Collection agency scuminess

Senator seeks probe of posthumous debt collection

Bottom line; there is a LARGE, even majority portion of the debt collection industry that routinely and deliberately violate Federal and State laws. Frankly, if it were up to me, people should be doing hard time in prison for just ONE occurence of this kind of behavior.

MrsPhaedrus and I have been the victims of illegal collection practices, on debts we didn't owe. It is just so tempting to pay them to make them go away/fall for their garbage.

Hopefully, some of these guys burn for this. Collecting from the deceased relatives is beyond the pale, imo.

I still get a call every couple of weeks for a phone bill at an address in a city I never lived in. Only $110. I could pay it, but won't. I've filed complaints with the Atty General's office over violations of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, I've written to the company disputing the debt, demanding original proof, and asking them to stop calling.....none of it matters at all. I'll die a slow and painful death before I pay them one single dime. The name of this horrific company? Portfolio Recovery Services. If they every contact you, get used to it. You'll never stop hearing from them.

I worked for collection agency while in college. I mostly skip traced people, but did some collections. The company I worked for encouraged us to try to collect debt from the families of people who were dead. We worked extra long hours over holiday time periods because we were to call people twice as much because it was thought they would have family visiting them and we were supposed to push having their family pay their debt.

I could go on. Very seedy industry.

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Originally Posted by dosry5

I still get a call every couple of weeks for a phone bill at an address in a city I never lived in. Only $110. I could pay it, but won't. I've filed complaints with the Atty General's office over violations of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, I've written to the company disputing the debt, demanding original proof, and asking them to stop calling.....none of it matters at all. I'll die a slow and painful death before I pay them one single dime. The name of this horrific company? Portfolio Recovery Services. If they every contact you, get used to it. You'll never stop hearing from them.

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Two words for you: Air Horn. Since they're criminal thugs anyway, they'll never file a complaint against you.

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Originally Posted by Phaedrus

Two words for you: Air Horn. Since they're criminal thugs anyway, they'll never file a complaint against you.

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I'm an investigator. I found out the full name of one of the collectors who is the worst that keeps calling me. All letters I get I get in the mail from her company now get forwarded on to her home address. :yes:

I prefer the term scummery to scumminess.

I kind alike scumtarded.

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Originally Posted by Phaedrus

Two words for you: Air Horn. Since they're criminal thugs anyway, they'll never file a complaint against you.

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File a complaint if you have issues with them. Get their name and company and report them. It's pretty simple if you think they are breaking the law.

Also, if you legitimately owe money (which is 99% of the time)...of course they are going to call you. Pay your bills and this will probably never happen.

Also, I know people that work in collections and I wouldn't call them "criminal thugs"...you could say that about any industry, there are criminals in about every profession. That doesn't make them all bad.

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Originally Posted by cycloneworld

Also, if you legitimately owe money (which is 99% of the time)...of course they are going to call you. Pay your bills and this will probably never happen.

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This.

If people would pay for the services/products they purchased as agreed upon, there would be no need for collections agencies.

I know there are bad people in any business. But it always amazes me how many people are bothered by getting a call on money they actually owe to someone else. I've been in banking for 25 years and for some of these cuctomers it is always the banks fault that they got the money that they can't payback now. I saw a person last week get a $6600 tax refund and she took 2 days off work to go spend it. She was then upset that we felt that she should pay her loan payment since she didn't work a full week. And this unfortunately isn't an isolated incident.

I know I got scammed by a collector once - they said I owed something like $450 for a debt that was something like 5 years old on a credit card I know I never owned. I probably would have fought it harder if I wasn't living in my parents' basement at the time (in the few months before I got married) and they weren't calling my parent's phone number to try to collect from me. But the reason why I know now that was a scam - that particular debt never showed up on my credit history when my wife and I applied for a mortgage a year and a half ago. Pisses me off now...

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Originally Posted by cycloneworld

File a complaint if you have issues with them. Get their name and company and report them. It's pretty simple if you think they are breaking the law.

Also, if you legitimately owe money (which is 99% of the time)...of course they are going to call you. Pay your bills and this will probably never happen.

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Yeah, like I said, I did file a complaint. I disputed the bill in writing. When they continued to violate the terms of the FDCPA I filed a written complaint with the Atty General's office and with the BBB. It's not always that simple to resolve.

And your 99% stat---I'd like to see some proof on that. I did not, do not, and will not owe this $110 bill they claim is mine.

I was getting calls for a while on a $150 something debt. When I asked for details the agency said they didn't have that information. My answer was I don't have $150 for you then. They said they were going to research and have the orginal organization who hired them provide me some documentation. It has never shown up.

Another similar but not the same kind of story. When I moved out to Chicago I had cable installed in my apartment. I was there when the guy came in. Took the cable box, plugged it into the wall, checked it done. I get my bill, there is a $100 fee for "moving the cable outlet". I had to call and argue with the company for 30 mins to get them to remove that charge from my bill. I wonder how many people just pay it without looking, or give up and pay it after all the grief?

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Originally Posted by cys_av8r

I was getting calls for a while on a $150 something debt. When I asked for details the agency said they didn't have that information. My answer was I don't have $150 for you then. They said they were going to research and have the orginal organization who hired them provide me some documentation. It has never shown up.

Another similar but not the same kind of story. When I moved out to Chicago I had cable installed in my apartment. I was there when the guy came in. Took the cable box, plugged it into the wall, checked it done. I get my bill, there is a $100 fee for "moving the cable outlet". I had to call and argue with the company for 30 mins to get them to remove that charge from my bill. I wonder how many people just pay it without looking, or give up and pay it after all the grief?

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Having worked for a collection agency, I know for fact that this line of reasoning is preached. Counted on. Hoped for.

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Originally Posted by cycloneworld;944108[B

]File a complaint if you have issues with them. Get their name and company and report them. It's pretty simple if you think they are breaking the law.[/B]

Also, if you legitimately owe money (which is 99% of the time)...of course they are going to call you. Pay your bills and this will probably never happen.

Also, I know people that work in collections and I wouldn't call them "criminal thugs"...you could say that about any industry, there are criminals in about every profession. That doesn't make them all bad.

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I was hassled by a collection agency once for credit card charges that (you guessed it) I didn't make. I was actually happy that they sent me a letter which was signed. I figured I could talk to this guy and straighten things out so I called them. Not only was the guy I talked to a complete d-bag, he refused to let me talk to the person who signed the letter (who probably never existed). I asked him repeatedly and he refused rudely and said "This is not some kind of customer service line".

It took about a month but after at least a dozen calls to the credit card company it was resolved.

I'm not sure who I would've reported this person to or if the name he gave me was indeed his. He also used the scare tactic of "You can pay this amount now or it will increase by X if we have to keep calling you" which to me is their way of discouraging a person from reporting.

Reporting may be simple. Resolving rarely is.