Very Disappointing Cancellation Process

<p>I belonged to Medscheme for nearly 3 years. When I left my company I went through the process of cancelling my medical aid through them. I phoned before I left to inquire about funds outstanding etc. and was advised that I would be notified of any monies owed to me. I left the company, and after a month or two I started getting SMSes advising me that I owed a certain amount of money to the scheme. Not understanding why I owed funds to them I sent an e-mail requesting information on the matter - why I OWED money, and if I could work out a payment plan because I was now unemployed. I receive an automated acknowledgement of my e-mail, but was never contacted by a consultant and never received a response e-mail. I continued to receive SMSes demanding I pay the money into a specific bank account number, which seemed quite strange to me. one can never be too careful with ****s etc. these days. So I ignored the SMSes, trusting that the scheme would get back to me regarding this. Then one day I received another SMS regarding the money, stating I had been handed over and was to contact the number provided. So not only was my e-mail query ignored, but now I was handed over and I had to be the one to phone after them? Ridiculous. I phoned after receiving another message from the ITC saying "Why are you ignoring me" (which I find very unprofessional?) and was informed I now had a record with ITC. This is very VERY upsetting to me as I have worked hard to maintain a good credit record with all my other accounts. Also I did enquire about a payment plan but my request was ignored. When I e-mailed again to Medscheme with an attachment of my first e-mail, I finally got a response, saying my request was going to the finance department. Then another person e-mailed me to say yes, I did owe that amount. But still did not explain why and no mention was made of my request for a payment plan and my dismay at being handed over! I think that is disgusting service from such a large corporation. Even clothing account companies will pick up the phone to speak to you when your account is behind, and respond to e-mails. But it seems Medscheme doesn't care about their clients and helping them keep clear records. Very disappointing. Plus their scheme is useless anyway, so expensive and hardly any benefits, very little communications about policies etc. </p>