Collection Agency Sends Four Letters To Collect A $.04 Debt

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Pete received a bill in the mail that has him slightly offended and amused. A health care provider has sent his balance to collections after a payment arrived late a few years ago. They will clearly be hurting if he doesn't pay his overdue balance of ....four cents.
Yesterday I got a collections notice in the mail from a collections group on behalf of my health provider – it took several calls to determine this was based off a debt from 2004 where a payment was late, but paid after notice – they didn't alert me to the exact amount – leaving a few cents on the bill.
After calling the collections company about this – they laughed and said to treat this, and the next three notices with the same information as a Origami trainer and ignore it.
This came in a regular envelope, which suggests a 40 cent mailing cost + paper + envelope X 4 notices – many more times than the debt itself! Add to that the suggestion that I may be able to get the debt reduced to 50% If I respond in time!
Reduced to half, really? Are you sure you don't want to take them up on this offer?
Automated letters save a lot of work, but result in some ridiculous situations.

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