Harassing Collection Calls
Complaint
Sharon Marsh
Country: United States
I am not sure that this is the name of the company because it is very difficult to understand the name of the company. This company has called me 2 times and left 15 minutes of messages on my answering machine. He repeats his name (which I cannot understand) and his phone number over and over again for 15 minutes.........I called them back the first time approximately a month ago and told him do not call again, and today I received the same 15 minute message. He is not calling for me, but and I am not going to put up with the harassment. The phone number that he give to call back is 1-800 -335-0872. I DO NOT WANT ANYMORE COLLECTION CALLS. I HAVE GOOD CREDIT AND I DO NOT CARE WHO HE IS CALLING FOR HE HAS NO RIGHT TO CONTINUE TO CALL AND HARASS ME! Please let me know what else I can do to get him to stop!
Comments
RE: I had a chase account a long time ago...but I know I don't over 5000 dollars. I think my credit card was only a 500 dollar limit. I'm going to research these people some before before I even talk to them.
FIRST OF ALL , CHASE WOULD BE THE ONE THAT MOST LIKELY CHARGED YOU LATE FEES FIRST 6 MONTHS DELINQUENT, NOT THE COLLECTION AGENCY.
AND SECONDLY, IF YOU WERE GOING TO RESOLVE IT YOU WOULD HAVE DONE IT BY NOW , SO DONT BLAME COLLECTION AGENCIES FOR YOUR DEBT. CALL THEM GET A SETTLEMENT AND GET IT TAKEN CARE OF.
BUT, YOU LET IT GO THIS FAR, IM SURE YOU WONT DO THE RIGHT THING..
RE: Not only do you have many complaints of failing to cease calling wrong numbers, but earlier in this thread was a complaint of repeated prank obscene calls to a business.
WE ARE ALL ON RECORDED LINES, SO IF ANY "PRANK" OR "OBSCENE" CALLS WERE MADE THE CLIENTS WOULD HAVE HEARD THEM AND THAT PERSON OR PERSONS WOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY, THERE IS NO TOLERANCE ON THAT. SO AGAIN, MISINFORMING PEOPLE ABOUT WHAT GOES ON TO FATTEN YOUR WALLETT WITH FRIVOLOUS LAW SUITS.
RE : save up and tell them you are filing bankrupsy, then offer them half of the debt.In the meantime, awnswer the call and tell them "hold on while I turn on my tape recorder".. Then you tell them not to contact you agian, by law they have to stop calling...Once you do get money to settle, you call them and make an very low settlement offer, MAKE SURE YOU GET IT IN WRITING FROM THEM!!..Send them only a certified check or a regular check for the amount.. DO NOT GIVE ANY CREDIT CARD OR DEBIT CARD NUMBER!!.... I will say it agian GET THE SETTLEMENT OFFER IN WRITING!!!.. Also, one more thing, make them an offer toward the end of the mounth, they willwant to close it out for that mounth.. I have been through all of this myself. My only debt is the house payment and settled 15K for about 8k..I hope this helps..Mark
WOW MARK, SO FULL OF INACCURRATE INFORMATION ITS INSANE, FIRST OF ALL. TO STOP CALLS ON YOUR OWN DEBT , A VERBAL REQUEST IS NOT ACCEPTED BY THE GUIDELINES OF THE FDCPA. YOU MUST SUBMIT CEASE AND DESIST IN WRIITNG.
SECONDLY, SETTLEMENTS ARE OFFERED BY CLIENT STANDARDS ONLY. SO THINKING WE WILL JUST BE ABLE TO CLOSE AN ACCT FOR 40% OF THE BALANCE IS UNTRUE, CLIENTS SET THE REATE OF SETTLEMENT, NOT AGENCIES..
THIRD .. DEPENDING ON HOW LONG YOU WANT TO WAIT FOR A ROD LETTER, PYMTS VIA MAIL TAKE LONGER.
OH YEA, THE WORD MONTH IS SPELLED LIKE THIS NOT LIKE THIS "mounth".
GET YOUR INFORMATION CORRECT BEFORE MISLEADING THE PUBLIC. THANKS
re: I paid my account to my knowledge and the collecter is threatening me with late fees and penalties on a dead account. The woman gave me two names and kept threatening me with going to court if I couldn't pay her something today. Why do I even have to pay for late fees and penalites if I had closed the account? And why is she still calling me after I told her to not call me since these calls were only harassment?
LATE FEES AND PENALTIES ARE NOT A THREAT , YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANIES CHARGE THEM PER YOUR CONTRACT . NOT THE COLLECTION AGENCY. READ YOUR CONTRACTS. ITS IN THERE. YOUR ACCOUNT ISNT CLOSED , YOU CAN ONLY CLOSE AND ACCT BY PAYING OFF THE BALANCE FIRST, YOUR ACCOUNT IS IN CHARGE OFF , OR DELINQUENT STATUS, IN WHICH CASE, YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY CAN STILL CHARGE YOU FEES .. READ THE CONTRACTS .. STOP RUNNING UP BILLS BEFORE YOU KNOW ABOUT HOW YOUR INTEREST RATE WILL CHANGE WHEN YOU MISS A PAYMENT, OR HOW FEES INCUR. IF YOU WANT SOMEONE TO STOP CALLING YOU SUBMIT A WRITTEN CEASE AND DESIST. OTHER WISE CALLS CONTINUE.
YOU ALSO MUST BE NOTIFIED IF THE CLIENT TELLS US YOU ARE SUITWORTHY, SOMETHING YOU WANT TO THINK ABOUT BECAUSE JUDGEMENTS ARE FAR MORE HURTFUL TO CREDIT THAN JUST DELINQUENT DEBT. STOP DELAYING THE INEVITABLE , GET THIS PAID OFF, BREATHE EASIER..
RE:Sorry, but most debt collectors are people that have drug and alcohol problems, or have an arrest record which does not allow for them to seek "honest" employment.
REALLY, ARE YOU WORKING ?? I AM, MY BILLS ARE PAID, IM NOT ON DRUGS, I HAVE A COLLEGE DEGREE , MY OWN HOME CAR , FAMILY ...
YOUR PISSED OFF THAT YOU CANT OR WONT PAY YOUR BILLS. SO YOU PUT US DOWN. i HAVE MY JOB FOR 8 YEARS. WHAT DO YOU DO THAT YOU CANT PAY OFF YOUR DEBT.. IM DEBT FREE, AND WORKING FULL TIME.
I DONT DRINK OR SMOKE. YOUR ASSUMPTIONS ARE LAUGHABLE.
PUT DOWN YOUR CRACK PIPE AND GET TO WORK,. IM SURE MCDONALDS IS HIRING. THEN ,.... PAY YOUR DEBT.. IM SURE ILL BE CALLING YOU TODAY !!
RE: Debt collectors routinely claim debts are owed even when they are calling anyone they can find with a similar name, just guessing who might owe it. In doing so, they routinely make deceptive statements.
WHY DO YOU LIE. IN 8 YEARS I HAVE NEVER EVER CALLED SOMEONE JUST ON A WING AND A PRAYER. NO ONE HERE HAS . CALLING A NUMBER THAT BELONGS TO THE SAME NAME, IS VERY VERY DIFFERENT THAN IMPLYING ITS AND INCORRECT PERSONS DEBT.
YOU ARE SUCH A LIAR, AND MANIPULATOR. YET YOU LEAD THE MINIONS DOWN THE PATH WITH YOU. YOUR STATEMENTS ARE ALL HALF TRUTHS OR COMPLETELY FALSE.
ENOUGH ALREADY, EVERYTIME I READ A POST OF YOUR IN MORE FURIOUS. YOU NEVER GUIDE THESE PEOPLE THE RIGHT WAY. I CANT EVEN BLAME THEM , YOUR ARE SO DECIETFUL, IM JUST SPEECHLESS.
IF YOUR GOING TO INFORM PEOPLE. DO IT RIGHT, I HAVE LEFT HONEST AND TRUTHFUL , AND SOMETIMES HELPFUL INFORMATION ON HERE. NOT ONCE LYING TO MAKE SOMEONE ELSE LOOK BAD. YOU TJ, ARE THE LOW LIFE HERE.
**** PEOPLE, STOP LISTENING TO THIS PERSON, OBVIOUSLY JUST AN ATTORNEY LOOKING TO STEAL YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY YOU COULD PAY YOUR BILLS WITH. SAVE IT, AND JUST WORK SOMETHING OUT IF YOU OWE A DEBT. ( DEBT COLLECTIONS IS MUCH MORE CUSTOMER SERVICE THAN YOU THINK ) . WE DO WANT TO HELP GET THIS STUFF RESOLVED. AND BELIEVE ME. WE WANT TO REMOVE THE INCORRECT NUMBERS. REMEMBER SOME DEBTS STARTED 5 , 10 , 15 YEARS AGO. PHONE NUMBERS CHANGE , THE CLIENTS SEND ANY CONTACT NUMBERS THEY HAVE TO OUR AGENCIES. SOME OF THEM SO WRONG AND OLD . WE DONT KNOW IT. TRUST ME WE WILL GLADY REMOVE YOUR NUMBERS , ITS A WASTE OF OUR TIME AS WELL.
THINK ABOUT IT. WE ARE THERE TO HELP, NOT TJ.
If your employees are so poorly trained that they don't see it coming, too bad.
That indicates you have little real supervision over your callers. Or maybe you just don't give a damn.
See Watson v. NCO.
At least if the original creditor asserted his own claim in court, we wouldn't have as much harassment of others with no connection to the debt but an old phone number or a similar last name.
This problem arrises from sloppy creditors issuing credit to people who might never pay it back, then as a "business decision" just cutting their losses by assigning it or selling it to you, so they could pretend they had no involvement in your collection tactics.
If you want others to fix your compliance problems, you should not be surprised if they want to get paid for it.
FTC and AG complaints are a pretty tame next step.
There is no way a consumer can determine on the phone whether the caller is honest or dishonest, whether the debt is legitimate or not, or whether it is really assigned or owed to this debt collector or not.
CAMCO demonstrated that it is quite possible to collect on unowed debts, from people who owed nothing, using SSN and credit data to deceive and intimidate consumers, while evading all validation.
The law, FDCPA, provides for validation, and debt collectors that attempt to misdirect consumers toward other "proof" instead are engaged in deception.
Given the state of corruption in the debt collection industry, and in particular, in the fake "debt collector" scam part of it, you are doing no one any service by telling them that debt collectors (or even you yourself) can be trusted on the phone.
At best, you are setting up some grandma to be scammed by the next caller. At worst, your coworker in the next cubicle might not be as honest as you are.
Violation would be actionable by the employee, or even by ANY employee you call after that.
Your pattern of complaints is showing very high levels of ignoring requests to remove wrong numbers. When combined with other complaints of attempting to collect on unowed debts from people who do not owe them, the combination is likely to result in defrauding of misidentified consumers when faced with continued harassment over unproven debts.
Allied Interstate showed the same complaint pattern, resulting in a recent $1.7 millino settlement with FTC. Even though they spun the settlement as over the harassing calls, blaming it on "mistakes" in their phone lists, the press release by FTC made clear that the major issue was the collection of unowed debt made possible by the harassment.
You may be entirely honest, and you may have never attempted to deceive a consumer into paying an unowed debt in your whole career, but you would have no way of even knowing that your coworkers had not done so.
Just as when you find deception, you should look for fraud, when you find abuse and harassment, you should also look for deception, as it is a tactic to further the same goals. That is why compliance violations involving abuse and harassment may point to more serious problems than just "annoying calls". When targetted at "misidentified consumers", rather than just "old wrong numbers", they may result in consumer fraud losses.
If you can't identify yourself on the phone, then limit your contacts to U.S. Mail, where you are required to identify yourself, provide your addresss to which mailed disputes can be sent, and respond to dispute and validation requests sent there.
Nice, orderly verification of the debt, and resolution of any disputes.
Why do you prefer the telephone? So you can leave out that hint that the consumer can dispute and request proof of the debt?
They only go to attorneys when nothing else works.
I can understand taking even a couple calls to get you to stop, but "25 calls a day", back to back calls, calls outside the 8AM to 9PM window, and repeated ignored requests for months? That isn't the occasional lazy employee who failed to remove a number cause they were rushing out to take a smoke. It actually takes collective negligence from several people, over an extended period of time.