"Please send your payment of $286,651,237 in the enclosed envelope."
Patrice Perry was admittedly behind on her credit card payments and said she'd tried to negotiate in good faith with Capitol One, but a letter like that, well it's enough to send most folks over the edge, isn't it?:
"I almost died when I opened that letter," Perry said. "I think they were trying to bully me into paying something other than the amount that I said I could pay. I think they wanted to shake me, really, and they did. I was quite devastated by it."
The Delaware County woman turned around and sued Capitol One for the same amount of money they were demanding -- 286 million -- for "terroristic" debt collection methods that her attorney says included threatening calls to Perry, as well as calls to her family and co-workers, trying to get her to pay.
"Defendant went to great lengths to abuse, threaten, intimidate and harass Plaintiff over a substantial period of time, first by falsely demanding varying amount, and when that failed, by demanding a payment so extreme as to be tortuous..." the suit claims.
Perry owed the company $3,800 when her hours were cut back at work last year. She said she tried on her own, and then with the help of her brother, an attorney, to negotiate a deal to either pay what she could or pay off the account for less than what she owed, but that didn't work.
Perry's suit claims the 286 million dollar bill was not a computer glitch, but sent intentionally to harrass the consumer. Capitol One told us in an emailed statement:
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"There are very rare occasions when human error has led to inaccuracies in customer billing letters. This is clearly one of those instances. Unfortunately there was an error in that we inadvertently inserted the internal tracking number in place of the balance due. We understand, and sincerely regret, the confusion that receiving an invoice of this size must have caused."
Credit Rights attorney, Craig Kimmel, who is now handling Perry's case, said consumers should know their rights when it comes to credit card companies:
"Don't be intimidated. You certainly don't have to put up with it. . .and make sure that you don't agree to pay something unless you fully understand where the charges come from."
