More often than once in a while, a company charges you more than what was agreed to. As an example, folks sometimes get medical lab tests performed, sometimes at some doctor's office. Such tests are often performed by some tech that is employed not by your doctor, because they work at an independent medical-related lab company.
This article is my opinion and is not, legal advice. I am a judgment broker, and not an attorney. When you ever want legal advice or a strategy to use, please retain an attorney.
If you don't have current medical insurance, you often need to pay that tech immediately when the tests are done, often with your credit card. With that circumstance, you'd most likely expect the financial obligation to have finished. Sometime later, folks sometimes receive a bill or invoice from the medical laboratory company for much past the amount they previously paid; some amount that is much more than what is the reasonable and customary fee for the testing they had done.
If that sort of problem happens, and you get some invoice for more than you had agreed to pay, sometimes those extra changes turn out to be valid. When you think the charges aren't valid, your first action item is to contact the creditor and ask them why you're being charged the extra amount. Sometimes they will have a pre-planned answer, as an example "you only paid just for your doctor's visit".
When you don't go along with your creditor's reasoning and you plan not to pay, you may want to take some kind of action. Filing a BBB complaint won't do much, because the Better Business Bureau is almost useless in recent times. Whining on the internet is often as helpful as talking with the ocean.
If you do not pay the creditor, they will probably turn the debt over to some collection company, who might later report your debt to a credit bureau. Could you, and should you, sue them at court for the amount they are over billing you?
One may believe that is the kind of situation which courts are meant for. With example above, you may have a claim, yet you have not yet gotten damaged. Although you may win in small claims court, that will not solve your debt problem, and there is no guarantee you will be paid. Also, it might not make economic sense to sue them, with the costs of paying your court and serving them.
I think in this kind of a circumstance, there would be not any reason for suing them, as you have just been irritated; and you haven't lost money or gotten damaged yet. You simply have some dispute about what you owe.
There is no reason to sue them. When they aren't willing to compromise on the bill/invoice, and you do not wish to pay them, let them sue you; and if that happens you could defend your position using the documentation and receipts.
In this kind of situations, it is a smart idea to pay your creditor whatever is not in dispute, so you can demonstrate that you were not ignoring them, just disputing the additional charges they are claiming. In this kind of a circumstance, you have two options, pay them what they want, or do not. If you are not going to pay them, remembering that I am not an attorney, this is a possible action checklist:
1) Write down the name of any individual that verified to you what they assert you owe for their bills and/or statements.
2) If they send the account to collections, encourage your collection agency to sue you.
3) When your collection company contacts you too frequently, write them a "cease and desist" letter.
4) Check your credit report and immediately challenge any collection remarks they make on your credit reports.
After the creditor or collection company damages you in some way, for example damaging your credit report, you might be in a position to sue them and possibly persuade the judge to give you a judgment against them.
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