Consumer Confidential: Should a Man Taken to the ER in an Ambulance Against His Will Have to Pay the Bill?
As George Varghese tells it, he was walking along a sidewalk in West Los Angeles when he tripped on a crack and fell to the ground, spraining his wrist. “An ambulance appeared suddenly,” he recalled. “Three men came out, checked my ID, laid me on a cart, pushed me into the van and took me to the emergency room.” That would seem like a model of paramedic perfection, except for one thing. Varghese, 79, said he didn’t want to go to the...
Consumer Confidential: When Collectors Call, Demand Proof of Your Debt
Suzanne Husted went through a rough patch about a decade ago and had to take out a pair of $300 payday loans to get by. She said she paid each back within a couple of months. Now she’s getting calls from two different debt collectors insisting that $2,400 in principal and interest is owed and that she better come across with some scratch or she’ll be dragged into court. “When I ask when I took out the loans, they say it was in 2010...
Car Collectors Do It for Love, Money
“For love or money” may be a phrase as old as capitalism, but it acutely applies to the resurgent collector car market, where record-breaking valuations have fueled a hobby best known as a labor of love. “Our bidder registrations are up 20 percent this year,” said Donnie Gould, president of Auctions America. “In years past, we saw a 5 percent gain. There’s an increase in new people enjoying the hobby. With volatility in the stock...
