How it really should be in debt collection

i work in 3rd party collections and have worked for various cell phone companies.

To Ari and Matt

Reading your posts, the community will get a new dimension about collection industry. And it is obvious that you both actually do fair collections.

But tell me, do you see other collectors by your side who tend to put a bad name to this industry? Don't you get shaken when you hear someone sitting next to you making this rude call?

Not me, Roxette. The company I worked for were and still are fdcpa sticklers. After all, their clients were only Fortune 500 companies. Department of Education, Providian, Cingular, AT&T, DirectTV, Healthcare, all clients we could not afford to embarass with childish tantrums and nonsense words directed at people who were once their valued customers.
Never have I sat next to a violator. However, as I became a more seasoned collector, I would see the new hires come in and i would soon be able to tell which ones would make it and which would not.

Ari. I enjoy reading your posts. I have found them to be quite informative and interesting. You obviously have a caring and compassionate side which is evident in your posts. They have even given me some hope there are other decent people like yourself and Matt out there in the collections business.

However, I do have to take a little exception, with at least two of the clients you listed, Providian and Cingular.

Prior to filing bankruptcy in 1997 (a mistake I will never make again), I was having a lot of problems with Providian. The people calling from Providian were extremely arrogant and subject to tantrums and yelling if they didn't hear what they wanted to hear. They even continued to call after filing BK and were provided with the number for my attorney. Additionally, my wife had an account with Providian before we were married. My wife was trying to make an arrangement and pay it off. When she finally arrive at an acceptable arrangement, Providian sold the account to Aspire, who refused to honor the agreement which Providian had made.

Additionally, A FOIA request on another agency, Superior Asset, revealed a large number of complaints against both Superior and Cingular for violations of the FDCPA.

well, being rude isn't against federal or state law. luckily there aren't any collectors in my department who intentionally break fdcpa laws. if anything, it's usually a newbie who makes a dumb mistake that turns out to be harmless. although, i will admit almost all collectors i know will walk right up to the thin blue line and peer over it once in a while.

I just ran into something at the new agency I work at here in Pensacola. I've read some posts in this forum about debt re-aging, and I've come across an account today, a past due payday loan in a relatively small amount, that was maybe a year and a half old if memory serves me correctly. Anyway, as I spoke to the borrower she told me she had paid it off, twice. FOr the first time she admitted to the embarassing blunder of bouncing a check, but then she went to Cashland and paid off the loan in cash. Willing to accept the truth instead of money in a situation like this, I gave her my company phone and fax and advised her to send proof of payment. I certainly hope that if she is being truthful, and this is not just a remaining balance that she missed, that this is just a clerical error on behalf of the client. It won't look good if my agency is inadvertently doing business with dishonest clients.
This is a new thing I'm starting to suspect. It may not be the collection agency doing bad business, but they may not realize that they have a contract with a dishonest client. My new place of employment, Protocol, are good people, but are a small agency and contract with retailers, credit cards, banks, and pawnshops. I hope that there isn't one bad seed in there that could poison us.

I have come across this too. Worrying.

It's because I work for a low key CA who has to fight for each client's business, even if that client is full of it.

Attention everybody! I never believed this to be true, but it is! Payday loans! You write a postdated check to a pawnshop in exchange for cash??!! What are you thinking?? Don't be so desperate! IT CAN BE CONSIDERED A FELONY IN A COURT OF LAW!! Writing a postdated check to a business that inevitably bounces? They've got you on a sticky wicket! You guys, I would never! I would prefer to do without that have this nightmare! Vampires are real! We all need to steel ourselves!

Loan sharks is what they are, and thats putting it mildly. And its a vicious cycle that once you get into it, it's hard to break! I have never done this but my brother in law does it all the time. He writes the advance payday loan checks, plus has done the car title loans. He's lost two cars doing this (back to back just a few months apart). And has a car now, that he's about to lose because he's behind on the title payments. The sad thing about it is, its his dead sisters car that she left for her son. Right away, he put the car in his name and took the title to the pawn shop. What makes it worse is, he doesn't even work, he gets a check from the government once a month and its spent before he even gets it.

Another incident, my husband worked with a man that pawned his car title and got behind on the payments. The repo man came out, started loading up the car. He {husbands work buddy} came outside of his house about the time they were driving off. He started chasing repo man with a gun and was shooting. Repo man got out of his truck, shot and killed work buddy. Wife said he was only behind one payment. This was in the news. man is dead, repo man is in no trouble, title loan place has car. I'm not saying work friend was right in what he done, not at all...but people do we really need to put ourselves in these situations?

I have posted about this subject before and this subject just really BURNS me up. People, the loan sharps ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS. repeat after me. THEY'RE NOT OUR FRIENDS. I am convinced this is one of worst things 'financially' going on in America today. I really wish people would think twice and consider their options before going into these loan shark joints. They are feeding on you. They know your luck is down and thats what they do, they take advantage. Do you think they're surprised when you can't pay them back??? no, in fact, they count on it. Nothing good comes from this. You're desperate, you feel you have no other way--you feel pretty good when 'they're helping you' and laying that money on you...then they turn into your worst nightmare. Please friends, think long and hard before getting involved with these people. I'm not judging you if you have, just do whatever it takes to get yourself out from under them.

shirley

That's one hell of a story about your husband's coworker! You are so right in what you are saying. There is absolutely no need for us to stoop to such desperate measures that we find ourselves on the wrong side of the law. I would personally prefer do just do without for a little while. I've had to before and it's not so bad!

They are loan sharks through and through, and what they do is damaging to our economy. If we are to get together and put our country back on it's feet, let us write to our congressmen about this. It really is up to us to think about what is in our best interests as citizens and put that in writing to our lawmakers. That is how democracy works.

I just really hope that if nothing else, the people that come into this forum will read and hear the stories behind these loan shark companies and steer clear of them--for their own good! That after reading some of the hardships and heartaches that these places have caused for some of the people here, that they will definitely think twice before going that route. And for the ones that are already have, that they will get out from under it as quickly as possible, while they can before it snowballs and backs them into a corner. shirley

Eventually I think it will be common knowledge. Just like it's now common knowledge that those silly electrode belts will not tone anyone's abs in a thousand years.