Mistaken Credit Card Harassment - WWYD?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Sorry for the length, but detail is required…

Here’s the deal. My wife has a fairly common name. Not quite Jane Smith, but it would not be an odd occurence if two people with this same first/last name worked at your place.

So anyway, a few months back, she starts getting calls at work (she teaches special-ed at a large quasi-private high-school where phone calls are a major interruption) from a credit card company asking her to start making some back payments (she never had a card with this place). She tells them that they must have the wrong Jennifer Collins**, they’re looking for Jennifer A. Collins, she’s Jennifer E. Collins.

They’re sure it’s her. They said they called her home and her son (note, we only have one kid, a pre-verbal girl) told them she worked at Localtown Finishing Academy (my wife works at Localtown Free Academy). So they called the main number and asked for Jennifer Collins. They got through to one, must be the one they want.

Anywho, my wife tells them they’re mistaken and hangs up. She has been getting these same phone calls now, roughly biweekly, for about three months now. I told her that the next time they call to request to speak to a supervisor.

Today they called again. It took some work, but she eventually got hold of a supervisor. In a very demeaning voice he demanded that my wife provide the last four digits of her social security number, which she did (I wouldn’t have and suggested she not do it again). They weren’t a match, but now the guy wants her full middle name, mailing address, etc. Thankfully she said no (had it been me I’m sure a few choice invectives would’ve been used)

What should she do next time they call? I told her to tell them that she considers these calls to be harassment, and that she should get the credit card company’s name and address (my guess is it’s a collection agency calling) so that I can write a suitable letter to the company. But what else would you suggest?

** names changed to cover my ass.

2

Collection laws vary by state, but in general:

If it is a collection agency calling all you have to do is tell them to no longer contact you concerning this debt. Legally, they must comply. They can still sue you, but they can’t contact you. Contact by a collection agency at your place of employment is a big no-no, which leads me to believe that it’s the CC company doing the calling.

If it is the CC company then the laws, at least in Georgia, are much less protective of the debtor. There is not much you can do to prevent their calls. Sorry.

3

Assuming you get the Supervisor on the phone:

“Sir (or Madam) I hope you do not mind, I am recording this call. At this point I categorically state I will not pay this debt as it is not mine. So as to protect myself against your intrusive calls will you please give me your social security number, home address and employer name. Thank you.”

Hang up. Do not continue the conversation. If they call again say,

“I appreciate your calling agin, but I beleive I have all of your personal information I need. Thank you.” Hang up.

Do not engage in lengthy conversations with them. Just Say they are wrong and hang up. They will stop calling.

4

wow I can tell ya I would have been so unbelievably not polite after the first call…if they call again tell your wife to go some place private and let them have every single profanaty she can think of describing the painful level of ignorance that must be running rampant at that company and get their name and address for your lawyer. you dont owe these people jack and what they are doing constitutes harassment. if they still dont stop talk to a lawyer, you may as well make some money off them if ya can to make it worth the trouble.

5

Here is some info. that might help:

http://www.nolo.com/encyclopedia/articles/dc/collectors.html

(This is not legal advice.)

6

They have this customer who has one of their credit cards and has not made a payment on it. They probably get this sort of thing all the time and when they go to follow up on it, how do you think the deadbeats would react? They probably would get all enranged, claim that they weren’t who the CC company thought they were, and demand not to be contacted again.

Now… how is your wife reacting to this? She’s getting enranged, saying that her identity is being mistaken by them, and she probably wants to tell them never to call her again.

Her behavior is pretty much the same as the deadbeats they have to deal with, so she’s getting the same response from them: They keep following up and persuing the matter.

Talking to the supervisor was a good start in trying to resolve the situation. If it were me, I’d suggest that she be the proactive one and contact the CC company herself and try to straighten up this matter BEFORE another call comes in.
FYI, I had a very similar situation happen to me. I recieved a notice that I was due in court, in the town I used to live in, for some sort of misdemeanor charge. The funny thing was that the guy in question lived down the same road I used to live on and his name was the same as mine with the middle initial being different. He was also 15. I jumped on this immediately and found out that it was the fault of Post office. Someone there forwarded that mail to me because the guy in question didn’t live at the address shown anymore… so the post office guy saw that the address was similar, and figured it had to be forwarded to me. Needless to say, I really reamed out the post office there for making such a stupid mistake. Ironicly, it happened again six months later (I really let the post office there have it after that.)

7

despite working in credit for 3 years, i don’t know much about collections! however, i think if you tell them not to contact you at work, they have to stop.

an easier solution may be to just tell the swithboard people to not allow these calls through. we got a dude where i work who is being hassled (i say this because i know he is honestly trying to pay the debt, but the collection scum are merciless to him) and anytime i pick up the phone, i tell them they cant talk to him.

personally, i would use profanity. i’m a profane guy!

8

i would also track down the real deadbeat and give the collection assholes the correct phone number to call…

9

Thanks for all the responses.

As far as telling the switchboard not to transfer the call, that won’t work. They’ve got one of those menu systems where if you know the first three letters of someone’s name it puts you through. And the original deadbeat (if she ever worked there, note the name confusion in the OP) is long gone, no one ever heard of her.

I think her best bet is if they call again, ask them if they are a collection agency or the card issuer. Then ask for the full name and address of the card issuer so that we can send off a letter to their customer service/collection department. I wish my wife were a more abrasive type, but she’s not the type to go after someone on the phone.

Thanks again.

10

I agree with Dragwyr. Hound them until they get it right. A deadbeat wouldn’t act that way.