Scranton Taxpayers May Have Received Collection Letters That They Might Not Have Deserved
More than 200 Scranton taxpayers might have received a letter from a collection company they didn’t deserve. The notices are for unpaid garbage fees that may have actually been paid. According to officials, the garbage bill itself for 2009 could be to blame for more than 200 collection notices sent to city taxpayers in error last week.
They believe the issue might be the way the bills were folded into the envelopes. The bill comes along with a perforated line above a bar code that identifies the customer, but because a crease made by the folding of the envelope, a second line under the bar code was formed, causing people to pull the bill off without the bar code.
Bills that didn’t have a bar code would cause a bank to not register the payment. The mailing house that Scranton hired to stuff the envelopes was fingered. If the bill was mailed to the bank, it would be the pay stub in their payment that goes straight into a lock box. The stubs are then scanned and the bar code is read. After that the bank sends the town a list of those who had come through based on the bar code readings.
Representatives from the debt collections company who sent out the letters say that they are taking every dispute from people who may have paid very seriously. Company protocol allows consumers to dispute a notice within 30 days of receiving a collections letter. In addition, representatives said that no bill will be collected while they are still sorting out the issue.
The debt collection company plans to look into each claim from people who claimed they had paid the bill and still received the notice. Those that they think have paid will be relieved from their debt and will no longer get collections notices and will not be pursued by the collection company.
Mallory Megan works for a collections agency that works with a debt collection lawyer. She also does stories on business and finance, consumer spending and collections agencies.
