Woman Gets $232 Collection Notice From Tollway She Never Drove On

[ZLoth]

From CBS 4 Denver:

Woman Gets $232 Collection Notice From Tollway She Never Drove On
BBB Investigates Northwest Parkway For Billing And Collections

The Better Business Bureau is now looking into the billing and collection practices of the Northwest Parkway Toll Road.

The probe was sparked by a CBS4 investigation after a viewer received a $232 collection notice for unpaid tolls without ever driving on the Northwest Parkway.

The Northwest Parkway is an 11-mile stretch of road in suburban Denver, privately operated by a company from Portugal. The speed limit is 75 mph and motorists don't have to stop at tollbooths. Instead, cameras capture images of license plates and drivers are billed later.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

I don't know about you, but the BBB is a joke.

[oscar]

I don't know about you, but the BBB is a joke.

At least it could get involved, with a private toll agency.  Good luck if the mis-billing had been done by a government agency. 

[Milepost61]

From the article, it's the collections agency to blame, not the tollway. They unfortunately tend to have a "throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks" approach; in this case send a collections notice to everyone with the same name.

[Henry]

Similar names can be confusing, which is what happened to the driver who's never been on the toll road in question (Kathy vs. Katharine). For me, that would be like receiving a bill for tolls addressed to a guy named Hank, and no one ever calls me that.

[oscar]

Similar names can be confusing, which is what happened to the driver who's never been on the toll road in question (Kathy vs. Katharine). For me, that would be like receiving a bill for tolls addressed to a guy named Hank, and no one ever calls me that.

Not that I want to be fair to collection agencies, but "Kathy" versus "Katharine" is forgiveable confusion if the collection agency is given insufficient info by the toll company to precisely identify who owed the bill.  Sounds like the toll company should have provided a plate number, and if possible a last known address for the plate's owner (from the DMV), to avoid misdirected dunning letters.

[Henry]

Similar names can be confusing, which is what happened to the driver who's never been on the toll road in question (Kathy vs. Katharine). For me, that would be like receiving a bill for tolls addressed to a guy named Hank, and no one ever calls me that.

Not that I want to be fair to collection agencies, but "Kathy" versus "Katharine" is forgiveable confusion if the collection agency is given insufficient info by the toll company to precisely identify who owed the bill.  Sounds like the toll company should have provided a plate number, and if possible a last known address for the plate's owner (from the DMV), to avoid misdirected dunning letters.

My point exactly! Let's see what the problem is...

Kathy Kent of Littleton has never driven Northwest Parkway and "didn't even know what it was"  until she started to receive collection notices in the mail.

Now here's where it gets interesting...

"My name is Kathy, not Katharine,"  she explains.
Someone named Katharine Kent racked up 11 unpaid tolls. The collections agency couldn't find Katharine Kent, so it sent a collection notice to Kathy Kent in Littleton. A similar name, but the wrong person. It was a mistake Costa says he's never seen before.

So Kathy lives in the same town as Katharine, but somehow, Kathy gets the bill that should've been mailed to Katharine. Which is why other factors should've been used here, like a street address, license/tag number and such. Moving on...

In a written notice to Kathy Kent, the collections agency promises "refresher training for all collectors to ensure that this does not occur again."

At least that's a start, and a happy ending there.

[SP Cook]

The BBB is a scam.  It is not a "bureau" (a government agency) nor a lawfirm, nor anything, other than a for profit business.  Pay up and they will rate your business highly, regardless of your practices.

In any event, collection agencies (which my backward little state had the good sense to outlaw decades ago) are scum.  Write "UNOWED" on the letter, mail it back and if ANYTHING more comes of it, sue them in your local court for more money than they have. 

[hbelkins]

In any event, collection agencies (which my backward little state had the good sense to outlaw decades ago) are scum.  Write "UNOWED" on the letter, mail it back and if ANYTHING more comes of it, sue them in your local court for more money than they have.

How did that happen? Does it really mean that creditors can't sell uncollected debts and have to collect them themselves rather than turning them over to third-party collectors?

[SP Cook]

Our Supreme Court ruled (correctly) that appearing in court on behalf of another person (and corportations other than sole propriotorships are seperate persons under the law) is the practice of law.  Practice of law without a license is a little thing we call a felony.  It has also held (also correctly) that DIRECT EVIDENCE is required in court, something a third party buyer of bad debt cannot give, even it they hired a lawyer.

Thus, if you want to collect a debt you have to first, hire a lawyer (who has, at least theoretically, an ethical duty to examine the case and not file in cases like the OP pointed out) and have an actual person with ACTUAL FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE to testify to the facts. 

Keeps mindless scum debt collection agencies out.  Good law.  Should be the law everywhere.