Merchants' Credit Guide Company

The soul purpose of a collection agency is to make calls and or send out bills to collect balance not paid by patientsIve lived at the same address with the same phone number MY WHOLE LIFE and have not ever gotton a collection notice in the mail, nor even a callWhen calling to follow up on this because my dr recently told me about it, they confirmed the correct address and phone number Ive always had, but were unable to tell me why I have not been getting the lettersAll they told me was ive had a debt in their agency for FIVE YEARSWhen trying to get a physical bill with a totaling amount of what I owe so I can pay it they said they would send it in the mailAbout a month passed and I still had no billI called again they said they can emial or fax, I said we can do either, however they dont sent e-mails out to ***So I gave them my fax, HOURS passed, I called back to follow up, as I tried to explain what the situation was the Rep Tracy, continued to cut me off as I tried to

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/02/18) */
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Ms*** concernsI was able to confirm that our client, *** *** *** Services, performed the services on 11/27/Due to the age of the account and the billing
service unable to explain what happened (or didn't happen), we are refunding Ms*** $and deleting any reference of this account from her credit reportI will send Ms*** a letter confirming this as well as the information I did receive from our client regarding the services provided
I hope this addresses Ms***' concerns
*** ***
President
Merchants' Credit Guide Co
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 7, 2014/02/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
With the help of Revdex.com and Ms*** from *** *** Radiological Services who was also in contact with Mr***, this issue was resolved in a timely manner and I am fully satisfied with the outcomeThank you very much

I'm sorry Ms*** does not remember our initial letters and phone messages. Understandably, they were a few years ago. We haven't heard from Ms*** until very recently, February 6, 2018. I apologize if it sounded like she never reached out to us. She did - The day before we received this complaint. As I mentioned, we will mail the account information to her. I would encourage her to follow up with the original creditor who provided us with this information. Dan ***, PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: I already submitted the police report and license information to the credit bureau
Sincerely,
*** ***

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr*** concerns. We received accounts placed for collection from two of our clients back in 2013. After we received these accounts we were notified of insurance payments and adjustments applied to these accounts. There were small
self-pay balances remaining after insurance. Upon receipt of Mr*** complaint we contacted our clients and they agreed to write off the remaining balances. Today, we will be sending deletions to all credit bureaus previously reported to. In addition, we will send Mr*** a letter confirming these deletions. *** ***, President

I have requested on MULTIPLE occasions to have an alleged debt handled by Merchants Credit Guide to be verifiedI submitted a formal dispute with the credit bureaus in March and received no responseI finally called them today to discuss the erroneous debt and they informed me that they "verified" the debt with their clientHowever, the way they "verified" was simply by their client informing them that the debt is validNo paperwork or anything was providedThis is completely unacceptableThey cannot verify an alleged debt simply by a client stating that there is oneThat's not how things workI know that I don't owe a debt to their client and they refuse to help me in this matter

The following is the response to Mr***'s compliant with the CFPB:Upon receipt of Mr***'s complaint, I reviewed our account history and asked our client to review their account history and send me an account statementIn addition, I reviewed the call recordings of all the conversations we had
with Mr***After review of this information, Mr*** version of the facts is not accurate and is not the truthWe received this account from our client on 7/14/Initially, we sent Mr*** the validation noticeWe attempted to call him several timesWe sent another letter and called several more timesWe never received a response, until 8/11/when he called and informed us that *** had paid this billOn 8/14/17, we called our client and they indicated they had not received any payment form *** or anyone elseWe have since received several *** from the credit bureausWe noted the account as disputed and verified the information as accurateOn 9/8/2017, Mr *** called us again and said this account was paidAgain, we checked with our client and they said they did not receive any payment on this accountAs recently as 2/19/18, we spoke to Mr*** again and he asked for a copy of the billOn 2/22/18, we received this complaintI have now received a copy of Mr***'s account with our clientOur client's notes indicated Mr*** initially claimed this account derived from a work related injuryAt that time, our client spoke to Mr***'s listed employer and they had indicated his employment was terminated for months and he tried to send his ex-employer the account as a workers comp claim that was rejected by the employerI will send him a copy of that account statementFor the record, Mr***'s version of his experience with our representatives blatantly inaccurateI have the recording of the calls to prove itThere was never a 3-way call with Mr***, our company, and *** County HospitalMr*** was never threatened in any way! We never threatened him with suit, or the police, or treated him disrespectfullyAnd he never faxed the information he claims to have that shows the account paid by medicaidAgain, I will send Mr*** a copy of the account statement todayIf he sends me information that shows this account has been paid, I will follow up with our client and verify the paymentUntil that time, the account will remain reported to the credit bureaus as a disputed item. Again, I have mailed Mr*** a copy of the account showing the balance due. He needs to send me a copy of this documentation from *** County Hospital and *** Medicaid. I ask him to mail it directly to my attention. Dan ***, President, Merchants' Credit Guide Company WJackson Blvd., Ste700, Chicago, IL

I'm afraid Ms*** has been misinformed. She has received services from one of our clients for which she agreed to pay. She has not paid the total amount that is due our client. On August 24th, I mailed her copies of the agreement she signed with our client. We are an
agent for our client. We do not have nor need an agreement with our clients' customers to collect the money that is due our client. We stand ready to work with Ms*** when she is ready to resolve her delinquent accounts with our client. We look forward to hearing from her. *** ***PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

The Company is terrible pack of Liars and ThievesPresident should be in jailLets get a class action suit against them and pull their business licenseChase them back under the rock they crawled out of

I suggest you go to the Federal Trade Commission web site, www.IDtheft.gov. Fill out the Affidavit of Identity theft. Get it notarized. Got to your local police station and file a police report indicating someone stole your identity when they went to the hospital's emergency room for treatment. Send us a copy of the Affidavit, a copy of the police report, and a copy of a picture ID. Upon receipt we will investigate the identity theft with our client

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
Sincerely,
*** *** I have never been in collection from this coIssue about 7-14-!!!! I guess they are confused between two different people with same name

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/21) */
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Ms.*** complaintActually, Ms*** first called us on 3/27/At that time, she stated she was going to contact the client to see about applying for financial assistanceAt that
time she requested copies of the account documentationWe immediately requested the account documentation and received it from our client on 4/13/On 4/13/15, we mailed the account documentation USPS to Ms*** at the address she provided on this complaintWe never received it back as undelivered
Today, September 21, 2015, I am personally sending copies of the account documentation to Ms*** to address provided via regular mail and certified mailWe are not able to remove these collection items at this timePlease note, our company is the second collection agency to try and resolve these accounts for this client
Upon receipt, I would ask that Ms*** call me directly so we may further discuss any questions she may have
***
President
Merchants' Credit Guide Company
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/10/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I finally received the requested documentsVery sad it took six months, several phone calls, a letter and two complaintsI do not believe when a consumer requests documents the collection agency should note disputed

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Merchants' Credit Guide Company is a third-party debt collector. On 4/6/15, we received an account placed for collection from one of our medical provider clients. We mailed two letters to Ms*** to her address listed here. Ms
*** states that she was told this would not be reported to the credit bureaus. We have no record of ever speaking with Ms***. Ms*** states that she has paid this claim. We have checked with our client today, 7/14/17. They do not have any record of payment. I am more than happy to help Ms*** in any way to get this resolved. If she could provide me with some kind of proof of payment, I will investigate where this money may have been applied. Perhaps there was some miscommunication. If so, we can help, Ms ***. If she would like, she can email me directly, she can reach me at ***@collectmcg.com. Thank you. *** ***, PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

They called me and told me the conversation would be recorded I did not consent, which is my right in Illinois They lady on the phone was rude as *** when I informed her of this and hung up

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/24) */
Thank you for the opportunity to address Ms***'s complaintUpon receipt of the complaint I immediately checked with our client to see if they ever received any money from a personal injury lawsuitAs of 9/22/15, they have not received
any money towards these now self-pay balancesI will send a copy of the statement we received from our client to Ms***If Ms*** can provide me with her attorney's name and number, I will be happy to make a call to confirm the status of the lawsuit
For the record, we are Business Associates with our client and therefore are able to receive and use for the purpose of payment of the accountWe are in complete compliance with HIPAA XXX-XXX
At this point, we are unable to delete the trade lines from Ms ***'s credit bureau reportsHowever, if she can show that she won her personal injury case, we will delete our trade lines immediately
Dan ***
President
Merchants' Credit Guide Company

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr***'s concern. Our company, Merchants' Credit Guide Company is completely independent from ***. In 2008, *** placed an account for collection with our company for Mr***. In 2010, they recalled the account. We no
longer have the account for collection. Any collection trade lines placed on Mr***'s credit reports by our company have long been removed. We have no authority to cancel the debt and no control over ***'s transcript policy. Therefore, we are unable to help Mr*** achieve his desired settlement. Any resolution would have to come directly from ***.
Dan ***, President
Merchants' Credit Guide Company

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Sincerely,
Jon ***

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr*** concerns. Contrary to Mr*** account of his allegations, we have not had a conversation with Mr*** about these accounts since 2010. At that time he said he was unemployed and cannot pay. On 6/21/10, he called and asked if he could receive some financial assistance from the hospital at which time we directed him to talk to the hospital to see what he might be eligible for. On 8/4/10, we spoke to him again and he said he had no income and could not make any payment at that time. Now he claims there was insurance that should have paid everything? Recently on 2/17/17, we received a dispute letter and stated he refused to pay. Now, more recently, on 4/20/17, days ago, we received a letter asking for verification on all the accounts placed with our company for collection. We are currently gathering all the account information to respond to this last request. As soon as we have it all, we will mail it to Mr*** to the address provided in this complaint. Upon receipt, we will wait for Mr*** call to resolve these matters and come up with a manageable plan As for Mr*** HIPAA concerns, we are a contracted Business Associate of each of the clients we represent. There have been no violations of Mr*** protections under HIPAA. The reporting of Mr*** accounts to the credit bureau is accurate and within the rules set forth in the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr***'s concerns. Our records indicate the payment of this account was made by Mr*** on 5/3/with a credit card. We had no indication that it was paid by insurance. As we are required to do, we updated Mr***'s credit
reports to show that the account was paid in full. In the interest of consumer relations and giving Mr*** the benefit of the doubt, today, we have removed the paid in full collection item from Mr***'s credit reports. In addition, we are sending a letter confirming this deletion to Mr***'s address. *** ***, PresidentMerchants' Credit Guide Company

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to Mr *** concerns. This account was placed for collection with our company on 6/22/15. We are the second collection agency to handle this account. We made several attempts to contact Mr*** but never got a response. This
complaint is the first response we have received. Upon receipt of the complaint we asked our hospital client if they had ever received payment on this account. They said they had no record of any payment. Our client indicated that *** C *** was listed as the guarantor on the account and had no information to indicate otherwise. If Mr*** has some proof of payment he can send to us, we will follow up with our client. Otherwise, we are happy to work out a manageable payment plan if needed