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Need help america,not being paid for work my company has performed.What makes business bad is when companies call you to do work and then refuse to pay.If you don't want to pay for work completed,then do the work yourself!Having to pay more money to my attorney to collect on work from as far back as January of this year.If anyone out there needs good legal help let me know,I have info on legal help for very small cost.

Back in 2006 I went to the Emergency Room as I had a piece of meat stuck in my throat, it would not go down nor come up.  After trying to remove it with nitroglycerin pills, they had to send me in for "minor surgery" and use the endoscope to pluck it out.  At the time I had just gotten married, and 2 weeks after getting married we learned the wife's son was getting booted from the institution he'd been places in and we had to make room for him, and it was right about the time he came to live with us I had the ER proceedure, abd the Wife & Kid were both on Disability and SSI, as a result I qualified for medical assistance and we all qualified for food stamps.  The wife was suposed to be taking care of paying  the bills, including the medical bills, apparently she missed this one.  By the time I found out about it it was too late for medical assistance, I was also in the process of getting divorced, I had to go in for neck surgery for which the wife would not even help transport me to & from the hospital.  After the neck surgery I was not allowed to return to work which was only P-T at minimum wage to begin with.  I've since recovered but I'm faced with almost certain daily neck pain, I've tried to apply for disability twice but ultimately was turned down.

 I tried to get a decent job with the State Dept of Transportation thinking working on the road crew would be better than the grocery store job.  Well they offered me a job in the Welcome Centers Division, Part-Time still but more per hour.  Only now I've come to realize there was absolutely no guarantee of a certain number of hours per week, some weeks I do work 5 days, but mostly the average is 2 days as some weeks I don't work at all, and to boot, all these hours worked are approximately 4 hours distant from my home where I went to the ER.  Well I hung in and did a real good job when work was offered and although I had little hope of finding a F-T job as these are very appealing jobs and people tend to keep them once they land one, I know I would.  Well miracles do happen, a couple of F-T openings did appear, I bid on all of them and have interviews for them (even though they were all across the state) and I was quite certain I would get one.  Well again a miracle (or so I thought), I have been told a F-T job awaits me, but my luck is such that just days, wait, maybe only hours......or maybe only minutes before they offered me a F-T job assuring me of an income that would allow me to catch up on all my bills, and providing me with medical benefits for future ailments, the evil governor stepped in and slapped a hiring freeze on state jobs.  This was also a slap in my face after working so diligently, to now be considered less than a citizen or so it would seem.

So now I am back to square 2, (1 up from square 1), I'm looking for some sort of F-T Employment with some benefits (like who isn't looking for work these days, seems the whole nation/world is seeking work) and I get a call from some collection company demanding payment or they will recommend litigation.  First off, I wanted to verify the debt is still owed, I thought all medical bills from back then were, but all I ever got from the collection company was harassment & threats, so I will be checking with the Doctor's office, and yes, I do remember having this issue come up maybe a year and a half ago....I recall something, but not all the specifics, about applying for assistance under Hill-Burton, now after reading up on Hill-Burton, I guess that only covers Hospital Bills, NOT Dr. bills, and this all stems from a woman who was supposed to be managing our finances, I was busy earning the money, but as she became less willing to be a wife and became more self-centered, she left this slip through the cracks, and later when I was hospitalized for the neck surgery, she had me medical assistance cut off leaving me floundering for some way to pay for needed medical attention.

 Most recently, just before being so rudly contacted by the collection company, my car, needed to get to and from work, had a problem, seems the one spark plug kept getting blown out of the engine and finally after the 3rd instance, I was not able to re-insert the plug, the threads used to hold it into the aluminum block engine/head were stripped out.....totally gone.  The garage I chose said a new engine would cost $5200 plus incidentals like head gaskets; a new head would cost $2500 plus incidentals, and they thought they could put in a Helicoil Thread Insert which is what Ford recommended as the repair proceedure.  This cost me $550.00, and I thought the problem was fixed.  It also leaves me with not quite $450 in my account and the mortgage of $325 due by April 5th.  Well I thought they had fixed the problem and drove off and drove maybe 40-50 miles when the check engine light came on again, the engine had a bad miss and was barely able to keep running at idle.  It cost me another $75 to have the garage that supposedly fixed the problem, diagnose that my cylinder #2 was only able to achieve 50% of normal compression....there was a leek somewhere (burnt or bent valve, scored cylinder walls, no one knew for sure, just that it would cost lotsmore to fix it.

I had to go back up to my house in North Central PA and resurrect an old plymouth minivan that had been sitting idle since I had filed for divorce in 2006 and try to get myself some sort of transportation to continue working. (my headquarters location was only 9 miles from my brother's house where I was staying until I find F-T employment, but I had to frequently drive 60 - 160 miles to other locations to achieve that 2 day average workweek), and this vehicle cost me $36 to register/license, $152 to repir and inspect, and I just got the insurance bill, well it wasn't as bad as I'd feared, it was only $35 due now, but that only covers me till June 20th, then I'll probably have to come up with another $250 to $300 for insurance.  

I've taken the Ford to another mechanic and he estimates the repair to be about $1100 to $1600.  What I really need help with right now is if anyone knows where I can get financial assistance for the medical bill ($1047.00) to get them off my back, and/or if anyone knows of a good F-T job with some benefits that I might apply for.I've been lookig to work in the field of non-profit agencies in fundraising, especially in Special Events planning.

 Thank you in advance to anyone who can help me, I really hate to be asking, I was brought up to take care of my own problems, but all of a sudden they just stacked up faster than I can solve them.

Oh, by the way, I do volunteer here in the Lehigh Valley, PA, I am trying to help raise funds for a local youth center hoping any effort I put forth to keep active in fundraising would help me get a decent job.

I keep getting asked about collection agency letters. Why so much legal language on it? Why can't they put in in plain english.

Is it? Collection letter, about 90% of them are a template or form letter. They are hoping to collect on that letter. It's a mental way of confusing you or letting you something of what is going on and how they can collect quickly. The more legal the information the more confusing and more scared you become.

You need to ask yourself some questions and you need to look at the letter, how is it written. Can you understand what it's say? Is it clear? Is there a lot of legal written verbiage? How does it say it. A lot of times, you read it so quickly that you don't want to pay attentation to what it's really trying to say. YOu try to do the 30 second read, instead of reading it word by word and understanding what it's really trying to say to you. 

Collection letter(s) are form letter from the company. They only explain of what can happen and there is no help on what is going on. Look at the letter and read the engish on it.

Lot's of time the letter uses words that you can't understand or phases that should not be there.

I once got a letter say, "When you have time to call". But I was reading it as "You Have to Call ". I was so scared of what it was trying to say, that I did not read the whole thing. 

Remember, you must look at the letter, keep the envelope. Never throw the envelope away. The envelope has a date stamp on it. Which can be importan in the court of law later in a later time if you need to go that way.

But read, read and re-read. Look, look and relook. If you are to neverous at first, give it some time and then read it again. Look at what it's trying to tell you.

Once you understand what it's trying to tell you, 90% of the time it's just a form letter.

You can Fight! Because you have rights!! 

It's time to fight back. The biggest stress that anyone has is debt. It can drive you crazy because you are being told that you need to pay NOW. When now is not an optiong when things are going wrong for you. Now will not work, until you can make ends meet. But we are sorry creditors, I need to eat first before I can pay you....

Yes, and I don't tell anyone not to pay your bills but yes you can make arrangments or see if you can pay it off in a lower amount. Remember and I tell this to everyone, when you go to collections. The company that you are dealing with has written you off. So you are now a tax break to the company. They sell your debt to a collection agency on the dollar. The collection agency now can make a profit, if you pay them. All collection caller work on debt profit. If they get more money from you the bigger there paycheck with be. In trade with the company, they will clear your credit report. Once the debt is paid to the collection agency. 

But keep in mind and by law, you must get any deal in writing. Even if they say that the phone call enough. The written aggrement that will stays in court better. Because you now have a record of what is going on and the collecting company can not put words in your mouth. You now have a written copy of what you need to do.

Also when you write it, make sure you sign it in blue ink. By sigining it in blue ink that document will hold up better in court then any other document. Blue ink indicates that it's a true statement from you. It's unfightable.

So get it in writing and sign it in blue ink.

I found something that can help everyone with their financial or other goals. We have fallen behind on everything and could use all the help we can get. I set a low goal hoping to go above and beyond it. I will be re-donating 10% of everything I receive. You can see my page  here: 

https://www.fundable.com/groupactions/groupaction.2007-12-13.4824878765/groupaction_view

Please help if you can and start one of your own if you need/want to. When mine closes 10% of the total will be donated to another cause on Fundable, I will chose by need and if 10% of the total can help another reach their goal. If we all do this, I believe we will help each other more than we will ever know.

Thank you all in advance.

I am seeking 150 people to pledge $15 dollars for my mother's finanical aid. (see my aidpage) In turn, I will pledge a book/novel, to each pledgemate.  They will need to send me a message for a list of the books, you choose from my extensive collection and I cover the shipping. 

Needed Funds $1500

Pledged funds:

Deadline for joining: September 25, 2006

Signed up pledgemates:

Pledge Progress:

Hi my name is Tammy.  I'm trying desperately to assist my mother who has fallen into a pit of despair after losing my baby sister in February of this year.  My sister Wendy was 36, she was deaf/blind and disabled from birth, due to a one-in-a- million gene defect.  She died of heart disease. My mother's grief has led to many phobias and mental health issues.  I have no choice but to move her in with me and my husband.  I need money to make this happen.  The only thing I have of worth to pledge- is years of books that I have read and collected.  I have read a book, twice a week for over 20 years.  And yes...I have them all!  I have made a list of the books/authors that I am going to part with. (e-mail me for the list)  Among them you will find recent best sellers, autobiographies, old books, odd books, self help books, cook books, there is something for everyone.  I figure I can ship them for around $5 which would make my goal $1000

The money will be used to get her car fixed, storage and moving expenses.  If there is anything left I will spend the balance to get my sister out of that plastic box and into a real urn. 

You can e-mail me for the list, before you pledge.  When you pledge let me know which book you pledged for, so that I can remove it from my list.  As soon as I recieve each pledge,  I will ship the book media mail, via US postal service to anywhere in US or Canada. 

Please let me know what you think of the books and I will keep you posted on my mother's progress!