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I don’t do this often, but be prepared–the following is a vent which may will include confusion.

As most of my regular readers know, I was stupid and dropped out of school in the Spring of 2008 (after such a great semester in Fall of 2007–like I said, stupid!); since I was going to school on a scholarship and academic loan, when I dropped out, my school returned $660 to the lender of my student loan. Since they did that, I owed my school $660.

In September 2008, I began receiving said bill for $660, and in October, I made my first payment. I then proceeded to make another payment at the end of October (for November’s bill), sometime in December, and twice in January. I have paid $447.50 thus far. In February, when I went to their website to pay that month’s bill, it said there was a hold on my account and that I couldn’t pay. Um, okay. I tried contacting the offices at the school, but they were always out or I’d sit on hold forever. Somehow March rolled around, and I was still unable to contact them/pay my bill. I did notice, however, that my account said that I had failed 67% of the Fall 2008 semester. Now remember, I dropped out in Spring 2008 and haven’t been back since, so I have no idea where this came from. At that point, I was slightly pissed, but mostly annoyed.

Fast forward to yesterday: I called to attempt paying my bill AND get the fall 2008 thing straightened out–I figured they may have just mixed me up with someone else–and they finally answered! After explaining my situation, the business office transferred me to Admissions/Records. They told me that, no, I didn’t fail Fall 2008–that the last time I was enrolled was Spring 2008. Yes, I know. Would you please fix your website? And what are the holds that are on my account that won’t allow me to pay my bill. Well, they couldn’t see the holds on my account, so they transferred me to the Bursar’s Office. (By this point, I was getting tired of repeating my social security number.) The people at the B.O. stated that I had missed a payment (Uh, yeah. Because I have holds and I couldn’t get ahold of anyone) in February and that they had sent it to a collection agency. FOR MISSING ONE FREAKIN’ PAYMENT? So, they had to transfer me (again!) to the person who handles collection. This is what he said to me:

“You’ve been making your payments since we began billing you,  but you missed February’s payment, so we sent it to a collection agency. You can call them at blah, blah, blah.”

Uh-huh, I see. Thanks for clearing that up.

So, I called the collection agency, and the woman said, “Yes, you owe $1600-something. How much would you like to pay today?” Um, do what? $1600? I only owed $660 in the first place, and I ‘ve paid $447 of it. Something isn’t adding up. Literally. She then said that I had TWO accounts sent to them from my school (one for about $700-something and one for $800-something). “Maybe for two different semesters?” Um, no. I’m only having to pay for the Spring 2008 semester (I passed the fall semester with FLYING FREAKIN’ COLORS). And when I started getting billed in September, I only owed $660, and I began making payments. The man at School said that I had missed ONE payment and they sent my account to you in February 2009 (last month). “Sorry, miss, but your account was sent to us in September 2008. The second account was sent in December 2008. How much would you like to pay today?”

Did you catch that? Even though I was paying, they sent my account to the collection agency in September 2008 (which was when they started billing me), and ANOTHER account in December 2008 (which I’m thinking is a huge mistake for thinking I failed fall 2008). I told her I’d need to contact my school to get things straightened out. “But you really need to pay these today.” Okay, for one, if I had stuff at the collection agency, why didn’t I ever receive notification for that? Two, I’m not paying for something I don’t owe. “Let me connect you to my manager so he can better explain to you why you owe this.” By that point, I was almost in tears, so I hung up.

Then I tweeted about it, of course.

To sum things up, basically my school is trying to screw me over. I’ve been making my payments (even the guy at my school told me this!) but somehow, my account was sent to collections. No, TWO accounts were, even though I only have one. Not only that, but the school has NO IDEA what they’re saying, and they continue to transfer me to every single office on campus.

I’ve decided that the phone is not a great place to handle these things. So today, I’m printing off all of my statements (from the school AND my bank) showing that I have been paying. Then, I plan to drive the hour to my school and give them a piece of my mind.

Honestly, how do they make these HUGE mistakes? Don’t they realize they’re screwing up people’s credit?!

I’m just beyond annoyed.

Oh, and it’s so good to know that you can fail a semester without even being enrolled for that semester!