Sometimes a wrong number really IS the wrong number

[poofy_puff]

Update:

He hasn't called since I had that conversation with him. Before that, he called every day for about a week (while I was at work) and left messages. So maybe he did his homework and found out that what I told him was true after all.

[Andara Bledin]

Rule #1. If you want a debt collector (or any business) to stop calling you, tell them, point blank, "Do not call this number again."

Don't just tell them they have a wrong number. Don't give them a right number. Don't put up with them pestering you if you don't owe a debt. Just tell them to never call again, and if they do, then you can prosecute for harrassement.

Even if they are trying to collect on a legitimate debt that you owe.

Because you pay for your phone service, they aren't allowed to use it to contact you unless you give them permission (which happens tacitly when you make a purchase or often when your debt is sold to a third party for collection), and until you revoke said permission.

There are people at my work who won't tell their creditors to not call them here, even though they refuse to take the calls. It's annoying as hell, especially if you're the one answering the phone.

^-.-^

[otakuneko]

Answering machines are wonderful things.

Also, I have never had a legitimate collections agent call the house. It's always been a scammer. How do I know?

I pay the fuggin' bills, that's how.

Thus I treat anyone claiming to be a collections agent as a scammer. First call or two, they talk to the machine. If they keep calling, I'll pick up and try to wheedle enough information out of them to file a DNC list complaint. Generally whether I'm successful or not at getting enough info, they tend to stop calling after that.

[bhskittykatt]

One of my desperate coworkers has a bad habit of trying to pick up customers (which is a very BIG no-no, but that's a whole other story!). Anyways, one of the customers she picked up shared the same last name as her! After about a week, the guy dissappeared, and then the letters and phone calls from debt collectors started! He'd given them her address and phone number, and since they had the same surname, it took a long time before they finally believed he wasn't at that address and backed off.

[Misanthropical]

Rule #1. If you want a debt collector (or any business) to stop calling you, tell them, point blank, "Do not call this number again."

Don't just tell them they have a wrong number. Don't give them a right number. Don't put up with them pestering you if you don't owe a debt. Just tell them to never call again, and if they do, then you can prosecute for harrassement.

Even if they are trying to collect on a legitimate debt that you owe.

Because you pay for your phone service, they aren't allowed to use it to contact you unless you give them permission (which happens tacitly when you make a purchase or often when your debt is sold to a third party for collection), and until you revoke said permission.

There are people at my work who won't tell their creditors to not call them here, even though they refuse to take the calls. It's annoying as hell, especially if you're the one answering the phone.

^-.-^

Telling them not to call you again is not going to work. I got told that a lot, but as long as they are following Fair Debt Collection Act they can and will call you again.

You have to send them a certified letter telling them not to contact you on the phone again, but since I doubt the people calling poofy_puff are credible collection agency I doubt that would work. If they were a real law firm they would follow the Fair Debt Collection Act to the letter. They show up as a law firm on caller ID just to scare people.

I use to get annoyed more than once a day by people calling for a woman who had our phone number over 4 years ago and they would not stop calling. I finally told them if they called again I would sue for harassment, they finally stopped. Plus, having worked in the collection field for a reputable company I know the laws.

I still on occasion get collection calls for her and I tell them on what collection search engine they can find her current phone number. Since she is still giving out our phone number as hers I don't feel one ounce of remorse for doing so.

[poofy_puff]

Well for what it's worth, I called the number back, and it answers with a computerized voice-menu type mailbox telling you to press this for that attorney and that for this attorney, so my gut feeling is that it IS a real collector. Furthermore, I spoke with my aunt and she says she knows what this bill is and that it really is my grandmother's bill (someone, either my other aunt and/or my grandmother, went and charged about $1700 worth of stuff on a Sears card right around the time my grandmother had a stroke and never made any payments). My aunt "S" has the same first name as my grandmother and is a co-owner on all their accounts. They did this in order to allow my aunt to discuss their accounts with the companies without having to show her power of attorney (which she did/does have) because my grandparents don't speak very good English. So, now my grandmother is deceased and my grandfather is in a nursing home, and all the unpaid bills that my grandmother hid are starting to go to collections. My number ended up on some of them as the contact number because Elder Services did an investigation for financial abuse a year or two ago and found nothing; however I was the one who was helping them gather information so I think that's how it happened (I think I might have mentioned that already).

Anyway, it's perfectly understandable that they would call the number they have listed for the account. I'm sure they hear all kinds of sob-stories about why people don't pay their bills. The bottom line is that no one on our end HAS the money to GIVE them at this time, and even if I DID have it, I wouldn't pay it because it is not my bill.

[Andara Bledin]

Since she is still giving out our phone number as hers I don't feel one ounce of remorse for doing so.

It's possible that the reason your number keeps getting added back to the file is that it's attached to her credit account with one or more of the agencies that trade said information. And if you don't get it removed with every last one of them at the same time, they'll cross-contaminate their records and re-add it every time they do their information trades.

^-.-^

[Geek King]

My aunt "S" has the same first name as my grandmother and is a co-owner on all their accounts.

This is a problem. If your aunt is a co-owner on the account, then she is likely just as responsible for the debt as your grandmother. For her sake, I hope she just has "can be talked to" status, and is not a full partner on the account.

[EvilEmpryss]

On behlaf of my debt collecting brethern, i'm sorry.

I'm glad to report we're not all like that, and those a**holse make my job all the harder

I will attest to the fact that you guys aren't all bad. The civie hospital I sometimes go to (not the VA one) bills for the hospital costs (the room, meds, nurses, etc.), but the doctors bill separately for their services. It can get really confusing, and occasionally I'll think I paid a doctor's bill when I only paid the hospital bill. The doctors here will only send one invoice, though. If you don't pay immediately after receiving it (no matter how big the bill or that it should go to the insurance company first), they send the account to collections!

Every collection agent I've encountered when this happens is polite and understanding and arranges it so that nothing gets reported to on my credit history if I pay my deductible after the insurance pays out. When I make it clear that I won't be paying any fees or penalties for the doctor's impatience, they find a way to make that happen, too.

Collections agents really can make a bad situation better or worse, depending on their attitude.

[poofy_puff]

This is a problem. If your aunt is a co-owner on the account, then she is likely just as responsible for the debt as your grandmother. For her sake, I hope she just has "can be talked to" status, and is not a full partner on the account.

She's a full co-account-holder.

She has to pay all their debts when my grandfather dies and she sells the house. There will be liens on the property (if there aren't already). She can't sell the house while he's alive because he has dementia and there's a Life Estate Deed without right to partition.

She knows this, has always known this, it's a fact, and she is waiting for it all to play out. That's just all there is to it.

[MergedLoki]

I had something like that happen with me except it wasn't even a family memer so couldn't be a name mix up.

It was a collection agency of some kind caling for some guy who must have either lived at the apartment before me, had the same number, or something like that.

refused to beleive i wasn't 'mr deadbeat who can't pay bills' till finally i looked up teh bill collection company got THEIR number called THEIR customer service and told them 'you have the wrong guy stop friggin calling me!'

finally calls stopped (after about 2 or 3 weeks total lol)