Debt collector horror stories

Bankrate.com ^ | 08-04-03

[CFW]

I've typed many a letter under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Send it certified mail, and if they contact you again, sue 'em.

No one should be treated the way some of these guys treat people. I know of one instance where they told an eight year old child that his Mom and Dad were going to jail, and the child would go to a foster home, if the parents didn't pay their past due bill. Of course, he started crying and hung up the phone.

[whereasandsoforth]

First, if the collector is a woman, ask her if there is a man you can talk to. Tell her it is your personal policy not to talk business with a woman. They usually go ballistic at that point. Then ask again if there is a rational person, a man, you could talk to. The reaction is priceless.

[chris1]

I am in the collections business myself and have to say that this puiece is very one sided. There are many many people who do in fact try to STEAL from creditors with no intetnion of ever paying it back and know they don't face any jail time. What's the solution? Tell these people its ok to screw creditors and not pay what you owe?

[KevinDavis]

Maybe these people should pay their bils???

[FreeLibertarian]

Are you the original debt holder just trying to collect bills owed to you or are you in the business of buying debts from the original holder for a percentage of the original debt and then pursuing payment from the debtor?

[whereasandsoforth]

Oh, com'on! What percentage of the people you deal with are doing that? Most people would rather pay their bills. Situations happen, and people get behind. Its being treated like they are sitting on a pile of money refusing to pay that is upsetting. Crooks are crooks, but the average Jane and Joe are just trying their best to live.

[shiva]

One family bounced a $12 check to Papa John's. A debt collector demanded $140.

These people didn't have 12 dollars in the bank? Why would they make a rubber check? Why would they even order a pizza if they knew they were broke.

[FreeLibertarian]

I had an encounter with the collections department of MCI and later with a collections agency that I found to be remarkable.

I was scammed by MCI on my small business account. They called and offered a low rate, about 7 cents per minute, and several calling cards with $50 of free time. The cards arrived and were distributed to employees. When the first bill arrived the amount due was several hundred dollars more than we had been paying to our previous carrier.

I called their customer support line and was told that I must have misunderstood, that they had never offered any free calling cards and that the cards we had received were regular calling cards and the rate for using the cards was $1.00 per minute. I demanded to talk to a supervisor and was refused, they gave me another number to call about complaints. The new number was a answered by a voicemail that instructed me to leave my name and account number and to send a fax with my complaint. I did both but it was a waste of time. I immediately changed carriers to Qwest.

Several weeks went by before I heard anything back from MCI. In the mean time I had received a new bill from MCI that had doubled the original overcharged amount. They were now trying to overcharge me more than $400.00 for one months service. The person who called said that the amount was correct but that he would deduct $50.00 from the amount due if I would pay the bill immediately. I offered to pay the amount that Qwest had charged me for the same amount of time minus the free $50.00 calling cards, The MCI supervisor refused and said they would turn it over to a collection agency. I told him to go to he!!.

About a month later I received another bill from MCI and they had doubled the amount due again. Now they were overcharging me more than $1000.00 for one months service.

Eventually an agent with a collection agency began calling, I explained the scam to her and told her I would only pay the amount I actually owed and that I would document the amount owed by sending her copies of my bills for the months previous to and following the one months service from MCI. She would not accept this settlement. She insisted on receiving payment for more than $1,200. I explained that the actual amount due was about $25.00 and that she could call everyday if she wanted but that I was not going to pay more than the amount I owed.

She continued to call daily for about two weeks, each day she insisted that MCI was a reptuable company and that I must pay the $1,200. I told her that MCI was committing fraud and she was contributing to that fraud and that I wasn't going to play their game. She said that they would continue to call until the bill was paid. I laughed and explained that trying to out stubborn me wouldn't work, by this time I was beginning to enjoy the daily exchanges. (Yes, I know I'm strange but I have a stubborn streak a mile wide and enjoy arguing)

She quit calling on the day that MCI/Worldcom was charged with accounting fraud and I've never heard another word out of her or MCI. MCI is just a corporate con-artist.

[cincinnati65]

Having also been a collector, I have to agree. At least 90% of my "business" was repeat business, that is, customers I saw month in and month out and collected every single payment. For most of these people, the whole collections effort turned into a giant game of let's beat the system as long as possible. I was fair with those that needed help, but the true deadbeats (habituals) were the ones that I had to turn it up a notch on. Still, it appears that I played by the rules.

[cincinnati65]

I really used to think exactly like that, until I had to go collect on accounts for myself. You see the choices that people make with the money that they get, and it ticks you off that they aren't more responsible. I've collected on a $200 mortgage payment many times on homes with satelite dishes (yes, multiple) and expensive cars in the driveway.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

My favorite happened a coyuple of years ago, when a collector called me over an alleged balance due Mastercard on an account closed 15 years ago, and paid off a couple of years after that. I told the rep that the account had been paid (he demanded the cancelled check - which had been disposed of long ago, and had been drawn on a bank which had been sold off and reorganized 3 times since), and asked him to contact the original MC issuer, which he refused. Told the guy to quit calling, sent a letter to that effect, and invited them to sue me (knowing that they were blown out of the water for several different reasons). Unfortunately, they kept it up. When we tried to track down the outfit to do an FDCPA action against them, it was like catching smoke - in other words, there wasn't an asset to be found, and it wasn't worth the time, trouble or filing fee. To stave off the calls, which were growing more frequent, we had to get the call blocker service.

[Axenolith]

The funniest part of that story is the fact that they probably carried your "overdue" amount, and similar quantities from thousands of others as "current accounts recievable" on their books and then borrowed against it on revolving credit lines!

I worked at a place a while back where one of the district managers was booking proposal numbers as revenue. This stuff works for maybe a year or so at best (longer when the whole company is involved) but when the gig's up, the cows come home to roost!

[decimon]

A college once claimed I owed them money for a course I'd taken. Over time, the date of the course I supposedly owed for changed from 1988 to 1990 to 1992. The short story is that it was quite obvious that I couldn't have owed the money.

It went to a collection agency that kept after me for years despite my telling them how they could easily determine that I didn't owe the money. Did they persist in believing I would fold under pressure and pay up?

Their tactics included a practiced slurring of names and a feigning of indignance when asked questions. That would be followed by hanging up on me.

I finally got rid of them after calling and recalling each time they hung up and demanding answers to my questions.

[chris1]

Anyone here in business will understand that many people are truly scum and have no intention of paying for the services rendered on their behalf. My clients are mostly plumbers, painters, roofers, etc. You would not believe the lengths people will go to screw over a guy who cleans your toilet at 12:00 a.m.

[FreeLibertarian]

Certainly my company wasn't the only one targeted by this scam. My apoligies to MCI's stockholders bu I must admit that because of their scam I've rather enjoyed watching MCI self destruct.

[lewislynn]

I am in the collections business myself and have to say that this puiece is very one sided.

This from the same person who has no problem making the blanket claim real estate brokers/agents do "under the table" deals and are as bad as lawyers...

Everyone but you noble debt collectors are unscrupulous..Right?

[from occupied ga]

They called me a deadbeat.

By definition she is a deadbeat

They called me a criminal.

Not paying for goods and services rendered is criminal it's called "stealing."

I had perfect, spotless credit before this happened."

Irrelevant

Angela's roughly $40,000 in overdue debt stems from a small business. She opened a children's boutique in 1998.

Likewise irrelevant. She should have done more market research up front

One debt collector accused her of running up her credit card balances with no intention of paying.

Very frequently true

One collector told her to sell her house. Another threatened her home.

They can't force her to do this in any state that I know of.

One debt collector scolded her for taking her children to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza. Another collector told Angela, who is expecting another child, that she had no business being pregnant.

She shouldn't be spending money on restaurants, and she shouldn't download another offspring if she can't afford it. I wonder who is going to end up paying her doctor bills. Lemme see. The hospitals are forced by law to provide care for anyone who wanders in. Many can't or won't pay. Health care costs money. conclusion - higher costs for those of us who can pay and carry the freeloading bums in the system.

[ravingnutter]

A dirty debt collector will call you at all hours of the day. They'll threaten to tell an employer or spouse or relative about your debt. They'll call you at work after you told them not to contact you while you're working.

Simple solution...go to your HR Dept. and have them fax the creditor a letter stating you cannot receive personal phone calls at work. I have done this for employees many times.

Right before I declared bankruptcy (nasty divorce, hubby cleaned out the accounts and left me with the kids and the bills) I even had a debt collector show up at my work and physically shove me in front of witnesses when I would not allow him access to the building as we are considered a Govt. facility...he did not realize that I was his intended "target". I told them I was going to file criminal assault charges so they decided to settle and wrote off the debt.

I did file bankruptcy, but I paid my debtors 100% of what I owed them and paid it off early. Even so, it has been 7 years since my bankruptcy was paid off, my credit still sucks, most people I know that wrote off all their debts have a better chance at getting credit than I do. I thought it was supposed to "drop off" after 7 years, apparently not.