Arahhhhgggggg!!! I hate creditor calls!

[LostOne0069]

The following is a rambling, mostly incoherant description of an annoying experience with a creditor... read at your own risk.

/Rant on

One of my creditors called me on my work cell phone a few minutes ago... "you're behind, you need to give me an account number so we can get a payment today"

I respond, "I'm afraid that I'm in the process of retaining counsel so that I can file bankruptcy. I have not signed the paperwork yet so I cannot give you my attorneys name, but I should be able to do so by Monday or Tuesday next week"

they say, "We're not going to just walk away from this, you're insurance is through another part of this company and if you file on this we will cancel your policies."

I say, "Well, if that's what you have to do, I guess that's what you have to do. Please do not call me on this number again as it is my work number"

They say, "oh, I'm going to call you as much as I want on this number."

I say, "No, you are not, this is my work number and it is illegal for you to call me on it once I have notified you of that fact"

They say, "so what, I'm going to call you on it anyway and there's nothing you can do about it"

I say, "I can sue you for it"

they say, "You're not going to sue us, you don't have any money to pay for a lawyer to do so."

I hung up at this point.


I can't BELIEVE that they actually think that behaviour like this is going to encourage me to give them money!

I mean, I have a car loan and a boat loan through them... I was going to try and keep the car and reaffirm it... this is by far the largest debt that I owe... now I'm really not sure that I want to keep it just because I don't know that I want to do business with them anymore. It'll be worth driving a piece of junk around for 6 months until my credit is rebuilt enough to get another decent vehicle.

I need to stop answering calls where the caller ID isn't shown... I even knew that it was probably them and wanted to give them an update on my status so they could stop wasting their time. I guess that was pretty stupid of me.

/Rant off

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Minnymouth]

Yeah, when my creditors got nasty I said, Okay, I've tried everything to work with you on this, and you won't give an inch SOOOOOOO - read my lips - BANKRUPTCY............EAT IT!!!

Last resort on my part......... but actually got pure pleasure telling that one creditor that............. FELT GOOD!!!

Minny

[no_it_all]

Some states only require the permission of one party in a two party telephone conversation if it is being recorded. If you are located in one of those states, next time you get a call, say this: "Excuse me for a second, I want to turn on my tape recorder so I have a record of this conversation, can you please spell your last name?" They usually swallow the phone on the other end...it is a great tactic........IF they don't choke on the phone, say something like this before you even start your discussion with the credit collector. "Today is April 20th 11:40 am " Make it sound official...

[Minnymouth]

Good suggeston no it all, and yes it does work............. they want off the phone very quickly..........

[LostOne0069]

Thanks NIA... that's a VERY good suggestion. I think I'll use that the next time they call... if I bother answering the phone, that is.


By the way, I've noticed that your posts in general have become much more in the category of "helpful" and much less in the "troll" category. Thank you very much.

[GPFAY]

Some states only require the permission of one party in a two party telephone conversation if it is being recorded. If you are located in one of those states, next time you get a call, say this: "Excuse me for a second, I want to turn on my tape recorder so I have a record of this conversation, can you please spell your last name?" They usually swallow the phone on the other end...it is a great tactic........IF they don't choke on the phone, say something like this before you even start your discussion with the credit collector. "Today is April 20th 11:40 am " Make it sound official...

hey NO IT ALL,do you know if ohio and michigan are "one party"states?

[SinkingFast]

Well I just got off the phone with Chase. They've been calling here the last few days. And it's odd too.

Gal says, "Who is this?"

We say, "Who is this?!"

Hang up. That's happened all week.

Finally today, gal says, "Who is this?"

I say, "Who are you calling?"

She says, "Mrs Smith"

I say, "There's no Mrs. Smith here. You've dialed the wrong number."

Then the gal says, "Is this 123-4567?"

I say, "Yes. But there's no Mrs Smith here. You must have the wrong number."

She says, "Mrs Smith called and left a message on her voicemail, but her voice is soft and she couldn't make out everything Mrs Smith said."

So I asked, "What area code?"

Gal says, "890?"

The gal obviously has our phone number. And I say, "That's correct, but there's no Mrs Smith here."

She says, "Mrs Smith said to call her at work."

I said, "What company are you calling for?"

I left a message for the person handling our case in the Work Out Dept of our Lender the other day. The woman has a Hispanic sounding name and this lady has a Hispanic sounding accent. So I'm thinking maybe its the Lender and she's just got the name confused.

Lady says, "I'm calling for Chase."

I said, "This is not a business phone number. You have called a residence. And there is no Mrs Smith here."

She finally gave up and told me Thank You and hung up.

[aa06a47]

Chase, oh, they bugged the crap out of me until I gave them a lawyers name. I only actually talked to them twice, once I told them I would send them some money, I did, but only 25 of the 800 they wanted, then the next time they called complaing about this, I gave them my attorney name/number. They had some automated phone calling system that called my home number every 30 to 40 minutes on a Saturday. It always rang up on caller ID as 000-000-0000. When I finally answered, it took a second for a connection, and it was some one with a very bad foreign accent. I have a feeling they do there collection calls from over seas.

[13inOR]

Speaking of foreign accents, I got a telemarking call from someone with the most extreme, nearly indiscernible Indian (as in Pakistan) accent wanting to switch me to satellite TV. Funny thing is, he started off the call in this thick
foreign accent introducing himself as "Jim Smith" . I had to chuckle to myself thinking, DUDE!, something tells me that is NOT the name you were born with!!

Funny how the companies try to Americanize it,as if its still not obvious they are outsourcing these calls to another country!

[SinkingFast]

I thought it was odd that Chase was calling because I've already answered the phone and given them the attny name and phone number.

That time, the Lady was real nice and said she wanted to get all the info entered properly so they wouldn't call us again.

Then she asked the wierdest question. "What's your phone number?" I said, "You don't know what number you dialed?" and she said, "The system dials it. We don't. So no I don't know what number was dialed."

I got the same thing on caller ID too. Just a bunch of Zero's. Once, I did get an area code in front of the zeros.

[jane taylor]

Since I'm really good at doing impersonations, I have been known to make up all kinds of stuff to tell them when they've called. I switch accents, etc. I know, it's childish, but hey, gotta relieve the stress somehow!! Thank goodness they're not calling and bugging the mess out of me now!

[SinkingFast]

Speaking of foreign accents, I got a telemarking call from someone with the most extreme, nearly indiscernible Indian (as in Pakistan) accent wanting to switch me to satellite TV. Funny thing is, he started off the call in this thick
foreign accent introducing himself as "Jim Smith" . I had to chuckle to myself thinking, DUDE!, something tells me that is NOT the name you were born with!!

Funny how the companies try to Americanize it,as if its still not obvious they are outsourcing these calls to another country!

That soooooooooo sounds like Dell customer service.

Hubby came home one day, I was having a problem with the computer, and had their service rep on speaker phone doing whatever he said to do. At one point he said we'd be getting a Customer Satisfaction Survey about him.

Reminded us his name was Andy Thomas, or something like that. Hubby looked at the phone and said, "Yeah right! And I'm Osama. Glad to meet you!" I don't think the rep heard it. But I about died laughing.

[lostsoul23]

Ohio is one party, not too sure about Michigan.

It sounds like what most folks are dealing with are third party collectors. The ones that play by the book are already recording the calls anyway, and have to tell you that by law, regardless of the state you are in.

What's funny is that I'm back in collections, and I do my best to help folks out because I've been on the other end of that phone. It's only when they turn into outright *******s within seconds of picking up the phone my hands are tied. (Calls are recorded where I work, and I always id myself right off the bat once I confirm who I am talking to, and it amazes me how the convo can go from calm to getting my head ripped off in seconds.) I now have someone calling my house everyday for some guy, and they are leaving messages because they are getting past my privacy director. (No idea how.) I have told these people I have no clue who the guy is but they keep calling. I am eagerly awaiting their next call.

[anonymuse]

I'm on some kind of auto dial system (guess it was Chase) where the call was blocked. Now I turned on the service where people have to identify a number they're calling from or else it won't go through. And now the number being entered is 000-000-0001. Argh!

I've given up on answering the phone. Since I haven't filed bk yet, I can't say "call my attorney". It's so frustrating.

[Rover]

I've given up on answering the phone.

I don't understand why any of you would ever answer a phone call from a bill collector unless you wanted to do so for some good reason (such as getting ID info so that you can send them a cease and desist notice).

Answering the phone is your choice. There is nothing to be gained from it unless you have a good reason to do so.

Perhaps, some of you who answer the phone could share with me why you do it. Is there something I'm missing?