Background:

We purchased our furniture for our new build and were told we had one year to pay with no interest. We asked if we had to take the furniture immediately as our house wasn’t quite ready. The salesperson assured us we did not, and that we would communicate with their company for a delivery date that worked for us. And that our one year interest free wouldn’t start until our furniture was delivered to us. So we purchased that day rather than waiting.

Fast forward a couple months and we are contacted with a delivery date, and told to contact them if the date didn’t work. So we did, as we needed about another month. So the delivery date was changed. Email confirmation sent. Great.

The day of the original delivery date, the truck showed up. We explained the mistake to the drivers and showed them our e-mail. They apologized and took everything back to the warehouse.

We received everything less than a month later as planned.

Now fast forward 11.5ish months from that time, the finance company calls to let us know our one year interest free is set to expire in about a week’s time. We had been preparing and saving so we had the lump sum ready that day. It was sent over while they were on the phone with us. Confirmation. Everything is great.

We suddenly start getting mail and calls about a month later regarding our $3000 interest charge. I escalated as high as I could, had them open an investigation, sent the proof that we paid before the deadline, etc. They told me that while they investigated, we would need to pay the interest or it would continue to acrue. I refused (mainly because side we did not have an extra $3k lying around). And they added more as the battle continued. We tried calling the furniture place, who told us it was a finance company issue and to have them contact them. Called the finance company, have them call us. Back and forth with us as the middle man. We finally got fed up and went to the store in person.

Meanwhile, the harassing phone calls continued, as did the bills showing higher and higher balances. Eventually we began getting calls from collections.

While we were at the store, the front desk and a manager called on our behalf. They tried to tell her we were mistaken, but when she asked them for the dates, they realized that they had made an error. After MONTHS of telling us there was no error, their investigation had found nothing, and that we now owed double the original penalty. We left there seething but happy to have it finally straightened out.

One month later, we received an interest charge in the mail. For the paid interest payment. That the finance company agreed was in error. I thought my husband was going have a heart attack right then. He tends to go worst case scenario. I’m more logical and explained they can’t charge interest on interest that never really existed. Sure enough, we called. They apologized and it was reverted to a zero balance again.

At the time, both my husband and I were on medical leave for stress, anxiety and depression. The state of our finances was part of that stress and can be confirmed by our therapist. This caused my husband to have panic attacks, barely sleep, and almost relapse on his sobriety. It set our recovery back, also well documented by therapists, and led to our respective insurance companies paying us to be off work longer. (Our doctors wanted a reduction in symptoms such as panic attacks for clarity).

My questions if you’ve read this far:

1. The calls from collections, should we now be concerned with our credit rating? And if this has had an effect on that, what are our options to fix it?

2. Should we let our insurance companies know that they paid more due to the ineptitude of this organization (twice)?

I know this sounds petty but they were not lovely to talk to, called us constantly, tried to frighten us into paying, and obviously lied about escalating it to the investigation department. I kind of want a nice big insurance company to send the message that what they did had effects, and an investigation should have been completed before we were sent to collections.

I’m just trying to ascertain if it’s worth even looking into or if I’m just going to waste money I don’t have trying to fix a credit rating and being petty.

We are Canadian if the flare wasn’t clear. Thanks very much if you read all this.