Some parents in Central Texas are receiving collection letters for instruments that they rented for their children. Thing is, they tried to return the musical instruments, but could not.
One mother is like many of the other parents who rented from a now bankrupt local music store in 2008. Her son completed the work with his rented clarinet in May 2008, and she attempted to bring it back to the store.
When she got to the store, there was a note on the door informing customers that they were out of business and no one was in there. On numerous instances, she attempted to go by the store, and even called other locations. To add insult to injury, her bank could not stop the automatic monthly payments that were being taken out of her account.
Around two years later, when the payments had come to an end, the boy’s mother sold the clarinet for ninety dollars to someone else. All in all, she was charged three hundred dollars after the point she tried to return it. The young mother thought that that would be the end of the clarinet situation. But soon after she received a five hundred dollar collection notice from a collections agency on behalf of the instrument maker Conn-Selmer. The instrument makers had received her information as part of the bankruptcy process.
The young mother was left in a stupor. She could not believe that she was charged for the year when she tried to, but couldn’t return it, and now that she may be expected to pay money, she felt as if the store owed her money, not the other way around.
After a local news channel contacted a spokeswoman for Conn Selmer to find answers for the parents who had received collection bills, the spokeswoman said that the company will be sending letters to all parents who received collection letters. The letter will supposedly detail how parents who feel as though they are being unfairly treated can challenge the debt.