Bottom Line: They say that they want to make a difference in their community but they don't say which community.
Now I'm not going to say they have mafia like tendencies but they kind of do.
Go to their website, look at this big beautiful house that we have! We clearly dont care what your financial situation is, we just want the money.
If you're not already quoting Goodfellas, you probably will soon and if you haven't seen it yet, may shame be upon the family (please insert your legal family name here) and then you need to feel some shame.
After my daughter was born, we had a lot of bills for different doctors. My wifes doctor(s), my daughters doctor, my sons doctor, my doctor - there were many bills and we paid all of them.
I know this because I had to prove that I paid them, OVER and OVER and OVER AGAIN. I went to the bank and got proof that the balance in question was paid - this was not sufficient.
For the people on the other end of the phone, I didn't experience any of the "kindness" that they so proudly brag about on their site. They also brag about "exceptional customer service" none of which I experienced. The only thing I experienced was weekly and sometimes daily calls from someone on the other end who was occasionally out of line, demanding payment for bills that I already proved that I paid.
The number 1 cause for bankruptcy in this country is....take a guess...medical bills! That's right! If you guessed correctly you'd better pray to something that you never get cancer. Its not exactly cheap. My mother is losing the fight with her second round of cancer at the moment.
Her monthly medication and doctor bills are four figures.
She spends a fair amount of time with collections agencies even when there is a slight misunderstanding between the doctors and the billing. So come home after double mastectomy and field calls from angry collections people.
Yes they did this. That's how they gave back to my community.
So the likelihood of these folks calling people to pay a bill that they cant afford in order to possibly stay alive is fairly high. If it's a medical bill, and they are being called by a collections agency, there is a very real chance they simply can't pay it. Or they are choosing to have a place to live instead of repaying a bill they have already paid.
My son has severe nut allergies - I have no idea why. Nobody in the family has any allergies but here we are.
Every time someone gives him a nut by accident like on a croissant, Kringle (marzipan) or a slice of cake (almond extract...seriously Almonds are everywhere) we have to give him a shot from the Epipen (ask me how much THOSE cost to have around, and give to the grandparents, and replace after they expire annually. Google: epipen price increase, for some light reading). After he gets a shot from the Epipen he has to go to the emergency room (mind you an ambulance ride today will run you around $1500 out of pocket unless you can get the insurance to cover it, which they sometimes do. Ask me how I know). Then you have emergency room costs which also have out of pocket expenses on top of what is billed to your insurance.
So you can see, if my son goes to a birthday party and someone hands him a piece of birthday cake, an almond, cashew, chestnut, macadamia nut, pecan, pistachio or walnut, a cookie, or some Nutella (my poor kid will never know the taste of Nutella... if that doesn't crush your soul a tiny bit, you are a robot. Go power down) it will cost us four figures to keep him alive. Every time. If that somehow happened a few times in one month, I would lose my house. That is a fact.
Since my daughter is still in diapers, its going to be some time before my wife can go back to work so I'm working two and three jobs so that we can afford to live in a place that has things like parks and schools, and so that my wife can drive a car that's safe, and so that my kids dont have to exclusively get hand me downs for their birthday.
People and life are not black and white. We constantly find ourselves in situations beyond our control which makes companies like this...well not evil but certainly not good.
The real bottom line is that companies like this mess around with peoples lives in a very real way. You're kicking people when they are down and a lot of the time in this day in age, they didn't do anything to deserve to be down or to be kicked.
They certainly don't have all the answers.
You say that you want to give back? You say that you want to make a difference in the community?
Why dont you get on the phone with pharmaceutical companies that are raising the cost of medications thousands of percent instead of trying to extract that from people who are trying to stay alive?
You might sleep better at night. read more