Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Massachusetts
Why should I pay for their mistake?
When my car was stolen, I had to rent a car. The claim dragged on, so I complained to the pres. of the insurance co. He told me that he would "take care of the rental". My mistake was not getting this in writing. I got the rental bill & it seemed low, but I assumed the insurance co. was being generous at the direction of the pres. I paid the bill, and forgot it. Three months later, the rental co. called and told me I still owed several hundred dollars. They said that this was money the insurance co. did not cover, which is far fetched b/c these two companies share a billing system. They consult daily, which makes a three month lag ridiculous. The rental co. told me I had two weeks to pay or it would turn the matter over to collections. They said "we don't want this going on your credit report". I have since discovered that they don't have a collections dept.
1. If I paid their bill, and they accepted payment, shouldn't they just have to eat their mistake?
2. The rental co. lied about the collections dept. and hinted at smearing my credit. Is this harrassment or fraud?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Why should I pay for their mistake?
Sorry, but I missed this message when you first posted it.
First, I'd call back the pres. and ask him to make good on his verbal offer, and wipe off the charge or pay it or whatever he had in mind.
How did the rental co. lie about collections? I don't understand. They can easily turn a bill over to collections (which could and usually is an outside company!) without having to have an internal collections department. That's not an illegal threat anyway. I don't think that the hint at smearing your credit report is necessarily illegal; if it is a totally empty threat, then, yes, it might be illegal, but it sounds like it could be a real threat. If you believe it's totally empty, then ignore the bill and don't pay it ... right?
It sounds like whoever made all those threats WAS a company collections department, or at least had job of collecting.
Did you tell the rental car company about the insurance company president's promise to you? And ask them to pursue his company a bit harder? (Probably more of a dead end.) My bet is that the president just didn't contact anyone in his bill processing department after making you the promise, so following their normal repair hours / 8 rule, they only paid a certain number of days. You just need to close that loop.
Accepting payment of the lesser amount (and agreeing to bill the insurance company for the rest) PROBABLY does not cause the rental company to lose the right to bill you or force them to accept that as full payment. You'd have to check the paperwork you received carefully, looking for a notation that says "paid in full" or the like.
The length of time (3 months) makes no legal difference to speak of, even if it seems long for two companies that share a billing system. I'm not sure what your point was there; if it was far-fetched that it would take so long, ... so what?
That they maybe accidentally underbilled you at first is probably not relevant, but it might depend upon what was signed or given to you as a receipt when you paid that small bill.
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