One Of The Reasons Why Big Guys RAWK!

[tropicsgoddess]

I have a land line that I use strictly for my job at home (unlimited calls and long distance but I disabled caller id, voicemail and callwaiting per my job requirements). The number for my land line apparently must've been a recycled number since sometimes I get collection calls for somebody named Danielle. One night (around dinner time) I get a call asking again for this Danielle person, I replied back that she called the wrong number, she said that maybe I might have might've been recycled and asked me if I knew Danielle or anybody related to her and I replied back that I didn't at all. Then SO said (in the background...he has a deep booming voice and was sitting next to me on his computer) that the number was wrong and they should just hang up already. The Collections Rep then replied back to me that she didn't understand why SO was so upset but said she will take my number off the list and ended her call and since then I haven't had the collection calls! It sure pays to have a big guy with a booming voice to sic on the people that bother and/or piss off his lady

[PepperElf]

When people call my cell for "billy" i just tell them "I have no idea who billy is" to kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak

[blas]

Sometimes having an angry Leprouchaun for a mother works just as well as a huge intimidating guy.

[jnd4rusty]

I know how you feel, I just recieved one of those Straigh Talk cell phones and I have been getting calls for someone else lately. The last call I recieved was a couple of days ago while I was on vacation, I told the person that the phone number was mine and I had no idea who they were looking for and the guy asked me THREE times if I knew the person or if I knew how to reach them!! I had to get pissy with him to make him understand that I had no idea who he was talking about!

[Diablo]

I get the problem that an individual used my cell phone number on an application or on some sort of billing issue. About once every two months or so, I start getting collection agencies contacting me for a woman who owes money on her mortgage. Now I have learned that just hanging up on them doesn't help as they will only keep the harassment going. So I will take the time to speak with a supervisor and explain that this isn't her number and I have no clue who she is. Generally the collection agency will apologize and it stops right there....

Until they sell the debt to another company. It works like this. Company A is owed a bunch of money. They can't get it so they sell the debt to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar, with the new company harping on the debt to get the money. They try for a while and when they can't get blood from a stone, they turn around and sell it for even less to a second collection agency. This pretty much gets continued to eternity. So every few months, this lady's debt gets sold to another company, and I have to put up with calls again. I've had this phone number for over 10 years and this started about four years ago.

So yeah...expect to get these calls again eventually and it will continue until you change to a clean number. Even then, its perfectly possible to get a new number with old debt attached to it. I find its just easier to go with the flow and not try and loose your patience.

[AccountingDrone]

What I hate is that my real first name is not hard core common, but not unusual. Marilyn [and yes I was actually named after Marilyn Monroe ... My grandmother was getting to be a pain in the ass about me being named after her, so my Mom gave me her first name as my middle name to keep her quiet. She and my Dad more or less randomly decided to name me Marilyn as they really couldn't decide on a first name and there was a Marilyn Monroe movie on TV] is sort of midpack of commonality.

Just because my name is *also* Marilyn does not mean I am the <hubbys surname mis-spelled> he has a fairly common surname that has a couple of different spellings, for sake of argument there is Meyers, Myers, Mayers, Mayer, Myer and Meyer ... so if they are looking for Marilyn Mayer and I am *not* Marilyn Myers <big hint, I never changed my name after getting married, and I have the passport and drivers license to prove it and NO I will not send you a freaking image of both of them.> you think they could get a clue. I may just say screw it and legally change my forename to Fred so I can avoid the damned calls. Then I could start getting calls for Fred Mayer....

[Syriilord]

Change it to 'Oscar' and when they call looking for Oscar Mayer, try to sell them hotdogs

[Frantic Freddie]

Over the last 8 years or so I've gotten collection calls looking for Becky W*****. Her last name is the same as mine (not an unusual name,but not very common) & just coincidentally,I know the lady,she worked in my former office.As far as I know we're not related,but they seem to think we are (I've asked a couple of the more aggressive ones "Do you think all the Smiths are related?") & I've had to get rude with a couple of them.

[Pagan]

I get calls for some guy whose first name is the same as my last name. As either name it's a bit unusual.

I got curious and rootled around in the interwebs and found the guy live in Corrales while I'm in ABQ. The two are thisclose. Like if you go across the ditch at the back of my complex, you're in Corrales.

Why they keep calling me, I have no idea.

[Brojekk]

When you get a call for someone you never heard of and tell the collections agent that, I wonder if the agent thinks you're lying and covering for the person they're looking for.

[Dreamstalker]

Apparently, they do. For awhile when I had my own place, I was getting collection calls (and mail) for the previous tenant, who had a delinquent student loan from Mallie Sae. The name wasn't even close to mine.

My last name: Sxxxxxxx
Their last name: Wxxx (clearly no longer at that address)

The mail was easy enough to solve; just get the post office to RTS with an official "not at this address" (hand-writing it only seemed to encourage them). The phone calls...I could get them to stop for no more than a week at a time. I shouldn't need to prove that I don't owe money to someone I've never considered doing business with.

[TonyDonuts]

Why they keep calling me, I have no idea.

Laziness, pure laziness.

That call to you gets logged in "Stranger McStrangerson's" account, and the collector can say, "See, Boss, I really am working these accounts!"

Actually finding Stranger McStrangerson requires work.

Which some folks find just soooo last century.

[pitmonkey]

There is always this way to discourage calls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEeLWXmIGB0
They will think that they got a fax line and not a regular line.

[mikoyan29]

When people call my cell for "billy" i just tell them "I have no idea who billy is" to kill 2 birds with one stone so to speak

Billy is searching for his native land, picking up the stations with the dial in his head..

[Dreamstalker]

There is always this way to discourage calls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEeLWXmIGB0
They will think that they will think that they got a fax line and not a regular line.

I have that modem tone as an MP3 someplace. I've also heard if you can get a high-quality recording of the 'disconnected line' tone (in theory, if a dialer gets that it kicks the number out as bad) and have it as the first thing on your outgoing message that works too....the real message should start after a few seconds of dead air.