Religious fanatics

[Xzor64]

So I work in collections meaning I get to call up people every day and night and politely tell them to pay their long overdue bills. My "title" is CSR but really I'm a debt collector. Better yet, while I'm in school my schedule only allows me to work weekend shift which means calling people on Sundays. Our hours are 2pm-10pm but we stop calling each time zone at 9pm and we have an automated dialer so one sunday evening after putting up with a significant amount of BS from other debtors this call came in...

SC = Religious middle-aged woman from the deep south
ME = The collector calling her at 7pm on a Sunday.

ME: Thank you for calling ___ my name is ___ may I have your file number please?
SC: I don't have a file number, someone from your office just called me ON A SUNDAY
ME: Okay ma'am what's the phone number we called so I can look up your file?
SC (still talking): ...and its rude, and disrespectful to call me on a sunday, this is the LORD'S DAY, don't call this number again!
ME: Okay ma'am what number did we dial so I can remove it?
SC: What number did you call? you called GOD's number!
ME: ......Okay, then whats his number so I can take it out?
SC: What's his number? G-O-D
ME: ......
SC: Don't call me again, ya hear?! *click*

Basically that was the only time I kinda snapped at someone, it had been a long night of people telling me the most vulgar, defaming things that aren't really easy to just brush off. Luckily quality assurance didn't pick that call for monitoring, but my supervisor heard it. He's a pretty cool guy so he just told me to take a quick break and be careful next time.

[Rapscallion]

"I won't give you the information you need to stop contacting me, but stop calling me anyway."

Almost as good as those voicemails that say, "Ring me back!" and don't provide a number.

Rapscallion

[Boozy]

SC: What number did you call? you called GOD's number!
ME: ......Okay, then whats his number so I can take it out?
SC: What's his number? G-O-D

I have some things I'd like to take up with Him, so I tried the number. It was disconnected, and the operator claims its not a real number. Clearly, the operator is an agent of Satan.

Am I missing an international calling code, perhaps?

[LifeCarnie]

You should have explained to her that if G0D paid his/her bills the calls would stop.

I love people who use religion as a excuse.

[piratemonkey]

That was a test from jesus. You failed. You're totally going to hell now.

Lesson learned today: jesus is on the side of the customer.

[Xzor64]

You should have explained to her that if G0D paid his/her bills the calls would stop.

I love people who use religion as a excuse.

Oh, I would've loved to. Unfortunately until I can verify the name, phone number, and address of who I'm speaking to, I can't even tell them our companies name, only the initials unless they specifically ask what it stands for because our company name basically says what we do.

"The collection agency cannot convey its attempt to collect a debt to any third party" or something like that

[Rapscallion]

Just a note, folks, I missed the chance to put a warning in earlier about not attacking religion, but SCs are fair game. Let's not go down the route where we close the thread and get shouty.

Rapscallion

[piratemonkey]

Aye, well it sucks when a customer uses anything as an excuse to unfairly attack you, be it god, acts of nature or their mother's broken ribs. How were you supposed to do anything about it if SC insisted on ranting instead of acting constructively to resolve the situation?

[Hon'ya-chan]

SC: What number did you call? you called GOD's number!
ME: ......Okay, then whats his number so I can take it out?

867-5309.

[Rapscallion]

Aye, well it sucks when a customer uses anything as an excuse to unfairly attack you, be it god, acts of nature or their mother's broken ribs. How were you supposed to do anything about it if SC insisted on ranting instead of acting constructively to resolve the situation?

Perfectly true, it's just that we have a number of people with religious convictions amongst the members, and I don't want their faith being attacked. This board takes no side in religion, and things often get out of hand. That's why I said to focus on the SC, but not on the religion.

Rapscallion

[piratemonkey]

Whoops, I didn't mean to come across as attacking religion. Just making a bad joke. I do that a lot.

[Rapscallion]

I wasn't worried about you, or any one particular person. It's just that we've seen too many threads go south over time when similar issues have come up, so we like to make sure people remember.

Rapscallion

[Zoe1975]

kinda like what my mom goes through at work
she ASK for DOnations NOt tries to sell! and PPLtend to call them and threaten to sue the Place!!! ....what else is new!?
even though the DO NOT CALL LIST IS FOR TELEMARKETERS, she is a charity asking for donations!!! duh!!!

anyways she has ppl wanting theirnumbers removed BUT never gives THE NUMBER TO REMOVE IT!! as if she is a mind reader?

[bainsidhe]

Tough for me to tell, perhaps your voice was on edge and the anger radiated through? Because to me, your side of the conversation seems rather polite. Not sure how quality assurance would be involved, when you appear to have kept your cool and seemed rather non-combative.

[smileyeagle1021]

Perfectly true, it's just that we have a number of people with religious convictions amongst the members, and I don't want their faith being attacked. This board takes no side in religion, and things often get out of hand. That's why I said to focus on the SC, but not on the religion.

Rapscallion

Speaking as one with religious convictions on avoiding doing business on the sabbath (which I know not always possible), it is still fair to bash the SC with her warped view of her convictions. Ultimately if she believes it is wrong to work on the sabbath then she should not be answering the phone if she doesn't know the caller (she can check either with caller id or by screening on the answering machine), and speaking from experience blaming God for you being careless and not paying your bills is a very good way not to be on God's good side. I know I'm somewhat skirting the groups rules by saying this, but I think it applies to this SC so please forgive me, but God will only help those who are also willing to help themselves, which clearly if this lady isn't paying her bills she isn't willing to do.