<prompt> Human: Recently I was called by a debt collector regarding an ER visit about a year ago. I gladly would have payed my bill when it happened but I never got a statement in the mail, additionally when I was sick in the ER I was so out of it I didnt remember whether I had paid my copay or not. At any rate the lady working for the debt collection company was very nice, she told me it was no big deal the bill had just been sent to collection and that if I paid it now it wouldnt be on my credit history. I checked my credit report recently and I see the collection on my history as paid and Im really pissed off, first I called the collection company and tried to explain with little help, they basically hung up the line on me, so I disputed the charge and and some other misinformation on my account and ironically the other stuff I disputed on my credit report got dropped but the collection remained, is their anything I can do or should I just not worry about it since its listed as a paid collection anyways?  <response>: Ive had a couple of bills go to collections for similar reasons. Ive also received collection calls on a number of bills that I had already paid. Over the years Ive learned not to even give the collection agencies the time of day.Each time Ive received these calls the agent has NOT been polite. Theyve accused me of lying and refusing to pay my bills, even though the disputed amount was sometimes less than 20 and often other, later bills for hundreds of dollars from the same company had been paid on time.This wont help you with your current problem but it has worked for me and may help in the future:I learned to flatly refuse to deal with the collection scumbags and instead to contact the original source of the debt to either have them correct their records or to notify them that I had inadvertently overlooked their bill and would be paying them immediately. Once notified that I would be paying them the company has usually pulled my account back from collections immediately and the problem has gone away with absolutely no mention of it on my credit report. Even after paying the original bill, Ive sometimes received calls from collectors that insist I had not paid and that I was lying to them. I learned to just hang up on them and again call the original company to demand that they contact their collection agency. These collection agencies only listen to the companies that hire them.Consumer debt collection companies are corporate predators that employ the scum of the earth to do their dirty work. The dont give a damn if the debt is valid and are willing to harass, lie, cheat and break the law to get paid. The best way to deal with them is to refuse to speak to them at all. 