December 7, 2023 at 8:48 am

Hospital Rudely Insisted That A $1,200 Overpayment Was His, But Demands It Back After An Error Is Found. – ‘I asked if she was sure they owed me this money.’

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Reddit/AITA/Unsplash/@s1winner

Well, this one sure worked out for the person who wrote this story on Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” page!

Who doesn’t love free money, right?

They said that they just lost their job when it all went down…

You’re sure it’s mine? Fine, I’ll keep it.

“This happened in 2014.

I had just lost my job and was in the process of looking for a new one, but didn’t have much money saved to pay bills in the meantime. So I asked my father if I could borrow $1200 just to get me through to the next month and I would pay him back as soon as I started working again.

They took care of their business.

He sent the money, I paid my bills, and got a new job shortly after. As soon as I had the money to pay him back, I used my bank’s online bill pay option to send him a check. I sent him a text and told him it was on the way and just assumed that was the end of it.

Well, a week went by and he hadn’t gotten it. I thought maybe it took a few days for the bank to actually process the bill pay option because I hadn’t used it before. So I asked him to just wait a few more days and see if it came.

They needed to find out what was going on.

Several days later, it still hadn’t gotten there, so I called the bank and asked them and they told me I could stop payment on it for free, so I did. Then I just wrote a personal check and mailed it.

I just assumed something went wrong with the online bill pay.

And then something unexpected showed up in the mail.

About 2 months later, I got a check in the mail from a medical facility in the state my father lives in for $1200.

I called and asked them about it and they told me, on a recorded line, that it was an overpayment on an account my father had with them and it was a legitimate check and was mine to keep.

At that point, I didn’t associate it with the bill pay thing I had tried to do a couple months before. I did call my father to ask about his accounts with this place because there was no reason they should have my address to be sending me an overpayment if he had actually made one. He had no idea what was going on because he hadn’t used that facility in a few years.

Then a light bulb went off.

I looked up the place on Google and finally it dawned on me what had happened. My father’s address was on Saddlewood Drive at that point in time. But when I typed it into bill pay, my phone autocorrected it to ‘Sandalwood’ and it just happened to be the same numerical address.

They tried to sort it out.

And because my father’s name was listed as the payee, they erroneously attempted to apply it to his account.

So that’s where my check had gone.

I tried to call them again and explain what happened and the lady on the phone was extremely rude to me.

This lady wasn’t too friendly.

She told me “I’ve already talked to you about this. I don’t know why you’re calling again. We sent you what we owed you. This account is settled and we will not be talking about it again.”

Again, this is a recorded line.

I asked if she was sure they owed me this money.

She practically shouted “YES!!”

And I just smiled and hung up the phone.

And, predictably, they got a call a little bit later.

I deposited the check into my bank that day. They didn’t try to call me back until about 6 weeks later. I had been wondering how long it would take.

The person who called me was a different lady and she called to tell me that a mistake had been made and that I owed them $1200.

Time to show them what’s what!

I told her she was misinformed and she should go back and listen to the recorded calls that I had made to their office and gave her the dates.

I had been reassured multiple times that the money was mine and that I was in the clear to cash that check.

And then I hung up.

I haven’t heard a single thing about it since then.”

Check out what people had to say.

This reader wants to see more!

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another individual was amused by this story.

Source: Reddit/AITA

One Reddit user thinks they know what’s going on here.

Source: Reddit/AITA

And another individual said this person definitely got fired.

Source: Reddit/AITA

I hope they spent that extra dough on something nice.

A vacation, perhaps?