dapheens

Not because they told me to. We all have routines.

Mute. Because I get to talk all the shit I want. Good way to stay level headed on the call.

There was a woman that called in, inquiring about her husbands account with us. It was a very large account, with a balance of approximately 75k. She seemed very confused, and shaken. She went on to tell me that her husband had just committed suicide a week prior, and this was a part of her own personal investigation as to what led up to it. He had hundreds of thousands of dollars in various debt that he had taken on and hid from her, and couldn't afford to support it all. She found out after his death, and was trying to figure out how she was going to satisfy it all. Terribly sad. I spoke to her for about an hour and a half, just to try to be supportive. Calls like those hit hard. At that point, you're not a collector, you're a counselor.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Yes, by law, they cannot continue to call you if you are telling them they have the wrong number. You shouldn't have to do this, but next time they call, ask for their correspondence fax number or mailing address, and request that they stop the calls in writing, explain that they have the wrong number, and give them the number they are calling. Legally, you could file a civil suit for harassment, but I would definitely contact an attorney for that, because i'm not exactly sure on how that process works.

But again, I know for a fact that many lawsuits have been won with circumstances like these.

I would say 40% were people that just completely forgot, and were happy to pay. 20% were people that just completely forgot, but were absolutely insulted that we were calling them (these people were a special kind of douchebag). And the remaining 40% were truly in trouble, at which point I would try to help them out with some sort of hardship plan.

Craziest and Funniest: In general, the people that would threaten me personally or the building I was working in. After they got a visit from their local PD, i'm sure they regretted that decision.