MARA ALEXANDROU

MYRTLE BEACH, SC

John and I met in March 2012 the old-fashioned way – on Match.com

I was working in the skin-care field while John spent his afternoons and evenings as a print journalist writing for newspapers. Both of us were in search of a lifelong partner, someone who had our back. We knew within hours that we’d found something special.

I came from an old Hollywood family. My dad was a high-level film executive. My mother was born and raised in Italy and was an actress there before emigrating to the US in 1944. John was born in the U.S. to American parents and they raised him in Brazil where he lived until he was 25.

I worked in the film industry as a child until my later 20’s. I then worked in real estate, restaurant management and medical aesthetics. I loved what I did even though the income wasn’t great, certainly nothing to retire on. I’d had a taste of residual income from Hollywood and was looking to get that back as my film-related residuals shrank over time.

Don’t ever think all problems are bad. Some look terrible on the outside but may have gold on the inside. This was the case with John and I when in 2016 we were charged $4,000 for a medical bill that should have been covered by our health insurance. Perplexed, we asked the insurance company why they hadn’t paid the $4,000. They said the bill had been coded incorrectly by the doctor, telling us they’d happily pay for the bill, all the doctor had to do was recode correctly.

We called the doctor numerous times over the coming months to no avail. She would not even come to the phone. The bill finally went into collections which caused our credit score to drop by 70 points right when we were getting ready to buy a house! We called the doctor’s office one last time pleading with them to recode, only to be told she wouldn’t. We told them they would hear from our attorney…only, we didn’t have one!

We finally found a lawyer who offered to take our case. The only issue was that he wanted a $3000 retainer! Needless to see we passed.

Our next step was to call family and friends. Finally, we were referred to a lady named Nancy Chaconas, whom we were told “worked in the legal area.” Suffice it to say, it was LegalShield.

We immediately got the coverage, spoke to an attorney the next day. A few days later, the doctor got a 3-page letter from our attorney. Within less than an hour, the doctor and the biller were on the phone with us saying “they were so sorry and that it must have been a clerical error!”  Everything was turned around and the law firm even helped us with restoring our credit score.

This was my turning point. I immediately called Nancy back and asked, “Can I do this?” I think you know the answer and here we are several years later, living our best lives. I was able to retire John from his career as a breaking news journalist with USA Today within about a year. We are currently living in a new home Myrtle Beach South, SC enjoying a vastly growing team, income and friendships with this amazing business. Thank you LegalShield and thank you Team Pinnacle!

We’re even thankful for our incorrectly coded medical bill. Had this not happened, our lives might be very different today.