Grant Mercantile Agency

The worst customer service ever!!! I have a bill in dispute from a local hospital. I was already divorced but somehow ended up with the bill for my ex. This was over 10 years ago! I thought it had been resolved however low and behold it is still showing up as an open collection on my credit report. Mind you after I spoke to them about the error years ago I never received any additional bills, calls, or contact.
After seeing an open collections bill from Grant Mercantile on my credit report, I start calling Grant Mercantile — wanted to get more information on the charges and to verify what the bill is for. I Informed them that if the bill is truly mine I want to take care of it as soon as possible. They promised to get back to me with the information within several days. Repeated calls to them still has not provided me with anything. Two months have now passed and the only I know for sure is that they continue to report it to the credit bureaus while they still haven’t contacted me in any form so that this can be put to rest.
Very frustrated!

Alright, I get it — you think I’m going to write a scathing review because I’m pissed that a collection agency is asking me for money I don’t have.
Scathing review, for sure, but journey with me for a few moments, if you will.
I had two bills from the same hospital. I paid twice on one account, and nothing on the other. My bad. I didn’t pay attention to the account numbers, and that sent Bill #1 to collections. Not denying that I’m to blame here.
Okay. So I get the notice in the mail, and call them right away to set up monthly payments, like I (thought) had been doing with the hospital. I’m calm when I get «C» on the phone, but the whole thing elevates extremely quickly. She starts asking me for information about my husband, and I do not give out his work information, for obvious reasons. She becomes angry with me and starts arguing.
(paraphrased, but pretty damn close)
I say, «I don’t know why you’re being so rude to me. I just got the notice, I’m calling to give you the money I owe on this account.»
«C» says, «You’re not giving ME anything. You owe this money from your bill. We’re doing you a favor by allowing you to make monthly payments.»
And so on and so forth, until it got to the point where I had to almost yell into the phone to get her attention, because every time I tried to rationalize with her, she would interrupt me, or argue with me, or shoot out some snide remark.
Taken from their website: ” GMA’s collectors are trained to assist debtors as counselors and advisors. Our goal is to help our debtors repay their debts as quickly as possible. By using a positive collection approach, our debtors are allowed to maintain their sense of pride. This philosophy helps preserve good will and positive public relations. By treating others as they would like to be treated, our collectors are highly effective.“
I saw no positive approach, and unless «C» likes people to make catty remarks and insult her (3 cheers for positive public relations!), then she needs to work on that too.
I called back today, to pay off my bill in full. I spoke with Alex, who never raised her voice, and explained things to me clearly and saved me having this on my credit report. Turns out that if I hadn’t paid my bill in FULL by the 14^th, it would have been reported.
(Extra shout-​out to «C» who never said a word, but told me that I could make my first payment on the 22^nd. Thanks for looking out for me, girl. Please. CATTTTTY.)
After Alex helped me settle my account, I spoke with supervisor «M», who was very calm with me, but talked to me like, «Thanks for settling your bill, and we will certainly take your remarks into consideration… and I’m late for my 3pm bowel movement…» (Totally made that last line up.) Whatevs. Just appreciated not being yelled at.
If you have to call this nasty place, hope like hell that Alex answers the phone. But be prepared for a battle. Ask every question you can… and I hear they hate it if you maintain composure. It drives them batty. ;)