Rogue Collection Agents
| 12/27/2004 | Posted by Patti under General |
Ever get those phone calls….. “we are calling you about your XXX account that hasn’t been paid”? You’re not alone. Collection agents tend to be a bit of a different breed. For the debtors who are truly deadbeats, it takes some real aggression to get their attention and get them to pay up. I’m quite sure that a lot of collection agents either come to believe or are taught to believe that all debtors who don’t pay are deadbeats.
With that belief firmly in their mind, collection agents often resort to bullying rather than listening. They employ guerrilla tactics, contacting friends, family and places of employment in the hunt to get their target. They ignore the laws which govern them and capitalize on their targets ignorance of the law to intimidate and terrify them in an attempt to make them pay up no matter how they get the money to do that. As long as the collection agent can get the file paid and off their desk it really doesn’t matter to them what it does to their target.
I’m on the other side of the coin. I’m one of the people who cares about the target and when the collection agent’s tactics come to my attention it is usually because it is something they are doing to a client. I encountered one of those situations last week. The collection agent really pressed my buttons when she allegedly told the almost 80 year old father of the person she was trying to collect from that he had to tell her where to contact his daughter or she’d keep calling until he either told or died.
In the province of Ontario the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services is the regulatory body which is responsible for enforcing the Collection Agencies Act. They provide a form on their website for a consumer to post their complaints and that includes complaints about collection agents. You need to gather as much information about the agent as you can, the firm they work for, their name, phone number and extension and the name of the firm they are collecting on behalf of.
Be reasonable when complaining. A collection agent yelling at you once isn’t necessarily grounds to complain. We all have bad days and even good collection agents will let stress get to them. Now, a collection agent yelling during more than one call, name calling, calling friends, neighbours, relatives and even your work (other than to verify employment) should be reported. Their job is to collect not to use the phone to abuse other people.
So what did I do about the rogue agent mentioned above? I had a chat with her manager, which came after I’d tracked down the person responsible for enforcement of the Act at the Ministry and sent him an email. He responded the following morning and asked for details of the situation so they could investigate. What will become of the agent? I don’t know. That situation was serious enough she should be looking for another line of work but time will tell.
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