I believe I posted my first post in the wrong place as I was unsure where I should post it , hopefully I am in the right place ....
Collection agency is calling my neighbors -when i called them and asked them to stop he said it was legal and he wasnt going to stop -I became upset and hung up - he called me neighbor back and told her she needed to call me and tell me to call him back is this legal.Its bad enough I am in debt and dont know how to get out of it now everyone on my rd. has been called .
Full Version: Harrasement
I am too new here to give you a good answer, but I would suggest you stay of the phone the collector and don't believe what this person told you.
NO, what the collector did to you is NOT legal. While you do have to follow up by letter, you can tell them to "stop playing on your phone" (stop calling you) verbally. Calling everyone and their neighbor with the message "Tell her to call us back.", when they know where you are and can contact you directly, is also not legal.
The first thing you must do, as Pyran would say, is "Stay Off The Phone!" Unless you can record the conversation...and are in a position to control it. You are not at this time--CAs are stupid, but they, like animals, do sense fear, and take advantage of it. If they want to contact you by phone anyway, until they get the letter, they can leave those "poison" messages on the answering machine or voice mail. And, SAVE those messages! Great evidence in court. Should you have to go there
Next, send a validation of debt letter with what used to be called a "Limited C&D", but is better referred to as the "Inconvenience clause"; this makes it clear that you find that their calls are always, eh, "inconvenient". Send the letter CMRRR (certified mail, return receipt requested). They can contact you by mail...a necessity so that they are not prompted to sue you because they cannot contact you otherwise. Don't say or do anything to "admit" to the alleged debt...please! They haven't proven the thing exists, or that it's yours...so why entrap yourself?
If they contact you anyway, without validating first, and make fools of themselves trying to collect, (or, even if they do validate, and still make fools of themselves) you can always sue them.
The first thing you must do, as Pyran would say, is "Stay Off The Phone!" Unless you can record the conversation...and are in a position to control it. You are not at this time--CAs are stupid, but they, like animals, do sense fear, and take advantage of it. If they want to contact you by phone anyway, until they get the letter, they can leave those "poison" messages on the answering machine or voice mail. And, SAVE those messages! Great evidence in court. Should you have to go there
Next, send a validation of debt letter with what used to be called a "Limited C&D", but is better referred to as the "Inconvenience clause"; this makes it clear that you find that their calls are always, eh, "inconvenient". Send the letter CMRRR (certified mail, return receipt requested). They can contact you by mail...a necessity so that they are not prompted to sue you because they cannot contact you otherwise. Don't say or do anything to "admit" to the alleged debt...please! They haven't proven the thing exists, or that it's yours...so why entrap yourself?
If they contact you anyway, without validating first, and make fools of themselves trying to collect, (or, even if they do validate, and still make fools of themselves) you can always sue them.
QUOTE(Broke Chick @ Dec 6 2005, 09:16 PM)
NO, what the collector did to you is NOT legal. While you do have to follow up by letter, you can tell them to "stop playing on your phone" (stop calling you) verbally. Calling everyone and their neighbor with the message "Tell her to call us back.", when they know where you are and can contact you directly, is also not legal.
The first thing you must do, as Pyran would say, is "Stay Off The Phone!" Unless you can record the conversation...and are in a position to control it. You are not at this time--CAs are stupid, but they, like animals, do sense fear, and take advantage of it. If they want to contact you by phone anyway, until they get the letter, they can leave those "poison" messages on the answering machine or voice mail. And, SAVE those messages! Great evidence in court. Should you have to go there
Next, send a validation of debt letter with what used to be called a "Limited C&D", but is better referred to as the "Inconvenience clause"; this makes it clear that you find that their calls are always, eh, "inconvenient". Send the letter CMRRR (certified mail, return receipt requested). They can contact you by mail...a necessity so that they are not prompted to sue you because they cannot contact you otherwise. Don't say or do anything to "admit" to the alleged debt...please! They haven't proven the thing exists, or that it's yours...so why entrap yourself?
If they contact you anyway, without validating first, and make fools of themselves trying to collect, (or, even if they do validate, and still make fools of themselves) you can always sue them.
The first thing you must do, as Pyran would say, is "Stay Off The Phone!" Unless you can record the conversation...and are in a position to control it. You are not at this time--CAs are stupid, but they, like animals, do sense fear, and take advantage of it. If they want to contact you by phone anyway, until they get the letter, they can leave those "poison" messages on the answering machine or voice mail. And, SAVE those messages! Great evidence in court. Should you have to go there
Next, send a validation of debt letter with what used to be called a "Limited C&D", but is better referred to as the "Inconvenience clause"; this makes it clear that you find that their calls are always, eh, "inconvenient". Send the letter CMRRR (certified mail, return receipt requested). They can contact you by mail...a necessity so that they are not prompted to sue you because they cannot contact you otherwise. Don't say or do anything to "admit" to the alleged debt...please! They haven't proven the thing exists, or that it's yours...so why entrap yourself?
If they contact you anyway, without validating first, and make fools of themselves trying to collect, (or, even if they do validate, and still make fools of themselves) you can always sue them.
Broke Chica is absolutely correct with this entire post. I believe they can only contact you 3 times a week within limited hours too. If they continue to call you and you have the messages saved it could really help you build a case against them for violating your rights. You need to sent them a good DV letter tommorrow with a limited C & D. Once they recieve the C & D, game on. But you have to keep a copy of the letter and send it CMRRR, so you can prove they got it. Just like the chica said.
Edited to add---> And be patient, stay off the phone!
It is also a good idea to document when your neighbors get these calls. Either make a note when they tell you, or even better but not likely, ask them to write down the date, time, name of caller, and who the caller works for. They may help if this will help the stop the calls. Additionally, your state may have state statutes against harassing someone who does not owe the debt. If so, your neighbors could also file suit against the collection agency.
I remember back in my collection days I used to call neighbors. I had a guy who bought a car with his credit card, and swore that since it broke down and we couldn't get the charge back, he wasn't paying it.
So I called, asked if he was going to pay back the money he took from us. "No, go F*** yourself". A week later, he hangs up on me. We have software (access to) that gives us neighbors. I called his neighbor and got a little kid.
"Hi. My name is Rick, and I'm an old friend of your neighbor, Mr. Hartman. I can't seem to get ahold of him. Can you give him the message to call me back? Tell him he can call me collect @ 302 451...."
It took about 30 seconds before my phone rang. He was a little pissed, to say the least. We thought it was funny. I checked on him about a year later and we were tagging his paychecks.
So I called, asked if he was going to pay back the money he took from us. "No, go F*** yourself". A week later, he hangs up on me. We have software (access to) that gives us neighbors. I called his neighbor and got a little kid.
"Hi. My name is Rick, and I'm an old friend of your neighbor, Mr. Hartman. I can't seem to get ahold of him. Can you give him the message to call me back? Tell him he can call me collect @ 302 451...."
It took about 30 seconds before my phone rang. He was a little pissed, to say the least. We thought it was funny. I checked on him about a year later and we were tagging his paychecks.
QUOTE(legath @ Nov 26 2005, 04:12 PM)
I believe I posted my first post in the wrong place as I was unsure where I should post it , hopefully I am in the right place ....
Collection agency is calling my neighbors -when i called them and asked them to stop he said it was legal and he wasnt going to stop -I became upset and hung up - he called me neighbor back and told her she needed to call me and tell me to call him back is this legal.Its bad enough I am in debt and dont know how to get out of it now everyone on my rd. has been called .
Collection agency is calling my neighbors -when i called them and asked them to stop he said it was legal and he wasnt going to stop -I became upset and hung up - he called me neighbor back and told her she needed to call me and tell me to call him back is this legal.Its bad enough I am in debt and dont know how to get out of it now everyone on my rd. has been called .
I am so sorry this is happening to you......to bad some people think its funny!
This is a violation of ยง 804. Acquisition of location information [15 USC 1692b]
Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall --
(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;
We were always instructed that if we had a confirmed phone and address we could NOT call neighbors.
Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall --
(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;
We were always instructed that if we had a confirmed phone and address we could NOT call neighbors.
QUOTE(4x4GGG @ Jan 19 2006, 04:13 AM)
I remember back in my collection days I used to call neighbors. I had a guy who bought a car with his credit card, and swore that since it broke down and we couldn't get the charge back, he wasn't paying it.
So I called, asked if he was going to pay back the money he took from us. "No, go F*** yourself". A week later, he hangs up on me. We have software (access to) that gives us neighbors. I called his neighbor and got a little kid.
"Hi. My name is Rick, and I'm an old friend of your neighbor, Mr. Hartman. I can't seem to get ahold of him. Can you give him the message to call me back? Tell him he can call me collect @ 302 451...."
It took about 30 seconds before my phone rang. He was a little pissed, to say the least. We thought it was funny. I checked on him about a year later and we were tagging his paychecks.
So I called, asked if he was going to pay back the money he took from us. "No, go F*** yourself". A week later, he hangs up on me. We have software (access to) that gives us neighbors. I called his neighbor and got a little kid.
"Hi. My name is Rick, and I'm an old friend of your neighbor, Mr. Hartman. I can't seem to get ahold of him. Can you give him the message to call me back? Tell him he can call me collect @ 302 451...."
It took about 30 seconds before my phone rang. He was a little pissed, to say the least. We thought it was funny. I checked on him about a year later and we were tagging his paychecks.
You may think it's funny all you want to, but you broke the law! I wish he would have come here to CB and he might be tagging your paycheck!
Ugh! It just kills me how these idiot collectors get a THRILL out of breaking the law! Someone needs to come down on them HARD!!!! There definitely needs to be a stop put to this crap!
Besides contacting the neighbor's kid when you knew the location of the consumer, you also used deceptive means "I'm an old friend of your neighbor, Mr. Hartman. I can't seem to get ahold of him. Can you give him the message to call me back? Tell him he can call me collect @ 302 451...."
Go somewhere else to play!
Besides contacting the neighbor's kid when you knew the location of the consumer, you also used deceptive means "I'm an old friend of your neighbor, Mr. Hartman. I can't seem to get ahold of him. Can you give him the message to call me back? Tell him he can call me collect @ 302 451...."
Go somewhere else to play!
Texas has some very good consumer laws. Our firm goes after them aggresively. Most of the time the companies apologize and give the same speech saying they don't do business that way, it was a rogue collection agent. blah blah blah, like they think it will get them out of trouble. Go to the National Association of Consumer Advocates to find someone who will come down hard on them.
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