The phone call that made me mad (Not customer related)

[Hon'ya-chan]

Me: Hello (store name).
CC: This is (name) with (Credit Card Company) Is (XXX XXXX) there?
Me: No, i'm sorry, he's out on family emergency. May I take a message?
CC: We aren't able to reach him. Your business name was on file, so we called you. We want to inform him that his payment is due.
Me: Well, I'll relay that message to him. He's away for a Funeral.
CC: That is not an excuse for non-payment.
Me: Excuse me?
CC: I said that is not an excuse for a non-payment. He can still take the time to pay for his Credit Card Bill.
Me: *now getting irked* Well, given the funerary customs of my fellow co-workers....
CC: Irregardless of death, he still needs to tend to his own affairs as well as the deceased. Death is not an excuse for non-payment.
Me: *In angry tone of voice* Get your Supervisor on the line right now.
CC: But you are not the account holder. Only....
Me: *cutting him off* Listen you fucking twit, I don't care if your calling about someone elses account, the fact that you are so callous as to disregard a death in the family is irresponsible and is not in the best interests of the company you either work for or are subcontracted to speak of such ill will. I'm pretty sure if the company found out, it'll be a PR nightmare for all involved. Now get your damn Supervisor on the phone right now so I can file a formal complaint over your actions!!
CC: *dial tone*

Even more surprising, it's the same company I have a card with!! Now i'm seriously considering cancelling my cards and switching over to another company.

[Evil Queen]

Holy smokes! I wouldn't want to deal with them either. How dare that.... thing not have any respect for the dead??

*takes off hat and is silent for a moment or two*

[freeatlast]

Not to mention the privacy of your co-worker. I thought that they were legally bound NOT to disclose the reason for the call to anybody but the actual account holder. I'm almost positive that the person calling probably broke the law by discussing your co-workers past due credit card bill with you. If I were you, I would definitely cancel my card with that company. Hell, if some type of unavoidable problem occured that caused you to be late with a payment, they would probably share that with other people as well.

[Hon'ya-chan]

And the Call Center folk are strangely quiet for soem odd reason...

[MiloMorai]

Always always ALWAYS get the persons name before releasing the hounds of your temper. Once you have that as you are berating them remind them that if they just hang up on you you can and will call back and get THEIR supervisor. The 2nd part there is optional, no real need to give a warning you can let them dig deeper in the big poo pile.

[marasbaras]

All of the call center people here have said they give fake names anyway. So, no point in getting names. They're just going to lie about it.

[Boochan]

Typical debt collector behavior.
Nothing's worse then been on the other end of a Debt Collector/Overcdue Accounts call centre staff. Never been involved in one personally but just reading the stories, and some ex-co workers on debt collection harassment it seems its reasonably common for all of them to be this rude.

[Kyree]

Not to mention the privacy of your co-worker. I thought that they were legally bound NOT to disclose the reason for the call to anybody but the actual account holder. I'm almost positive that the person calling probably broke the law by discussing your co-workers past due credit card bill with you. If I were you, I would definitely cancel my card with that company. Hell, if some type of unavoidable problem occured that caused you to be late with a payment, they would probably share that with other people as well.

They're also not supposed to be able to call your work are they? I thought that was illegal too.

[Becks]

Freeatlast, I thought so, too.

*perplexed*

[the_std]

I hate to sound like an uber-bitch, but the business world does not stop if someone dies. Now, if this was his first warning from the credit card company, I think it would be fine if he let it slide for a few days, and should have worked something out with the credit company. But the company cannot be expected to put its business practices on hold for something like this. A lot go above and beyond and are understanding, caring people and will be more than willing to work something out with the bereaved, but some people are just in it to make money.

That being said, the call centre rep was being an ass-licking toad-stuffer. They could have showed some compassion.

[BlaqueKatt]

And the Call Center folk are strangely quiet for some odd reason...

we probably all look something like this

[Seshat]

Typical debt collector behavior.
Nothing's worse then been on the other end of a Debt Collector/Overcdue Accounts call centre staff. Never been involved in one personally but just reading the stories, and some ex-co workers on debt collection harassment it seems its reasonably common for all of them to be this rude.

We have at least one debt collector who is a member here. Now, being who she is (and I've read her posts for years), she is probably an exceptionally empathic collector.

But please don't generalise debt collectors, any more than we generalise any other group that doesn't have the adjective 'sucky' as a prefix.

Thank you.

<mod hat off>

[Seshat]

All of the call center people here have said they give fake names anyway. So, no point in getting names. They're just going to lie about it.

They do? Odd. I hadn't noticed that. I'd noticed that they don't give out their surnames, and that they sometimes use fake, but genuinely identifying names.

It doesn't matter if a person is the only Mary in a call centre, or the only Sunshine Rainbowblossom III, or even the only Marasbaras. As long as they have some sort of identifier that I can use to let their supervisor know which rep I spoke to, that's all that's needed. And that's what most of the call centre folk who talk here say they do.

[Miyon]

In college my roommate ran up some huge amount of money on her credit card. Her solution was to never talk to bill collectors. Same as mentioned above "Oh she's not here at the moment"

But they kept calling and she just stopped answering the phone. I couldn't because I was always worried it would be a important family call.
This collection agent was very rude every time she called which was from 7 am to 11 pm, depending on the day.

One Saturday she called at 8am. I had enough. I told her that I was not the person with the bill and I cant make that person answer the phone so stop calling me or I will report it to the police as harassment.
I was surprised they never called back, they went back to mailing invoices.

Miyon

[Boochan]

But please don't generalise debt collectors, any more than we generalise any other group that doesn't have the adjective 'sucky' as a prefix.

No problems. I've been reading a lot of telemarketing/junk debt call logs recently, and I guess my views were a bit temporarily biased after typing that.