promised refund from chiropractor

[Flibius3]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

In December 2007 I injured my neck and went to a chiropractor for services. I chiropractor had a device that he claimed could possibly fix my neck. I foolishly signed up for treatments with said device before doing any research on it. To pay for the treatments I signed up for a credit card that the chiropractor could set me up with.

Before receiving any treatments I decided that the cost was too much and went back to the chiropractor and asked that the treatments be canceled and that I be refunded. The chiropractors office promised me that they would repay the credit card and would let me have the treatments for free. At first they upheld their word and payed the monthly payments on the debt but after a few months they started to forget to pay and bounce checks. Well, the interest rate on the account went up quite a bit and the chiropractor asked that I pay the account monthly and request a refund every other month for the amount that I paid. They promised that eventually that they'd be able to pay the entire account off. Well, they upheld their word for a while but one day I came in and almost all the staff was gone.

I talked to the customer care representative of the chiropractors who had been instructing me this entire time and she said that I should call the credit card company and dispute the balance. Well, I did this and wrote a short letter about what happened and they denied my dispute because it was over a year old. I disputed it again with a much longer and detailed letter and once again was denied because it was over a year old.

Is there anything I can do other than try to negotiate the balance down with the credit card company by taking a bad hit on my credit? The total debt is around $5500.

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[Zigner]

Why would any professional give you free services and free equipment to the tune of over $5,500? It just doesn't make sense...

 

[Flibius3]

Originally the debt was $4000. He didn't give any free equipment, just allowed me to use his equipment. He was collecting fees for normal chiropractic adjustments from my medical insurance company which is how I assumed that he was able to afford to finance my debt. It would take him a couple minutes to make the spinal adjustments and then he would charge my medical insurance company and collect copayments from me every couple of weeks.

As for why he stated that he did it, it was just before Christmas and he said it was his good deed of the month. I think he was likely desperate for money and needed the $4000 immediately. I believe that he had good intentions but had too much financial problems. I've been told from another chiropractor that the same situation happened to other people.