It's Not an Urban Legend

I know because it just happened to me!

Many of you know that a couple of years ago I was responsible for the care of my aunt. She had given me power of attorney to handle her affairs, but the attorney she hired was a shyster and my aunt was convinced he could do no wrong, so the attorney claimed she was not in her right mind and could not sign the legal documents to actually give me the ability to sign her checks, pay her bills, etc. I was POA in name only.

Time has passed and the estates are long settled. I checked my post office box today and found a whole bunch of mail addressed to my aunt. The light bulb clicked on once again, and I decided to open up all these pieces of mail and call the individual places to tell them my aunt was deceased. All was done quickly and efficiently.

The last letter was addressed to my uncle in care of my address. My uncle has been dead for almost 25 years.

The letter was from a collection agency, offering a settlement for a debt. It took me three tries to get someone to talk with me in a reasonable tone. So, I have nothing but nice things to say to the third lady who listened to the explanation, and wrote a lengthy description of the problem which she read back to me for approval.

While I had her on the phone, I asked her if she would mind taking my complaint about the first two calls I made. She said she would be glad to pass them on.

My first call was answered by a man who sounded like he was troubled by a mass resembling a cob lodged in a place the sun doesn't shine. He was unable to help me, so he transferred my call to a voice mail number - the voice sounded suspiciously like the same man I was talking to. The voice message said callers were to call back because he wasn't in the office, but left nothing in the way of days or hours to call, or if he'd return the calls.

That's when I tried for the second time.

Call number two went something like this:

"This is Miss Consuelo Martinez, how can I help you?"

"Miss Martinez, I'm calling about a letter I received in my mail today. It was addressed to my uncle and it's regarding a debt which your company is trying to collect. I wanted to let you know that my uncle has been dead over 20 years and I have no means to do anything with this particular thing. I'm certain I received this because I had power of attorney for my aunt who has since passed away, and both her estate and my uncle's have long been settled. I thought perhaps you would like to know this so you can get this off your books in whatever way those things have to be done."

"Well, that's just NOT going to happen until this bill is paid!"

"There's no way for the bill to be paid now. The estate has been settled for over 20 years. It's not my debt to pay and so these letters need to stop coming to me."

"You're going to have to pay the debt."

"No, I'm not. I'm just doing you a courtesy to let you know that you're wasting time, money and postage trying to collect this. As I said, my uncle's estate has been settled for a good many years, and his widow's estate has been settled for almost two years now."

"Well, if you're not going to pay the debt, then you need to have your uncle call us and explain that to us."

WTF???

"Miss Martinez, my uncle CAN'T call you because he's DEAD!"

"That doesn't matter! You have him call us and take care of this at once!"

And she slammed the phone down in my ear.

Anyone have John Edward's phone number? I think I'm going to need his help to get my uncle in touch with Miss Martinez.