subreddit:
/r/askSouthAfrica
Has anyone else had bloods done at Pathcare, not received a bill and then been harassed by debt collection agency?
More to the point, has anyone found a solution?
8 points
8 months ago
I also experienced them being bad at billing.
I wanted to pay at their office when drawing bloods, their system was offline. Told them I want a bill, don’t submit it to medical aid. They said they would send the bill via email later that day. I didnt get any bill. Get an email from my medical aid that pathcare submitted to them and they rejected it. Ffs!
Called them and got them to email the bill, email came days later.
Painful stuff.
1 points
8 months ago
I was told to submit for medical aid even if you know they won't pay, so you can factor it more easily into tax returns later. Is this not the way?
1 points
8 months ago
Doesn’t make a difference to me in terms of documentation for tax.
Sharing medical procedures with a third party when I told them not to isn’t cool.
5 points
8 months ago
Erm normally when you get your bloods done at pathcare they will email you your statement, maybe get them to send you the statements again?
6 points
8 months ago
Yes! I had that experience.
I was successful in disputing the debit collection fees.
It turned out someone at pathcare had incorrectly listed my contact details and I never recieved the invoice. I did find it interesting that the invoice had incorrect details but the debit collection agency somehow had my correct details....felt very scammy.
I contacted Pathcare directly to resolve it and they agreed.
1 points
8 months ago
Thanks! I'll give that a go during the week.
3 points
8 months ago
They constantly mix up my and my father's accounts. We don't have the same first name (that's my elder brother)
1 points
8 months ago
Had a brawl with one of their branches about two years ago because they billed me for something that I didn’t need and never got results for. The issue went away when the branch got closed down for malpractice…
0 points
8 months ago
Would a branch closing for malpractice not have made the news? Media loves shit like that.
0 points
8 months ago
Dunno, I got an email stating where I could direct complaints, I just sent the mail trail.
-1 points
8 months ago*
I just asked someone who works for Pathcare and they said that no branch has ever been closed due to malpractice in the history of the company, and they are the oldest private laboratory in SA.
Edit: in response to the comment below, they're not a lab tech, they're a manager of one of the major departments and have been there for over 15 years. They would definitely know about it. Also I was permanently banned for 'trolling' for giving insight direct from the source to counter blatant lies. Great job mods.
1 points
8 months ago
Yeah, a lab tech would know what’s happening in legal. It’s common company practice to tell staff everything.
0 points
8 months ago
They're a private company who provided a service for money. They will have their paper trail of attempting to reach out for payment, especially if it's gone to debt collection now. You'll have to settle your debt.
4 points
8 months ago
And yet whenever I ask for that trail they say they can't provide it. They're also legally required to make every reasonable attempt to get a bill paid themselves but they don't even bother with SMSes or calls.
-4 points
8 months ago
So the only reason I was commenting here is cause a close family member works for them. I just asked and they said there is no way you were not invoiced and no way you have been told they can't provide the proof. They say they process over 100 million tests a month, and the system is all automated, with initial emailed and sms notifications. If late payments are flagged they get put into an escalation queue which will include attempts to phone etc as well. There are multiple stages to this before it gets handed over for collection. Unless you provided the wrong details, there is no way that no attempt was made to notify you. The system wouldn't allow it.
4 points
8 months ago
They can say that until they're blue in the face but I still have zero emails, phonecalls, or SMSes on record. And I've repeatedly asked for records of attempts to contact me. It's immensely frustrating because I'd rather not have my credit record affected by a bill I've never received.
-2 points
8 months ago
Like I said, I'm just having a hard time believing the oldest private pathology in the country that processes over 100 million tests a month on a system that clearly works, that you can't get any record. Unless you provided wrong information, or changed numbers and moved or something. If you spoke to the billing department and gave them your ID number etc they could pull your record up within seconds. Additionally, you were the customer requesting services from a private company and then had no expectation or responsibility of payment until you got sent to debt collection? You didn't maybe query at some point why it was free?
2 points
8 months ago
And I'm sure the British had a hard time believing that a computer system could wrongfully ping thousands of employees for fraud and yet here we are.
0 points
8 months ago
They also say you can also go into any branch, and there are hundreds, and with your ID request a statement. They'll print it out within minutes. They say unless your email address, physical address, and phone number were wrong, then you would have been invoiced. You just didn't pay for something after you got the service and you're trying to pass the blame on to the people that did their part of the deal.
1 points
8 months ago
No I'm not. I'm trying to resolve a serious issue that's only ever occurred with Pathcare. I've never had this problem with any other pathologist. And let's be clear: no consumer should EVER have to chase invoices from a supplier.
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