primitives discuss handling bill collectors

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6772800

Oh my.

JDPriestly  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:23 PM
Original message
 
How to handle nuisance collection calls.

For weeks now, we have been receiving nuisance calls from a collection agency.

When we first received them, we thought they were a fishing scam and ignored the calls. After a number of calls, we read the name of the caller on our caller ID. My husband (the hero of this story) googled it only to learn that the caller was a collection agency. We racked our brains to try to think of some debt that we might have owed and forgotten to pay at some point in our lives, but we just could not think of anything. You have no idea how much anxiety -- even sleeplessness -- these calls caused.

Today, after weeks of repeated calls to which we have not responded, my husband finally decided to find out what in the world these people wanted and called them.

Here is the important part: HE PUT A TAPE RECORDER BESIDE THE PHONE BEFORE HE CALLED AND THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT -- HE ADVISED THE PERSON ON THE OTHER END THAT HE WAS TAPING THE CALL. As we expected, the company had to admit that they were not looking for us at all.

So, if you receive nuisance calls of this type from debt collectors: TAPE THE CALLS AND BE SURE YOU ADVISE THE PERSON AT THE OTHER END THAT YOU ARE TAPING THE CALL. ADVISE THEM AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CALL BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING MORE. It is illegal in many states to record a telephone call without informing the person with whom you are speaking that you are recording the call.

These companies will call and hassle anyone with a name that even remotely resembles the name of someone who (they claim) owes money. This has happened to us a couple of times. If you have elderly relatives, discuss this matter with them. Older people can feel terrorized by this sort of scam and may be ashamed or afraid or too proud to discuss it with family members and friends.

beyurslf  (1000+ posts)      Wed Oct-14-09 12:25 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. I have one calling me now that says I owe an old ATT bill.

I laughed and told them they were calling me on my ATT phone while I surfed internet provided by ATT and the tv in the background was ATT cable.

WI_DEM  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:29 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
3. you may want to check your credit history and see if you do have a debt with att just to be sure. Just because you have current services with them doesn't mean at one time there wasn't some kind of debt.

ejpoeta  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
8. or they may have put something on your credit history that shouldn't be there.

these third party vultures you have to watch for. they don't really care if you actually owe something or not... they want to get whatever they can from whoever they can.

vanlassie  (528 posts)      Wed Oct-14-09 12:30 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
4. Hmmm...I just got a weird ATT collections bill too...

And I ignored it for the same reason. Interesting.

ejpoeta  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:30 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
6. don't laugh. tell them to VALIDATE. also check your credit report and make sure they haven't put anything on there. if they have, then I would suggest disputing it.

vanlassie  (528 posts)      Wed Oct-14-09 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
9. Good thinking. I always tend towards the osterich approach.

Hmmm.  One wonders what this "Austrian approach" is.

JDPriestly  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
7. I posted this because there are a lot of desperate people out there on both sides of the debt collection racket. I used to work in an office next door to a debt collection agency. What a bunch of sleazebags they were. Too cheap to pay for air conditioning for their employees who sat at desks in offices without windows in the summer heat in Los Angeles. I felt sorry for the employees, but they were true bottom feeders, and I do not use that term lightly. I use it realizing what an insult it is.

In this economy, people become desperate and will do anything for a buck. 

What?  I thought Bo had this economy all straightened out at 11:01 a.m. January 20, 2009.

The primitives promised us he would.

ejpoeta  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:29 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. when they call, it is a good idea to record the conversation. also to keep track of 
dates and times of conversations. And also, don't avoid them. Tell them to VALIDATE THE ALLEGED DEBT!! Follow up the verbal request with a registered letter requesting validation of the debt. Chances are they will just send you another bill which is a violation.

You have a right to request validation and they by law cannot continue collection activity until they produce a validation. You have a right to know that they have the right to collect any debt. And to make sure it is a valid debt.

You also have the right to inform them that they do not have permission to contact you via phone and that any further communication should be made through the mail. Please look up information regarding the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.... if they harrass you or fail to comply, you could sue them if you wanted to. I am not saying you would want to, but if they know you know your rights, they most likely won't mess with you too much. They like easy targets.

PADemD  (656 posts)     Wed Oct-14-09 12:30 PM
Response to Original message
 
5. I received a call like this one time when I was home sick.

They wanted me to go to my neighbor's house and ask them to call the collection agency. I refused.

Robb  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:36 PM
Response to Original message
 
10. Tape-recording laws, at a glance:

You don't always have to tell the other party they're being recorded.

http://www.rcfp.org/taping/quick.html 

laughingliberal  (770 posts)      Wed Oct-14-09 12:40 PM
Response to Reply #10
 
13. Yes, but telling them insures they will be on their best behavior and not venture outside the law

If it is a case of mistaken identity and they believe you have captured a recording in which you informed them of that it should be the last call.

brendan120678  (972 posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:37 PM
Response to Original message

11. We've had a collections agency calling us recently...looking for someone with the same first initial and last name as me, only they are looking for a Brian, not Brendan.

We've told them a few times that there is nobody with that name who lives here, there has never been anyone by that name who lives here, and to my knowledge, I don't have any family, immediate or extended, with the name of Brian .

laughingliberal  (770 posts)      Wed Oct-14-09 12:38 PM
Response to Original message
 
12. Even if you are the person for whom they are calling the idea of telling them you are taping...the call is helpful. Many collectors will engage in types of harassment which are illegal. They are seldom prosecuted for it, though, because there is no way to prove they said it.

I learned years ago if I told them I was taping the call they got much more reasonable. One example: some years back I was wiped out in a flood in Texas. After I relocated and the dust settled I wound up with a phone bill that was very high due to having to use my calling card to communicate during the weeks following the flood.

A collection agency called and I told them I could send $50 per month on the $300 bill. The agent told me this was not acceptable, they needed payment in full, and I lived in a state where my salary could be subject to garnishment. I then said I needed to inform him I would be taping the remainder of our call. He agreed.

Then I said, "Let's recap, you are stating you can not accept monthly payments on my account?" He replied, "No, that's not what I said." "Oh," I remarked, "I'm sure I misunderstood. What, exactly, did you mean to say?" "I said," he replied, "It is up to the original creditor if they want to accept payments."

I then informed him I would be sending $50 per month on the balance and, if at any point that became unacceptable, they could return the payment and file their suit in court. He replied, "Yes, maam." I never heard another peep from them.

dugaresa  (757 posts)       Wed Oct-14-09 12:41 PM
Response to Original message
 
14. This happened to my mom recently, a collection agency was calling about a $25K debt 

it was a scam.

How did we know? It was supposedly incurred by my father who has been dead over 20 years.

I told my mother that if they called her again she is to tell them that she is calling the attorney general of our state and reporting them.

There seems to be a rash of these calls about old debts and they target the elderly.

JDPriestly  (1000+ posts)        Wed Oct-14-09 12:45 PM
Response to Reply #14
 
15. People will accept any job they can get. 

And the robocall equipment makes it easy and cheap for the collection agencies to call a lot of people many times. It is disgusting. We racked our brains trying to think whether we had some long-forgotten debt. Of course, we did not.

Leftist Agitator (1000+ posts)      Wed Oct-14-09 01:13 PM
Response to Original message
 
16. There is a much easier way to deal with those calls.

Buy a rape whistle, and when they call, answer, and blow it as hard as you can into the mouthpiece of the phone.

After two or three times, they quit calling.

[The Village Idiot]

I can't read all this, again...

did any Dummie suggest paying their bills?

[Carl]

Why is it only them that have these supposed problems? 

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

Quote
vanlassie  (528 posts)      Wed Oct-14-09 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
9. Good thinking. I always tend towards the osterich approach.

Hmmm.  One wonders what this "Austrian approach" is.

I think they mean "burying ones head in the sand?"

[ScubaGuy]

Why is it only them that have these supposed problems? 

No, it really does happen.

A couple of years ago I got a call from a collector looking for someone I've never heard of so I asked what number he was trying to call.  He gave me my number and I told him that whoever he was looking for wasn't at this number and I've had that number for the last 8 years.   He called again the next day and I told him he still has the wrong number and I have no idea who he was looking for.

When he called the third day I started to get pissed and asked him if he had a computer and if he knew how to use it.  I told him to do a reverse phone number search and see what name and address comes up.  He told me that he did that and the number was listed for the guy he was looking for.  I told him he was full of sh*t and that I was looking at my name and address right now on anywho.com.  I've had the same number since I bought this place.

He called a few hours later and my wife took the call trying to explain that he has the wrong number.  From the background I yelled out "just tell the assh*le I'll have whoever he was looking for call him when he gets home".  At that point he was sure he had the right number and was telling my wife he knew he was right all along.  I can only guess that her telling him I was pulling his leg and my laughter in the background convinced him that he really did have the wrong number.

[crockspot]

I've been getting constant calls for over a month with the caller id of NORC U CHICAGO. Figured it was some Obama lackey organization, so never answer the call. I just googled it, it's the National Opinion Research Council at the University of Chicago, supposedly doing a CDC survey. I'm not sure why they are so persistent to get ahold of me in particular, they call multiple times a day. But I was right about one thing, they are Obama lackeys, so they can just keep calling.