NCO Financial Systems, Inc. 19 year old son went to emergency room and signed paperwork.Now he cannot go into Air Force until debt is paid. Lakeland, Florida

To Ashley and Coast, I feel you were both needlessly rough on this OP. This wasn't some frivolous loan, car loan, etc. It was an unexpected, involuntary emergency room medical bill.
I can pardon an 18/19 year old who didn't deal with it in a timely fashion.
If this still hasn't been resolved, Joseph Brown's advice is probably the best. Maybe seek help from local state elected reps or congressperson to break the deadlock. That's what they're there for.

Steve, I think that those viewing our military involvements as you do make your biggest mistakes in also throwing out hurtful language aimed at the military itself, thereby alienating untold numbers of fed up folks who otherwise might agree with your assessment of government policy.

When you start denigrating our service people, thereby negating the sacrifices they and their families make daily, you effectively throw potential support for your position down the drain.

And I feel it's not so much our being where we don't belong, as our government handcuffing our military and not letting them take care of business as military men in the field probably would, were they not forced to operate with kid gloves and hands tied behind their backs.

When going to war and nation has to resolve to either do their business or get off the pot. We end up sitting on the pot far too long. We ought not be trying to nation build anywhere. Just go in and deal with the threat at hand and get out, with a stern warning that next time, if their nationals can't control their governments or terrorists, we'll incinerate their infrastructure with missiles and be done with them for all time.

We definitely overstayed our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, to no purpose  in our national interest. But we have to expect our service people to obey their commands without question, and support them fully in doing so. You cannot have a military in a free society that does otherwise. In no way should they be tarred with whatever you feel the government does wrong.

I saw the comment, and then the name, and was almost thinking it was a different person. Maybe I can be his muse!

Unbelievable !!  Charles-the-Donkey-boy actually wrote his first coherent report.  Will wonders never cease.

That is like telling the fat guy to skip the second helping.

First of all, there has been no "raving" on my part. A bit of anger, sure, but nothing extreme. If you want to ask some specific questions without the "village idiot" crap, go ahead. One thing I will say is that ALL of government is funded by congress; it does not mean I would, say, not be angry at a government contractor that builds a thousand bridges to nowhere on my dime.

Granted, it is not all financial - there is a moral aspect here, what with the 100,000 civilians "heroically" killed in Iraq (while we wail about a few thousand on 9/11). Also there is an intellectual aspect - every time I hear something like "these brave boys are protecting our FREEDOM" I throw up in my mouth a little bit. 

But please, do not insult my intelligence by suggesting I would form an opinion about an entire branch of the government based on someone impregnating my sister or whatever; if I actually formed my opinions that way, you would indeed be justified in calling me a "village idiot" or whatever. If a banker killed my dog, I wouldn't up and join the Occupy Wall St. movement. 

One more thing before I take off for a bit (I incidentally happen to be occupying a hotel room around Wall St. right now and need to grab some food) - the debt situation in this country is going to kill us, so programs that waste out money deserve derision. Of course, the fact that no Republican has the balls to raise taxes and no Democrat has the balls to cut spending doesn't help.

You can keep repeating yourself until the moon turns purple; it won't make your and your misdirected anger right.

Now you're appearing as a raving idiot!  Tell us what you're real problem is with our Armed Forces Steve.  What was it?  Was your daddy in the military and away from home too much?  Did some G.I. impregnate your sister or daughter?  Just what the hell is your problem?

Your anger is MISDIRECTED you fool!  I see you didn't comment about the "we're protected by the Atlantic" crap.  I also can tell you're not interested in improving your education about our military or history.  So be it.  You want to be the village idiot, that's your right. 

Now, on to some of your comments:

the USA spends such an absurdly large amount on the military compared to every other country, that they would have to be able to time travel and sh*t gold out of their a**es to make them anything but a joke.

Our military has more on going operations than darn near all the other militaries combined.  Additionally, a large military force is going to spend a lot of money simply for training than a smaller military.  Add to that, the cost of research and weapons development, and the costs just keep adding up.  As I tried to tell you, it is CONGRESS that approves and funds our armed forces actions through appropriation.  If your upset about how much we spend (GDP) then direct your anger and disgust at CONGRESS, NOT OUR MILITARY MEMBERS.

There is some OTHER REASON you display such anger, disgust, and hate towards our Armed Forces members and it is NOT THE AMOUNT OF MONEY we spend on our military.  What's the REAL DEAL Steve???

And the whole "oh, we don't have a choice" excuse gets old. If you sign up, you are responsible for what you do.

Where did this come from?  Have I ever posted anything that indicated our Armed Forces members are NOT responsible for their actions?

If you break into another man's house and point a gun at his children, and the man kills you, you
ain't no hero. es combined.

I'll file this remark in the "raving village idiot file."

The military sucks money from those that actually produce wealth, and I am sick of them living off of my efforts. 

You've got it WRONG idiot.  IT IS CONGRESS that sucks money from the wealth producers, myself included.  I guess this explains your displayed disdain for poor folks and single parents.  Yes, I've read some of your other bigoted remarks on other RipOff Reports.  Tell me Steve, when was the last time you wrote to your Congressional Representative with such anger and discuss about military spending?

EVERY other country gets more bang for the buck than we do.

Do they?  I haven't seen it and I've actually worked with foreign military members for over 12 years.  I have not seen where the taxpayers of other countries get a "better bang for the buck."    What is your basis for this?  Care to share any factual data?

Your position is clear-you've seen to that Steve, but you've also made it clear that you're an ignorant jackass.  It is the Executive and Legislative branches of our government that tasks and funds our military actions; not our military members-that is where you should direct your anger and disgust but you're either too ignorant to know it or too bigoted to acknowledge it.

The numbers don't lie; the USA spends such an absurdly large amount on the military compared to every other country, that they would have to be able to time travel and sh*t gold out of their a**es to make them anything but a joke. The military sucks money from those that actually produce wealth, and I am sick of them living off of my efforts. EVERY other country gets more bang for the buck than we do.

And the whole "oh, we don't have a choice" excuse gets old. If you sign up, you are responsible for what you do.

If you break into another man's house and point a gun at his children, and the man kills you, you ain't no hero. 

Heck, even in WWII we were protected by the Atlantic Ocean.

But that didn't stop the Germans from attacking the U.S. did it Steve?

The Pacific didn't stop Japan!  Here's some suggested reading for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_happy_time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_theater

I don't know what your grief with our Armed Forces is but you should know that the PRESIDENT is the commander in chief and assigns tasks to our Armed Forces.

CONGRESS FUNDS our military operations.

I don't like much of our military spending but that doesn't cause me to accuse our military members of being the "most piss poor" military, especially when I have 20 years FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE that indicates otherwise.  I spent over 12 years in Europe and have directly worked with military members of other nations and IMO our folks are better trained and perform better under "less than desirable" conditions than any of the other armed forces I have directly worked with.

Steve - I am a veteran as is my brother and my dad.  I agree with everything you said.

I have no problem defending our borders, hell, I'd probably try to re-enlist myself if someone was attacking us and I'm 69.

Someone told me a long time ago that if something doesn't make sense you can be pretty sure their is money involved.  There is a LOT of money being made by defense contractors, why else would be be trying to fix the Middle East which has been fighting each other for centuries.  We lost over 4,000 of our best young people, tens of thousands of civilians, we finally left and they are STILL killing each other, it will never stop and we can't fix it.

Where will our next war be? Iran? North Korea?  Who knows, but someone is working on it right now, you can be sure of that. I've heard some politicians talking about going back to Iraq and kill more people, what the hell?

This isn't a social policy blog, but I really feel compelled to defend the military.  "Invading" a country doesn't stop when we over power them.  What you DON'T hear about on the news is how our soldiers help to re-establish water and food supplies, rebuild schools, hospitals, bridges, and other elements of the infrastructure. 

Quite frankly, I'll take a soldier over a civilian any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Case in point: many years ago I was living near a large army installation. On my way to work one morning a traffic accident at a major intersection with six cars involved managed to stop everything in both directions. Three of the cars were upside down, two were totalled beyond recognition, and one was up against a telephone pole.  The police had not yet arrived but you could hear them coming. Since I couldn't go anywhere I had ample opportunity to watch this scene unfold.

Cars coming from the army base started pulling over into a parking lot.  Soldiers - by the dozen - took over.  Some started directing traffic, some were tending to the wounded, some were helping the ones who managed to escape serious injury and were standing by the side of the road, and a few were standing by with fire extinguishers. By the time the police got there everything was under control and the ambulances were able to get to the injured very quickly.   As an aside, I might mention that everyone involved in the six cars were all civilians. Not that it makes a real difference, but it makes a powerful statement that our men and women in uniform will stop and help anyone. This is the moral character of which I spoke earlier.

The military has bad apples, just like any profession. Unfortunately, those are the only ones you hear about. 

Yes, they know they may have to kill when they sign up.  What does it tell you that someone is willing to do that for you? Just because a threat to our freedom isn't as obvious as being invaded, doesn't mean it doesn't exist in some other form.

 

"If you're going to go to war, it's better to wage war in the other guy's back yard rather than your own."

Wow. So when countries invade other countries (say, when Iraq invaded Kuwait) you respect the invading country? Hell, you must LOVE the 9/11 guys, and the Japanese when they bomber Pearl Harbor, huh? Anyway, invading other countries ain't protecting me, it is just killing other (innocent) people. Like I said, the whole "the military preserves our freedom" line is meant for the gullible.

"I've seen the other military forces in action-not much compare to our forces, in equipment or training."

Yes, this is why I emphasized dollar-for-dollar. I'd imagine the UK has a pretty decent military, with decent enough training; albeit not as good as yours. But how much better is your training? I it 10 times as good? I doubt it, yet for every dollar the US spends on the military, the UK spends one dime. Why is pointing this fact out "offensive"? I mean, should I pretend that the DMV is efficient as well? 

"If we reserved our armed forces for strictly defending the US physical borders, we too could do it for a fraction of what we currently spend."

At which point, I WOULD respect the military, and WOULD acknowledge that they protect me. We could have most people as reservists. Think about it, if we got invaded, TONS of people would sign up (hell, look at how many people enlisted after 9/11, and that was nothing compared to an actual army invading us). As it stands now, it is the POLICE, not the military, that protects us. I feel like my tax dollars are WAY better spent on the police than the military.  

Anyway, dollar-for-dollar, we have the most piss-poor military in the world.

Pretty offensive remark-and your proof of this is what?  I spent 20 years USAF, MSgt, and I spent 14 years in Europe.  I've seen the other military forces in action-not much compare to our forces, in equipment or training.

There are ton of countries out there that aren't going to get invaded, and they do that for a fraction of what we blow on the military.

That's because their countries don't wander about the globe playing "World Police" at every trouble spot on the planet.  If we reserved our armed forces for strictly defending the US physical borders, we too could do it for a fraction of what we currently spend.  Here's another bit of knowledge for you;  If you're going to go to war, it's better to wage war in the other guy's back yard rather than your own.  Ponder that for a while.  If you need a clarification, ask.

All due respect, but the whole "the military preserves our freedom" line is meant for the gullible; nobody is coming to invade us. Nobody WANTS to invade us. Heck, even in WWII we were protected by the Atlantic Ocean. 

Anyway, dollar-for-dollar, we have the most piss-poor military in the world. There are ton of countries out there that aren't going to get invaded, and they do that for a fraction of what we blow on the military. We waste more on the military than the rest of the countries in the world combined. They make the rest of the Federal government look like a super-efficient corporation. And of course, the ones that pay for this are those of us that generate wealth, working in the private sector.

And for the whole "killing is a fact of war" excuse: the 9/11 hijackers thought the same thing. Of course, they only killed 3,000 innocent people, the US has killed 100,000 (and this is just in this latest war). And frankly, if you join the military, you are responsible for this; as you said, "killing is a fact of war," so anyone signing up knows what they are going to be doing. But don't worry, when they come back missing a leg, everyone will fall over themselves talking about his "brave sacrifice". The thousands of children without legs (or heads) whose only crime is being Iraqi, we are not concerned with.

Whatever. Enjoy my tax dollars.

I hate to sound argumentative, but are you serious???

The military wants (and needs) people of good moral character. That's why they aren't too fond of people who skip out on paying their bills. I was all ready to jump all over NCO because they're bottom feeders.  However, if the bill is on the son't credit report, he was probably over 18 when the bill was incurred. If he's 19 now, the debt is recent. So it's not like NCO bought out a really old debt and tried to screw somebody.

But back to your comment - killing is a fact of war. And thanks to those who served before us, we're speaking English. Not German, Japanese, King's English, or Arabic.

To all my fellow veterans and those who are currently serving (and their family members) HOOHAH!!

The previous post has Charles' footprint (and irrationality).

Everybody knows nco pays money to the attorney general in PA. Why do you think their allowed to continue to abuse people.

NCO is well known for screwing the military. Bud Hibbs(just add .com to his name) says they are one of the worst in the country for debt collection. As a AF vet of 12 yrs I'd suggest you hit Military.com , go to the AF general forum and ask those folks what to do. There are a couple of recruiters posting there that may have additional info for you.

Good luck and I hope your son makes it.

Having debt: bad

Killing and maiming innocent people: AWESOME!

I wonder if any Iraqis will someday file a "ripoff report" against your son. 

"They refuse to send us documentation of the payments."

You have your cancelled checks.

"I think it is pretty dispicable of them to do this to someone"

It's despicable that your son failed to pay his bill before it went to collections.

Maybe if your son had paid his medical bills instead of ignoring them and letting them go to collections you wouldn't be at this point. You shuold be able to request the amount due on your account though, contact the original creditor for help.