got a bill in the mail from them dated the 12th (liars) and their cover letter had my correct address, but the actual bill did not have my apartment number. It's kind of hard to pay something that isn't addressed correctly, isn't it?  Stupid bastards. Thanks for making my life miserable the past few months for no reason. Thanks for making me spend extra money on fraud protection and checking my credit reports and FICO scores. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. I will be sending a money order tomorrow (no personal checks Suze Orman says) and hopefully this nightmare will be over for good.