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I finished college in 2002, just far enough into the economy crash that the job I had lined up fell thru. There was no job market. I was hurting. I scraped by for a year and a half throwing resumes into the wind all across North America (and YES I do mean that I applied into Canada AND Mexico). Needless to say I fell into collections on all my bills. I have been fighting for 4 years to get back into the light of day, as I refused to accept bankruptcy (stupid pride).
Some collectors were very nice to work with, and were actually helpful. Some went above and beyond to help me, as long as I was honest and kept paying them, which I was, and I did.
However.
(anyone that works for a collections agency, pay attention, and perhaps share this with your co-workers)
There is a reason that people are hostile to collectors. It is not because they are all bad, many of them were quite nice. The thing that collectors need to remember is that they are speaking to someone that is at wits end, someone who is living on a shoestring, and knows what it is like to put mustard on white rice, because it was your third straight day with only white rice to eat, and mustard was the only thing in your fridge. At that point in life, we (the “customers” in collections) are very fragile, and it does not take much to set us off. We have been backed into a corner, and are very defensive. One single kind word can mean the difference between a good day and a day you wonder if the world would be better off without you.
Anyway, back to the story. I work in a sales(ish) job. That gives me a unique perspective that I explained to a creditor one time like this:
“You have to understand, I am in collections to SEVEN different companies. You all want my money, and there is not enough to go around. What you need to understand is that I can only pay a couple of these bills a month. Look at this from my perspective, do you think I would rather pay the person that calls me at 7am on a Saturday morning, and calls my parents and threatens them, and leaves nasty messages, and tells my roommate that they are going to come arrest me (which I know is impossible, AND is breaking the fair debt collection act but that is an entirely different rant), or…do you think I am going to pay the person that when I tell them I only get paid every other Friday actually listens and does not call again until that Friday. Do you think I want to pay off the hostile and mean person or the nice person? The person that wishes me luck, or the person that tells my mom that she raised a deadbeat son? Here is my idea. You have to woo me. Woo. It means you have to be nice in order to get what you want from me. Let me tell you this, I have seven bills to pay, and only the money to pay 2. The nicest 2 are getting paid, and the rest are getting ignored. Be nice, you’ll get more money so you will be happy, you will collect so your boss will be happy, and you will treat me nice, so I will be happy. Everyone is happy, everyone wins.”
That person decided to make it his mission to be the largest rectum that he could, with the idea that the worse he was the faster I would want to get rid of him. It did not work. I laughed at his frustration. When he was silly enough to not listen when I told him that I was recording his calls, and he swore at me and called me a deadbeat, I sent a copy of the CD that I made to the FTC and got them punished. But, that still did not make my debt any better. They still harassed me.
The person I was working with was removed from my case and someone else was assigned. The new guy used the same tactics. I tried recording him, but he would clam up whenever I told him that I was…apparently he took it serious. That did not stop me from getting 3-4 calls a day, calls at work, calls on my cell, calls to my parents house, calls, calls, calls. I tried speaking to the manager, and they did nothing. I spoke to that persons manager, they did nothing. I spoke to the credit card company that my account was from, and they did nothing. I was infuriated.
I found out that their office was in a city that was near where I was going to visit for a family reunion. After a few payments I got the total down. I got a bonus and finally I had the money to pay them off, $615. I called them and asked them if they accepted payments at their office (as they charged me $7 to make a payment by check or credit card).
Are you aware that within the US it is against the law for a company to refuse legal US currency for the resolution of a debt? Meaning, that if they accept cash as a payment option, they have to accept ALL types of cash.
Are you also aware that (according to my bathroom scale) $615 worth of un-wrapped pennies weighs in at 340 lbs?
It took me 18 trips to my car to make my payment at their office. I left a long letter detailing every single call over the past year, and every violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act that they broke. I let them know that I was sending a copy of that letter to the FTC also. I don’t care that some of you may classify me as a SC, that was one of the happiest moments in my life.
While proof reading this I realized that some people may feel the need to say “but that poor person that has to count all that is not the one that did it, you were mean to the wrong person.” I 100% agree that I was mean to the wrong person, and I feel bad for the undeserving person that got stuck dealing with my suckiness. However, can anyone possibly deny that 340 lbs of pennies will attract attention? That was my goal. As a “customer” I could not get the attention of anyone that has the power to stop the abuse of customers. I went as far as having the FTC attack them and STILL got no good results. I see one of two things happening. 1) My act of defiance will generate attention, and SOMEONE will finally realize that someone has to be pretty abused to spend 3 weeks harvesting pennies from every bank in town. That person will either do something, or get in touch with someone that can. 2) The company is 100% corrupt and my act will not change anything. If this is the case, then the poor nice person that got stuck counting 61,500 pennies will hate their job and quit. I just did them a favor.
Some collectors were very nice to work with, and were actually helpful. Some went above and beyond to help me, as long as I was honest and kept paying them, which I was, and I did.
However.
(anyone that works for a collections agency, pay attention, and perhaps share this with your co-workers)
There is a reason that people are hostile to collectors. It is not because they are all bad, many of them were quite nice. The thing that collectors need to remember is that they are speaking to someone that is at wits end, someone who is living on a shoestring, and knows what it is like to put mustard on white rice, because it was your third straight day with only white rice to eat, and mustard was the only thing in your fridge. At that point in life, we (the “customers” in collections) are very fragile, and it does not take much to set us off. We have been backed into a corner, and are very defensive. One single kind word can mean the difference between a good day and a day you wonder if the world would be better off without you.
Anyway, back to the story. I work in a sales(ish) job. That gives me a unique perspective that I explained to a creditor one time like this:
“You have to understand, I am in collections to SEVEN different companies. You all want my money, and there is not enough to go around. What you need to understand is that I can only pay a couple of these bills a month. Look at this from my perspective, do you think I would rather pay the person that calls me at 7am on a Saturday morning, and calls my parents and threatens them, and leaves nasty messages, and tells my roommate that they are going to come arrest me (which I know is impossible, AND is breaking the fair debt collection act but that is an entirely different rant), or…do you think I am going to pay the person that when I tell them I only get paid every other Friday actually listens and does not call again until that Friday. Do you think I want to pay off the hostile and mean person or the nice person? The person that wishes me luck, or the person that tells my mom that she raised a deadbeat son? Here is my idea. You have to woo me. Woo. It means you have to be nice in order to get what you want from me. Let me tell you this, I have seven bills to pay, and only the money to pay 2. The nicest 2 are getting paid, and the rest are getting ignored. Be nice, you’ll get more money so you will be happy, you will collect so your boss will be happy, and you will treat me nice, so I will be happy. Everyone is happy, everyone wins.”
That person decided to make it his mission to be the largest rectum that he could, with the idea that the worse he was the faster I would want to get rid of him. It did not work. I laughed at his frustration. When he was silly enough to not listen when I told him that I was recording his calls, and he swore at me and called me a deadbeat, I sent a copy of the CD that I made to the FTC and got them punished. But, that still did not make my debt any better. They still harassed me.
The person I was working with was removed from my case and someone else was assigned. The new guy used the same tactics. I tried recording him, but he would clam up whenever I told him that I was…apparently he took it serious. That did not stop me from getting 3-4 calls a day, calls at work, calls on my cell, calls to my parents house, calls, calls, calls. I tried speaking to the manager, and they did nothing. I spoke to that persons manager, they did nothing. I spoke to the credit card company that my account was from, and they did nothing. I was infuriated.
I found out that their office was in a city that was near where I was going to visit for a family reunion. After a few payments I got the total down. I got a bonus and finally I had the money to pay them off, $615. I called them and asked them if they accepted payments at their office (as they charged me $7 to make a payment by check or credit card).
Are you aware that within the US it is against the law for a company to refuse legal US currency for the resolution of a debt? Meaning, that if they accept cash as a payment option, they have to accept ALL types of cash.
Are you also aware that (according to my bathroom scale) $615 worth of un-wrapped pennies weighs in at 340 lbs?
It took me 18 trips to my car to make my payment at their office. I left a long letter detailing every single call over the past year, and every violation of the Fair Debt Collection Act that they broke. I let them know that I was sending a copy of that letter to the FTC also. I don’t care that some of you may classify me as a SC, that was one of the happiest moments in my life.
While proof reading this I realized that some people may feel the need to say “but that poor person that has to count all that is not the one that did it, you were mean to the wrong person.” I 100% agree that I was mean to the wrong person, and I feel bad for the undeserving person that got stuck dealing with my suckiness. However, can anyone possibly deny that 340 lbs of pennies will attract attention? That was my goal. As a “customer” I could not get the attention of anyone that has the power to stop the abuse of customers. I went as far as having the FTC attack them and STILL got no good results. I see one of two things happening. 1) My act of defiance will generate attention, and SOMEONE will finally realize that someone has to be pretty abused to spend 3 weeks harvesting pennies from every bank in town. That person will either do something, or get in touch with someone that can. 2) The company is 100% corrupt and my act will not change anything. If this is the case, then the poor nice person that got stuck counting 61,500 pennies will hate their job and quit. I just did them a favor.
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