I
received many responses to the last article, Jenni the Bill
Collector. As you may guess, the negative remarks about the
article came from bill collectors and the positive article comments
from people harassed by bill collectors (the majority). But one
response stood out so much that I wanted to share this with
everyone.
Scott,
I read the letter from Jenni and
thought I'd share with you the experience of my worst job ever.
I got a job through a temp agency
doing data entry at a debt collection call center.
As I sat to do my job, one of the
collectors stood up and yelled, "Here's a good one!" He
then proceeded to play a call he had just made to a lady with three
kids that couldn't pay her bills because her husband had an
accident. While this lady sniffled and cried on the phone, the
collectors laughed and laughed. They thought it was so funny.
Then a few minutes later, another one
had a "good call," a veteran with one leg who was having
medical problems. They thought it was hilarious and actually made
fun of him.
At this point, I had been at work for
just under two hours. I had tears in my eyes for these poor people
and the humiliation they didn't even know they were encountering. I
told the girl next to me to tell the supervisor I was leaving and I
walked out.
These people are taught to be
unfeeling and even entertained by your stories of pain, so in my
opinion, the best thing to do when you get a call from a collector
is to tell them to contact you in writing only and HANG UP.
One thing that was amazing is that
the supervisors encouraged this behavior. Every time a collector
played a call for the group, they would run out of their little
glass cage offices to listen and whoop-it-up with the 100 or so
collectors on the floor. They also made a production of giving small
cash prizes to collectors that got money out of people, which from
what I hear, is common practice.
I have never left a job so quickly or
been so angry upon leaving. As soon as I left and was in my car, I
broke down into tears and couldn't quit talking about the experience
for a week.
I am happy to let people know this
can happen so they don't get emotionally invested with their
collectors. The collectors SIMPLY DON'T CARE.
Crystal
DebtSmart® Reader
| " |
I do not respond to many
articles such as this, but as someone who was deeply in
debt I have experienced first hand these people. They
are ruthless and very unfair in their tactics. To deal
with them you have to put no emotion into the process at
all , they do not care about you. Before anything
happens on the phone tell them you are not going to talk
to them at all and to contact you in writing about the
situation. This is when you will properly respond to
them and solve the situation. And after you hang up
change your phone number."
--Edward
C. |
|
|
