Now I’m very suspicious. For a short while a month or two ago, I was getting these exact same calls. Strict voice and everything. And I could swear that Jeffrey something was the name of the person they were trying to reach. They weren’t rude to me, but they ignored my first request to quit calling.
keep us updated!
I’m subscribing to this thread.
BTW–the only good thing the Tennessee State Legislature ever did was set up our own “Do Not Call” law, years before everybody else.
I think the Fair Debt Collection Act applies to everything BUT…
Federal Student Loans.
I am a former Borrower Contact and Due Diligence Employee for an evil student loan servicing company.
The government always gives itself an out.
yosemitebabe, when I had the horror of having to call “past due” borrowers, I always wanted someone to tell me it wasn’t the right number. I hated calling the wrong person. I’d ask if your address was such and such, if you’d ever heard of Jeffery X, and go on my merry way. Actually, it was Standard Operating Procedure.
The message (translated into longhand) I would put on the computer would be this:
Borrower does not live at this phone number.
This phone number does not equal the address.
Person at phone number does not know Borrower
Removed phone number.
OF course, the lovely and none-too-bright skip tracing department sometimes put the number back in so that us lowly reps in BC/DD would have to take it out again.
:smack:
Collectors are the scum of the Earth. I got a harassing-type message on my machine, so I called back, and discovered that the person who owed them money had the same last name as mine, but a completely different first name. Apparently, they were just going through the phone book calling EVERYONE with that last name.
IF YOU FUCKERS STOPPED HANDING OUT CREDIT LIKE IT WAS FUCKING CANDY, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE SO MANY PEOPLE DEFAULTING.
I had a similar experience. Despite my strong Australian accent, and the fact that i explained that i had only been in the country a few months, and had only had this phone number for a few weeks, they called twice more insisting that i owed a local hospital money for a procedure performed over two years previously.
I was polite on the first call, irritated on the second, and fuming on the third. I think the word “cunt” was used quite a few times. I never heard back from them after that.
I had a similiar situation … but it was at my office. I’m the office secretary for a Federal agency. I started getting calls at my desk almost every other day. A collection agency was trying to get ahold of a woman who’s name I’d never heard. She wasn’t an employee in our agency and I can only assume the woman had given the creditor a fake number … which happened to be MINE.
I tried everything … I was polite … I was terse … I told them they were interrupting operations at a federal office … nothing … and I mean NOTHING worked. I got to talk with a supervisor, Anne, who swore she understood and would take care of it. Plus, I got their agency’s name, address, and phone number.
Two days later a woman called back … I asked to speak with Anne, who was her supervisor. She stuttered and asked why … I explained this was a wrong number, that Anne had promised to take me off the list and I DEMANDED to speak with her. You’re gonna LOVE this … she didn’t put me on hold … and I could HEAR her asking Anne what to do … and guess what? Anne told her to hang up on me. Seriously … I heard the supervisor say, “Just hang up.”
I lost it. Completely went momentarily insane. I called the number … reported her to her supervisors … then called the Better Business Bureau and lodged a formal complaint against their company AND the supervisor. Within 48 hours, I was speaking with a mediator who apologized and wanted to know what they could do to make me happy. I said I wanted a written apology from Anne AND I wanted a written statement saying the acknowledged the error and would not do it again.
Two years later and I still have Anne’s apology letter tucked under my blotter … I pull it out whenever I need a smile. 
It’s worse when your name isn’t all that common. Like mine. They simply don’t believe that I’m not the Tim Winker they’re looking for and assume this patronizing, “I know you’re full of shit” voice. What usually works is when I get their address, say “you’ll be hearing from my attorney,” and send them a letter similar to lucwarm’s on my friend’s law firm stationery.
Never run afoul of the collection agency that works for Key Bank. They are the most incompentent slobs! I had called about 50 times to the bank, to the company paying the bill, to the collection agency. I ad faxed stuff to them a MULTITUDE of times. I finally started screaming at the woman on the phone… boy that got here moving!
And lo and behold she found my request for a supervisor search for a lost payment. And when she said there was no record of my fax I said:
“Then you’d better damned well find the records because on such and such day I got a call at X time from So and So saying it was recieved.” Yes, they found it as well. But now I have a big old 90 day deliquient on my credit report.
Marry me.
Well, no more calls (yet) from the suckers. But that doesn’t mean they won’t–they didn’t call all that frequently, at least not when I was home.
Deadly Accurate–how bizarre, that you are having the same experience that I’ve had. Was the company that has been calling you name “Premiere Credit,” by any chance?
If you really want to have fun with these people try this:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/morepranks.shtml
If you have caller ID and you know its them try being DeNiro or Joe Pesci or Ahrnold. Its entertaining and it will blow their mind!
I got attacked several years ago, and the mugger gave my checkbook to his scummy girlfriend. She forged five thousand dollars in bad checks, helped along by utterly clueless store clerks who did things like call my answering machine, and then hang up. Some time later on, after the forger fled from the store, they’d call back and ask me if I were having ‘problems’ with my checking account.
Evidently these people were able to find gainful employment as collections agents, because then the phone calls started. I had one guy threaten to tell my reserve unit that I was delinquent. I had one company threaten to sue me. Strangely enough, they kept losing police reports I sent them. The lawsuit threat was the final straw. I dared them to do it, and then I told them that if they did they could explain why the checks that belonged to a little white girl with long red hair got forged by a three-hundred black woman with a crew cut. It’s actually a lot of fun, trying to do a Cllint Eastwood impression.
I’m not sure. I think I remember that the times I called back, they mumbled the name of the company, and I never thought to ask them to be clear. But I distinctly remember the automated deep-voiced man telling me it was important to call this number and that it was not related to selling anything. I ignored the first few requests, but then my curiosity got the better of me.
Write a letter to the 3 credit reporting agencies contestingt the blurb on your credit report. The reporting agencies will ask the original reporter for proof.
My only dealings with a collection agency was when Qwest forget to clear up debt from slaming me and decided to pass the debt off onto this agency. I didn’t get any contact with them until a letter was forwarded from the agency to me from my parent’s home.
I called Qwest who not only had no idea what I was talking about but didn’t remember me as a previous customer, which makes sense given that they have no one with anything resembling intellect running things over there. Then I called MCI, the company that was listed on the bill that had the slamned charges. They not only had no idea who I was or why I would owe them money but they were surprised to hear that charges of theirs had appeared on a Qwest bill. If they wanted to bill me they would send a note seperately or with the Qwest bill stuff but as a seperate sheet.
So I sent the collection agency a letter explaining that if they could prove that the debt was real I would pay it. I gave them a bunch of contact information, told them I was sending copies of the letter to the relevant parties and several government agencies and then sent all the letters. Never heard from the agency again.
Eats_Crayons - what’s that website for the CRTC?
I can’t wait to use it the next time someone calls and asks for “the man of the house.” (Which has happened. I told the person that I thought this was the twenty-first century.)
I always tell them I am the sitter… well I was sitting until they called!
Thanks NurseCarmen I’ll do that!