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Why aren't these no-good customers in jail, the ones who do things like write worthless checks every month or commit fraud to obtain a utility service, like the phone or electric? A while back, while in customer service, I dealt with a woman who called in screaming and yelling that her phone was shut off when she just paid the bill. I politely told her I would look at her records to determine why this happened. When I got the records, I nearly lost my breath. This woman had been shut off for writing a worthless check for $50, but it wasn't the first time. In a twelve month period, this woman had bounced sixteen checks alone with the phone service, yet still had her freedom! Everything was done to stop this, such as putting a "cash only" flag, but she got around this by going to a payment center instead of mailing in her payment. You do the math on that. We charged at that time $20 per returned check, which would be $320 in fees. Then take sixteen checks times the dollar amount her bank charges for that as well.
How about the ones who put service in someone else's name? Had a guy who called a while back complaining because he had tried to buy a new car, and on his credit report, unpaid phone bill came up. Upon researching, it was discovered his ex-girlfriend, whom he had broken up with four years prior, had obtained service in his name due to his good credit. She had this service for three years, and finally it caught up with her. When I called the residence and asked her about it, she became very nervous and agitated, as if she had been caught and was now worried. Yet, all that happened was the service was shut off, and this guy had to go through a bunch of red tape to have this expunged from his credit report. The ex-girlfriend never went to jail or paid a price.
But, there is justice after all. After the last incident, Thanksgiving rolled around. The building had sales, service, and collections on different floors. One day, a sales rep won a Thanksgiving turkey for making the most in her sales. Her name was posted on all the floors near the elevator doors, congratulating her on winning this turkey. One of the collections reps saw this, and thought the name sounded familiar, so she did a check on this person. It turned out this woman was wanted by the collections department for fraud. She had managed to get phone service using six different aliases. She would put service in, run up the bill, not pay it, then have it disconnected. Soon after, she would apply again, and somehow would plaster fake ID's showing she was that other person. She had run the company perhaps $5,000 or more doing this, and yet, she was working at the phone company! Once this collections rep caught this, her supervisor immediately called the police, and charges were filed. Never heard the outcome, but I'm sure her life changed in an instant.
So, I ask you, why aren't other people like this caught? The world would be a better place without people like this.
How about the ones who put service in someone else's name? Had a guy who called a while back complaining because he had tried to buy a new car, and on his credit report, unpaid phone bill came up. Upon researching, it was discovered his ex-girlfriend, whom he had broken up with four years prior, had obtained service in his name due to his good credit. She had this service for three years, and finally it caught up with her. When I called the residence and asked her about it, she became very nervous and agitated, as if she had been caught and was now worried. Yet, all that happened was the service was shut off, and this guy had to go through a bunch of red tape to have this expunged from his credit report. The ex-girlfriend never went to jail or paid a price.
But, there is justice after all. After the last incident, Thanksgiving rolled around. The building had sales, service, and collections on different floors. One day, a sales rep won a Thanksgiving turkey for making the most in her sales. Her name was posted on all the floors near the elevator doors, congratulating her on winning this turkey. One of the collections reps saw this, and thought the name sounded familiar, so she did a check on this person. It turned out this woman was wanted by the collections department for fraud. She had managed to get phone service using six different aliases. She would put service in, run up the bill, not pay it, then have it disconnected. Soon after, she would apply again, and somehow would plaster fake ID's showing she was that other person. She had run the company perhaps $5,000 or more doing this, and yet, she was working at the phone company! Once this collections rep caught this, her supervisor immediately called the police, and charges were filed. Never heard the outcome, but I'm sure her life changed in an instant.
So, I ask you, why aren't other people like this caught? The world would be a better place without people like this.
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