Happens all the time.
My wife brought her aunt into our home to die.
After the aunt died in October, companies began calling the house trying to collect on outstanding debts. The estate left nothing for this, and my wife informed them of that.
“Well, usually the family will take care of these bills.”
“Not this family.” Click.
T-Mobile will NEVER get any business from me, if this is how incapable their billing department is, then they can't be trusted with something so important as communications.
What an obscene story. My condolences to Emily's family.
I guess I’m of the mind that if I do my due diligence, as this family obvously has; future bills go into the shredder unopened. If I get a call, the response is simple “Do NOT call me again - I am not Emily, and I am not responsible for her bills”.
Unfortunately, the poor minumum wage schmuck on the other end of the call is simply following a script he’s been given. Call accounts that are delinquent and get money. Not a fun job under the best of circumstances.
Hopefully, this article sets a fire under the back-sides of the people who have obviously failed (miserably) to do the most basic of jobs.
The only oblication you have is if the person had an estate, their creditors should be paid. If no estate you are not responsible.
However, it is best to write all known creditors to inform them of the death and the fact there is no estate.
When my sister passed away last year that is all I did. This worked even for the IRS whom she owed several thousand dollars.
We then notified the post office of her death and requested all mail be returned to sender.
We have not heard from any of her creditors.
To be honest, I don't think releasing a statement is good enough. They showed willful neglect even after the family rubbed their noses in the inescapable fact that the woman was dead. It's one thing to let bureaucracy catch up, it's another to outright neglect the request.
If I were the family, I would want her charges backdated to the date of death and some sort of financial settlement to cover the cost of the time wasted and pain caused, either as an additional check or perhaps a donation to her memorial fund.
Oh, and I wonder how comfortable her customers were when they learned an epileptic was cutting their hair?