When Does This Become Too Much?

I think it's ridiculous to not just write off anything under $10. Administratively, it's not worth the cost.

On the flip side, I found out that I had ignored a hospital medical bill for about 4 years. I was sick and when they were sending the original invoices, I never even opened them. Well, I finally did and made a call to set up a payment plan. Something like $50 a month until the $450 was paid off. Well, after two months, I received a call that due to goodwill on my part, they were "forgiving me" the rest of the charges. This came from a hospital!! WOW. I was impressed.

BTW - have you read or watched "House of Sand and Fog?" If not you'll love it.

Sorry. Read the story and I don't feel sorry for her. They sent her REGISTERED mail. She ignored it. She could afford the cost of a lawyer but she couldn't pay $6.32??!?!? Sorry. That's inexcusable.

In regards to your comments about "huge corporations"??? Sorry. You need to stop and THINK. Seriously. Let's say EVERY company waived $6.32 (it was the STATE she owed it to - not a corporation - by the way) and there's 10,000 customers that owe $6.32 - do the math - that's $63K. So let's say you expect the state or a company to "write off" anything under say $50 - there's 12MILLION people in the state of PA...how much is that???

Let's use your example of .42 cents...if the company or state forgave each and every person who owed .42 multiplied by 12M people - that $500K...

I just got a bill in the mail yesterday for .94 cents. I can pay it on-line or go into the office when I have my next appointment. Did I laugh when I opened the bill? Yes. Thought it was hilarious. But when you sit back and think about it - each and every cent adds up.

My dad once received a doctor bill for $0. He threw it away. Then he received another bill for $0. He threw that away. Then he received a collection notice for $0.
He called and they told him just to write a check for $0 and send it in. He told them no, that he has to BUY his checks and stamps, and that he wasn't going to waste money to pay a bill that didn't exist.

Okay so I found this fascinating because you have to do some heavy duty ignoring to lose your home for 6.30.

I was right. First of all they make it sound like some poor little old lady who has never taken care of anything ...oh poor dear!! She appears to be in her 40s, maybe early 50s. They bought the home in 99, he died in 04, this debt was from 2009 so she knew she paid late, she got a 2010 bill that showed the new amount, the late charge from the year before and still did not pay it? I get she is blond but come on! So then she gets noticed of pay the six bucks or we sell your home in 2011 and did nothing!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-lost-home-...#

So I guess I am here wondering have we hit a point where we excuse all idiocy if we deem it is a big guy going after a little guy?

Common sense is if you owe a small amount pay it! It isn't worth interest or worse losing your house. Who cares if it doesn't make sense.

Oh and bills go out bulk rate so it is pennies to a business to mail out a bill.

Sooo.. you are saying that the government is a huge corporation... ?

;)

I get where you are coming from with the small amounts due on some of the items you listed. However, we need to keep in mind that the only way to KNOW that it was "only" 42 cents (or whatever minimal amount it was) was to actually already have done the work involved to figure it out. Had the amount you owed (after the person went through and did all the computations, etc) been $2,000, I doubt that it would seem so inconsequential. But there is only one way to know what amount it was: to do the work (incur the costs of figuring it out).

Once they get to the bottom and see it's only 42 cents, should they just write it off? Maybe. But doesn't doing that also generate more expenses by increasing the work in the accounting department? Whereas sending out the bill and receiving the monies due just flows right into the "costs" already being payed to maintain the business cash flow. ...

Anyhoo...

As far as the woman who lost her house... I'd want to know a lot more specifics before rendering any final opinion. Certainly it appears that the judge followed the letter of the law. Perhaps the laws might need tweaking to ensure more layers so something like this doesn't happen in the future?
Or.. perhaps more personal responsibility needs to be employed by homeowners? Or ... ?
See ... without knowing the particulars... we can't really say what went wrong. I have known of plenty of people (some even here on this site) who suggest to "just ignore" something because it wrong. Umm.. no. You never ignore legal paperwork. Ever. ESPECIALLY if it is in error.

But... we can't say that the woman did or did not ignore notices, because we don't know if they were actually sent... we don't have access to the records that show where they were mailed. Or any of those particulars. Maybe she did get the notices and didn't open them, presuming them to be junk mail ? Lord knows WE get enough of "official looking" junk mail as to be confused if I didn't actually open it and read it.
It's sad. That's for sure. But, I have to wonder about the details. Was there corruption involved? I read some comments after that article that certainly lean in the train of thought. But, again, without the details (which are NOT given in the story) we really have no way to draw any conclusions whatsoever.

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Oh.. and no, I've never been billed for a few cents. But I did just ignore a refund check sent to me by Verizon for $0.02.

It's prisoner training . . . imo.

Obey even when you're right and "authority" is wrong. The deck is stacked against you. Resistance is futile.

That's the message we're supposed to receive. And it's pretty effective when you think about it.

This is the main reason that I'm against class action reform, even though class action attorneys are generally the only parties who really benefit from class action suits.

Cliven Bundy lives off public land for 20 years and continues to do so, while a widow gets kicked out of her own house for $6?
Unreal.

You did the right thing and paid the bill, even if it was 42 cents. Why should she not pay her bill for $6 dollars??

I'm sure I have been billed for services for less than $10. And I would pay it. It's my responsibility to pay.

Others have pointed out how a few cents adds up fast. Just pay your bill. It's hard to muster sympathy for someone who ignored it.

I'm with ya! Lol.

Buuuut, with the big companies a few dollars here and there likely adds up quickly when they have thousands of customers. They also likely have their accounts receivable collectors going after it in bulk, which probably drastically reduces the cost of doing so. Plus, many companies have an automated system of sending out the bills, so as long as there is a negative balance it will send one out regardless of the amount.

Now, I'm really frustrated with some who say "big corporations". This WAS NOT a big corporation. It was the government. So get off the "big corporations are the sin of all sins and evil".

She ignored several letter, registered letters etc. She had the opportunity to get this squared away and ignored it instead. I have sympathy but really this is not one of those times.

Ok, the foreclosure, not sure that makes any sense at all.

The billing for just a few dollars and/or cents ...

Those are computer generated. There isn't a person that sits there and computes it. A computer does that. After each service is provided, there is a person who enters the data. That happens after every patient or every customer has been served. There are people that work at the hospital or business whose job it is to simply enter the data in the appropriate field - those are your data entry positions. There is an entirely separate office (accounting, accounts receivable maybe) whose job it is to send out the bills. Every month on certain dates, the computer is programed to print out the bills. It is someone's job to put those bills into envelopes, unless the computer does that now, too. But I'm not sure it's anyone's job to look at he amount owed.

So many things are automated. I realy doubt anyone actually picks up the piece of paper and says, "They only owe $5.23? This isn't worth it. Mark their account "paid in full."