Sent to collections from BMG over $32. What should I do?

Question

First off this is an unjust charge. My wife (simple minded as she may be) signed up for one of those "Buy a CD for a penny!" type deals and BMG ended up charging her for $16 dollars. So on two different occasions we called them up and said we didn't want it, to take it back, and not to send us anymore. They said ok. We sent it back and a few months later, apparently/allegedly, BMG sent us another CD and a new bill for $32 (this one I didn't know about). We never heard another thing from BMG about this bill and they ended up sending us to collections over this after I told them personally not to send us anymore. Is there anything I can do? I haven't called BMG yet, but the collections people called me, I lost my temper and cussed the foreign b***h out. I told her the same story that they were not supposed to charge us at all.

I'm stressed and confused about the situation. It's not about the $32, it's about being charged for something I shouldn't be charged with. h**l, I wouldn't mind paying it if BMG would admit that they messed up. Can I do anything like file a report to the Better Business Bureau or something?

Answer 1

If you received the CD (or CD's) for a penny, then you agreed to the contract (which you may not have paid close attention to when you signed up).  The CD for a penny was conditional.

If you cancelled BEFORE you received the CD's, then you have grounds to fight it.  If you kept the CD, then you implicitly agreed to the terms - which probably had something to do with $32 worth of stuff, or a $32 penalty for early cancellation.

If you did cancel before you received the first CD (or if you received it, but sent it back), then go fight it.

Answer 2

It's not worth having a $32 collections charge on your report for 7 yrs. BMG at this point will probably not want to talk to you and will refer you back to the collection agency because they have sold the debt for pennies on the dollar.

You now have to kiss up to the collection agency and hope they remove it from your credit record in exchange for full payment. Yelling at the collections agency will make things worse. It's your credit that's at stake not theirs.

Send the collection company a certified letter. Here is a sample called "Negotiating with collection agencies" http://www.badcreditfixup.com/writing-cr...

Do not go into a lot of explanation but ask that it be removed from your record in exchange for full payment. It's only $32 and I am sure they will do it.

Answer 3

You should get their address and send a registered letter explaining your side of the case.  Include a statement that you will proscecute them if they do anything to harm your credit rating. Send a copy to the collection agency with the same threat of proscecution.  

Answer 4

You handled this completely wrong and as a result, you owe the money.  I'd pay up to avoid damaging your credit.  You admit that it's not about the $32.  But you messed up, not the company. Here is why:

Your wife entered into a contract.  She apparently did not read the terms and conditions of the agreement.  You are sent offers to buy the 'future selections' that you agree to buy a certain number of in order to get the 'free' stuff - which is not shipped to you for free, you have to pay that.  With the offer is a card that you are to send back by a particular date, after checking the box that instructs them to not send it, and if they don't get that notice from you, they send it and bill you for it.

Here is your second mistake.  They don't 'take it back'.  You either refuse it at the time of delivery, if you know you don't want it, by writing 'Refused' across your address on the package, and give it to your carrier or take it to the post office.  The company pays for all costs of returning it.  If you aren't sure it's something you want or not, and you open it, then YOU must pay the return postage.  Either way, the item must go back; you cannot keep it and then claim you didn't want it so are not obligated to pay.

Calling someone and talking to them is of no use when it comes to legal disputes.  Regardless of whatever you may have been told, the company's only obligation to you is what they put in writing.  To protect yourself, you must communicate with them in writing and keep copies of all correspondence.

I went through this years ago with Columbia over record albums.  I returned every package they sent me.  They wrote to me to complain about it, that I wasn't sending the refusal notices back in time.  I wrote to them and told them that, nowhere in the agreement I entered into with them did it specify that I had to return the  cards at my expense.  I agreed only to complete my required number of purchases, and that I intended to fulfill my obligation to do that, and ONLY that.  It was a 3 year deal and by that point, a year or so had gone by and the cost to them of returning all of those record albums every four weeks was adding up.  Rather than provide me with postage-paid return cards, they opted to let me keep the free records and terminated the agreement with no further obligation on my part, and it was all done in WRITING.

There's a right  way and a wrong way, and a hard way and a easy way, and you chose the easy, wrong way to deal with BMG.  Don't make another mistake by damaging your credit over $32.