Hey everyone. I have a another prayer request for you all.
When I was in basic training, the military overpayed me about $600, but didn't notify me of it until 6 months after I was out, and the money was all gone. I called the Department of Defense and told them that I was a full-time student now, and couldn't afford to pay it. They said that since I was a full-time student they could put me on defferment. After the initial defferment period they would need my school to send them confirmation that I will remain a full-time student. I told this to SWAU, but they said that they wouldn't be able to take care of it until August. On August 5th, the debt account was given over to a collection agency. I found out about this a couple days after we finished training. I called the Department of Defense again and informed them of the situation. They told me that all I had to do was have my school send in the confirmation and they would get the debt reclaimed. I had SWAU fax in the confirmation, and then over the next week, called the Department of Defense multiple times to find out if they'd received it. They said they didn't, so I had SWAU send it again. Again, it took another week, but this time they got it and my case was assigned to a tech to look over. While all this was being taken care of, I spoke with a guy, named Mark, from the collection agency who was handling my debt. I explained the situation to him and what the Department of Defense had told me. He said that if they were going to reclaim the debt, they had to do it within 30 days of the time when it was first handed over to the collection agency. That gave them until the 5th of Sept. Since getting the fax sent in, I've checked back to see how things were going. The Dept. of Def. told me that once a decision was made, a letter would be sent out to me, that the collection agency couldn't tell them when they could and couldn't reclaim the debt. So I relaxed a bit. Then I got a call from the records office at SWAU saying that they'd received a call from aa Joe Gomez, and that he said he didn't know why they had sent a fax saying I was still a full-time student since "that account has been closed since Nov. 2003." Well, this makes absolutely no sense, since Nov. 2003 is when I JOINED the army. There was no debt at that time, and they certainly wouldn't be "closing" any accounts on me since they would be in the process of "opening" accounts for me. He left his number so that I could get in touch with him. I've tried several times to get a hold of him since then, but all I ever get is his voice mail. I leave messages explaining my situation to him and asking him to call me back, nad leave my phone number also, but have not received a response from him yet. Yesterday was the 5th, but no one worked on Labor Day. This morning I received a call from Mark from the collection agency saying that the debt had not been reclaimed, and wanting resolution on it. I had a doctor's appointment to go to just then, so I asked if I could call him back later in the day. He said ok, and that he'd be there until 10pm today. When I got back from the doctor, I called the Dept. of Def. again and explained the situation. The lady said that the case was currently being reviewed, and that it could take a couple weeks for resolution. I explained that the collection agency had called me again this morning wanting resolution, and that they'd said that it would have to be reclaimed within 30 days of the time when they initially received it, which ended on the 5th. She said that a request for reclaiming the debt had been sent in on the 2nd, which was last Friday. After I asked a few more questions, she said that the ultimate decision as to whether the debt could be reclaimed remained with the collection agency, and that I shouldn't call them back because they may not like being told that this request had been sent in and that they might lost the account. So now, I'm hanging in the balance. The request had been sent in before the 5th, so that may meet the 30 day requirement. On the other hand, the debt isn't actually reclaimed yet. So I don't know how it's all going to go. From my point of view, it's all hanging in God's hands at the moment, and whatever He decides the decision is going to be will be what happens. So what I need right now is ALOT of heavy, focused prayer. If this doesn't get reclaimed and put back on deferment, I don't know how it's going to be paid, because I certainly don't have the money to pay it, and neither do my parents. What's more, I don't know if I should go ahead and call Mark back today or not. He's been very reasonable in dealing with me (not rude or threatening at all, and willing to work with me in getting this situation resolved). On the other hand, the lady from the Dept. of Def. advised me to not call him back today because it might adversely affect the decision that's made. I need some divine wisdom in order to know what I should do.
I guess that's it for now. Please pray hard for me.
Love,
Jeremy