Debt Collectors Ask to Be Paid a Little Respect , they are the 'salt of the earth'

[Liberal_in_LA]

Debt Collectors Ask to Be Paid a Little Respect

EDINA, Minn. — As a longtime debt collector, Lesllie Rogers has been routinely insulted, pummeled with obscenities, crudely propositioned and threatened with violence by the people she calls.

“They want you to feel as small and insignificant as possible,” said Ms. Rogers, who works for a collection agency in Rochester, Minn. “The guy who sits across from me just was threatened with getting his legs and arms cut off.”

Debt collectors like Ms. Rogers are well aware that they are not a sympathetic lot. But now they are saying enough is enough. The trade association that represents them is engaged in an unlikely charm offensive to change their lowly image, while also trying to shape the rules that govern them as they face the prospect of a tough new regulator.

Debt collectors as human beings? It could be their toughest commission yet.

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Indeed, Mark Neeb, the association’s incoming president, says that most debt collectors are the “salt of the earth” and are tired of being defined by the worst members of their profession. And it is they who are feeling harassed.

“There really ought to be a law on how consumers behave towards debt collectors,” said Mr. Neeb, whose employees routinely use aliases on the phone to protect their identity from hostile debtors.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/business/13collect.html

[Zoeisright]

1. Oh, another one of those whining groups of little assholes

who do nothing but produce pain and harass people, and THEY need sympathy? Fuck off, debt collectors.

[bbinacan]

5. Here's a novel idea

pay one's fucking debts. My best friend did a brief stint as a collector. I assure you that he is "salt of the earth".

[distantearlywarning]

15. Here's another novel idea

Don't fucking call random people over and over again to rudely harass them about someone else's debts. :mad:

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Here's an even better idea...

Aim yr anger where it's due. They don't just ring random people. Blame it on the friend or relative who named you on their loan application as a contact and then didn't pay what they owed.

[distantearlywarning]

20. See replies down thread about this problem.

Nobody has ever named me on a loan contract. They weren't looking for me, a friend, a relative, or anyone I knew at all. The debt collectors called us up because we had the same number or last name or something as some random person they were looking for, and they wouldn't take no for an answer.

[bbinacan]

19. If that's happening

I agree.

[dorkulon]

2. This is Onion-worthy.

“There really ought to be a law on how consumers behave towards debt collectors"... bizarro-world.

[ixion]

3. I think they meant to say: "They salt the earth"

because they are a bain on society.

[Rex]

4. They are the 'scum of the earth'? Huh what?

[Raine]

6. Fucking bottom feeders harassing people aren't worthy

of respect IMO. :mad:

[Violet_Crumble]

17. That's why I've got no respect for the whining arseholes wo refuse to pay their debts...

Not sure why debt collectors are bad guys because they're trying to get those scumbags to pay up...

[Dawson Leery]

7. Thugs who harass, lie, and intimidate are not worthy of respect.

[hlthe2b]

8. Hmmm. what was it that Jesus supposedly said....?

Maybe if they didn't adopt the most rude of gestapo tactics, they would be treated with more respect. Having been harassed with the most rude and arrogant debt drone who would not accept that I was not the original owner of my cell phone number, I have little sympathy. I was called throughout the day and late evening looking for the previous owner of my cell phone number for months before I finally resorted to a combination of complaints to the state attorney general, FCC and threat of a lawsuit. I was ultimately successful only after warning that I would use--and then using a blaring panic alarm directly into the phone's mic. Their tactics of calling constantly--never leaving a message-- but expecting you to call back, navigate through their demonic phone tree and sit on hold for the better part of an hour before you can even figure out who it was they were trying to call--all the while eating up your free cell phone minutes is the rule... All before finally speaking to a monumentally rude, arrogant person-- who will never accept that they have made a mistake-- all this has earned most of them every bit of blowback they are receiving (short of violent threats).

Simple contempt is too good for most of these people. For those who are struggling to keep a job and do so politely without these tactics, I hope you will not suffer for the majority of louts out there. But, it is somewhat akin to being the only kindly member of the Fred Phelps family--you suffer from the association.

[richmwill]

9. Waaahh, they break my heart (not really)...

... Ever since they harassed me for months when I got a new phone number years ago (seems that the person who had that number before me had racked up a few debts), I have zero sympathy for them. I saw how they operated. Despite my repeated statements that the person they were trying to reach was not me, did not live here and I did not know who they were trying to reach, I was called up to 7 times per day by these assholes. From morning till night, and that 9pm cut-off time, they kept calling. I actually had to change my phone number again due to it. So simply, no- I have zero sympathy for debt collectors.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. I had the same experience when I got a new phone number. I couldn't believe

the arrogant way they spoke to me.

[distantearlywarning]

14. Same experience here.

They decided for some reason that we would know this random person they were trying to harass. I never figured out whether the person in question had a similar name, or whether they used to be at our number or what. But they were horrible to us - calling and calling and calling day and night, leaving dozens of messages, refusing to let us speak to a supervisor, assuming we were lying when we said we didn't know the person they were looking for, abusing us during every conversation. It was just awful. I was so fucking angry. We finally had to threaten to sue them before they stopped. I have no sympathy for those assholes whatsoever. If they want respect from other people, they should give some first.

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. One said that they wouldn't remove my number until they 'knew who I was"

and demanded my SSN and DOB. I hung up, called the phone company and changed my number. Can you imagine? Giving some random debt collector your SSN and DOB? Omg. they would have attached that person's debt to me, for sure.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. Titty dancers and hookers are salt of the earth too.

Do they show them respect too? You can always change professions if you find that you are in the wrong place. I suggest that they all find something more respectable to do, and they will get more respect. Something more respectable, like titty dancing or prostitution.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. As my grandfather would say "so is dog piss"

Except he was usually referring to "salt of the earth" people from the south...

[pipi_k]

13. OK I can understand people need to work at something...

and when they have a job they need to do their jobs.


But it's not their damned job to act like the money they're trying to collect belongs to them personally.

I think they don't "get" that part.

Sometimes it doesn't even legally belong to the company they work for. Sometimes it's a very old debt their company bought for pennies on the dollar from another company that had written the debt off years before as "uncollectible".

It's not their personal money these people are trying to collect. They really need to stop treating people like thieves who have broken into a kid's piggy bank.