[cajunbulldog]

I have no overdue bills and I have never had a desire to collect from anyone except my boss.

ok i have been reading some things others have been posting and yes i do agree that some times people go thru hard times i have been there myself. it is a typical stereotype us collectors have that all we want is money and that we dont undertstand what people go thru. now, i cant speak for everyone else but i can speak for most of us, believe it or not we do care about the people we call and we do want to help them thats why we call. unless you have worked in collections you wont really understand how it works.

[cajunbulldog]

How closely does your agency follow fdcpa & Fcra?

well we have meetings about it every day and we get training on fdcpa before we are put on the phones, unfortunatly as i am sure you can imagine there is a huge turnover rate in collections and the new collectors make mistakes, dont get me wrong older employees make mistakes as well but not as often and not as big of mistakes. we try our very hardest to follow all the rules and if mistakes are made and pointed out to our supervisors we are definatly repremanded and told the right way to do things, unfortunatly because there are so many rules and techniques to collections only time and experience can teach a collector about the rules of the trade. does that answer your question?

[cajunbulldog]

Actually it does.Thank you for the honest observation of how hard it can be from both sides of the fence.

no problem i wish we could all just get along and everyone could just see where everyone else is coming from. i have to admit before i worked for a collection agency i had the same feelings as most everyone on this site has had but really working for this company has enlightened me a lot. i am still a debtor and still get collection calls but i realise where these people are coming from. there is always going to be those people who give debt collectors a bad name just like that one person at the fast food resteraunt who is rude and messes up your order. there are people like that in all fields. it is unfortunate but true

Yes, I heard of AMO Recoveries.

This collection agency retained my debit card information and without my authorization debited my checking account one month later for $421.00. The agent lied about the matter by stating I gave my permission to process this second transaction. The practice of retaining your bank card information seems more common than you are told.

People don't seem to understand that as a consumer they have more laws to protect them, then the collection agencies have to persue them for the debt that they knowingly and willingly incured. Collection Agencys are just doing a job. If people would pay their bills on time and understand that credit cards and cell phones are not necessities, they are luxuries.

[JCEMT]

Actually when I worked in EMS a cell phone was a necessity. There are places in my area where radios do not reach (due to mountains blocking a repeaters signal) but there are cell towers available. The area which I am referring to has a mine there. Whenever we would get toned out for a accident at that mine it is always bad. First for every 10 miners there is a supervisor who is also a certified Emergency Medical Technician-M (meaning mine, which is like a EMT-Basic but has additional training to deal with some things almost exclusive to mining) so any minor injuries can be taken care of by a EMT-M. Whenever my company got called out by county 911 for a mining accident that meant that it was going to be bad, not only that but by the time we got there they are rarely at the surface yet as they generally operate some 2+ miles below the surface. That cell phone is the only link that I have with medical command to get certain medical orders for certain procedures that require a physician's authorization. (we have the land line while we are there but after we leave and for the next 20-30 minutes it's cell phone or your on your own) It wasn't a necessity for my life, it was a necessity for other peoples lives. I had a person get their torso crushed in a cave in. I didn't see the tell tale signs of a punctured lung until we went in transport, if I didn't have the cell phone to get orders for a chest tube he would have drowned in his blood.

[JCEMT]

Additionally due to the mountainous geography of that location aeromedical transport is impossible.

I work in collections and waht i am reading is dishearting to me never have we been able to degrade people or harrass them. the law clearly states 1 contact per week at place of employment! I also can tell you telling a co-worker is against the fdcpa as well that's called 3rd party disclosure! If i were any of you I would contact an atty and get compensated for the way you are being treated. I know of a woman once who got $500.00 for each phone call made to here after her do not contact letter was sent . So keep a record of all the calls!!!
P.S. we are not all like that and the one who are aren't making any $$ so there mean !

Im a mother of two and when i was working for AMO they treated me like i was someone special. When it came time for me to quit and take care of my family they owed me a bonus check. It took me a month to get the money they owed me i woulod never prefer someone to work for them they will trest you like some one at first, but in the end they will hurt you bad :evil:

5 years ago a Verizon wireless bill of mine got sent to AMO. The rep told me for about half of the balance, they would settle the account. I was behind on many bills at the time, but sent little or nothing to the others for 2 months to pay what I thought was a good deal to settle the account. 5years later, this past fall, I was applying for a loan (we still have a lot of debt, but are able to keep up on payments now) and I found out the other $400 was still on my record. They lied and never settled the account. Now they're giving me a run-around and being extremely rude and condecending. They don't harrass me because the debt was sent back to Verizon's in-house recovery, but they won't cooperate with me to get information about what happened back there so I can settle with Verizon. Be sure to get documentation of any agreement the claim to make with you.

[JCEMT]

That is correct guest, always get agreements in writing and signed by some official within the agency.

Every month it's the same. I can't pay all of my bills. I pay the ones that are most important, rent, PGE, car and house insurance. It's hard when you can't get by paying those bills let alone any others. So to tell someone just pay your bills w/o knowing why they can't ops: not a good thing. Pray and or have good thoughts and things will get better...they have to.

So yesterday I was talking to an AMO agent and she started insulting me! I do have quite a bit of debt with them (aprox. $2,500) and this woman told me that I "know nothing about real life" and continued to insult my intelegence by lecturing me for 10 minutes about how I have to pay this off. At the beginning of the conversation I told her I could give her three checks over the phone in advance ( I had done this previously so I knew it was possible) she told me that that was not good enough and I needed to either start paying it imediately (monday) or pay the entire thing off in March. Can I go to her supervisor and request another representative?