Am I such an aweful person? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

elau · #1 02-25-2003, 07:22 PM

This is the situation. I was late on my motocycle payment for 30 days and I got a call from the finance company today. My wife does all the bill paying so I really have no idea about all of this.

The girl named Stephine rattled on for 15 minutes and demanded me to make a payment over the phone at once. I told her I could not do that until my wife gets home from work because I needed to check with her. She got to the point that she started to scream at me so I told her calmly to let me talk with her supervisor instead.

So, here came Bill. I calmly explained to Bill again that my wife does all bills paying in my household and I was sure there must be a reason that she did not make the Feburary payment.

Then Bill pounced on me and made comments like "what kind of man are you? You do not pay bills in your household?", "You have no rights to complain about my employee's actions because you are the one who owes us money", "How much you like your motorcycle? I will be in your driveway this afternoon hauling it away if you don't pay it now", " I can ruin your credit if you don't make a payment immediately".

I thought there are laws against bill collectors making such comments?

I was so surprised someone would talk to me that way. I was so mad that I was shaking all over, but I remained calm. I went into my study, pulled out my personal checkbook and gave him my account number and paid the whole balance off.

Before I hung up, I said to Bill "Now that I pay off my bike, therefore I want you to personally take that money I just gave you and shove it up your a$@ where the sun doesn't shine" And hung up.

When I told my wife about this when she came home from work, she went ballistic on me and said I should never talk to others that way. I am just as low as he was, blah blah and blah. And how mad she is with me.

So here I am sitting in front of the computer wanting to know if I am indeed such an a$#hole as my wife so kindly puts it. How would any of you have reacted?

Consider that lowlife Bill has no reason to belittle me the way he did. Also, I have this loan for five years and had no prior trouble with them and it will be paid off completely in a matter of few more payments. I believe I was the reason that Bill has a job because I carried that loan all those years and paying religiously on it.

So, you guys go ahead and tell me if I was overboard or I am just human. More importantly, I want to know if any of you will go tell someone who rubs you the wrong way to go f^*k himself like I did.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Don HO · #2 02-25-2003, 07:36 PM

you did what you had to do, last year my car was towed my mistake, i called the towing company and they said i had to "make bail" for the car :p

I think the dude on the phone ended up pissing his pants and my car was towed back to me with in 15 minuates

Bad pearson? IMO no.

leathermang · #3 02-25-2003, 08:01 PM

They should have sent you a registered letter saying that you were behind.... with a certain number of days to respond.....
If I were you I would check and see what professional organizations they belong to and put in written complaints....I expect there is a state organization which oversees them.... and you really need to register a complaint with them....

(former credit union collection agent)

Ashman · #4 02-25-2003, 08:03 PM

treat others the way you want to be treated. they treated you like an ass, so they got treated like asses.

I would contact the company president and inform him of his employee's rudeness, lack of respect, and all. I don't think any company should allow an employee to treat customers that way. The customers are the reason they have a business int he first place.

there are 2 rules to every business.

rule number 1. the customer is always right.
rule number 2. if the customer is wrong, re-read rule number one.

I always liked that explanation.

I think you were right in what you said. the guy and his lackey both treated you with disrespect.

I myself would do the same thing and I have plenty of times. Lets just say that I have been treated poorly by some companies employees, and have had many of their permanent records marked for the way they treated me when I was not doing anything to make them treat me that way.

Alon

#5 02-25-2003, 08:27 PM

Go to your Attorney General website and file a Fair debt collection act complaint. Most claims are followed up on and usually settled. Now that you will have a 30+ mark on your credit report you will likely have to fight it somehow.

First you are dealing with call centers that are sub-contracted by the company to do the dirty work and most of these people are un-employable by any other means.

send me an email and I will give you a call tomorrow and tell you how to put them on the hook! I have a close friend that is a collection attorney and have learned a few tricks of the trade.

I have usefully banged a collection company hard for a friend and after dealing with them I sometimes help people out for "sport" just to send some Crap right back at em.

Go to this http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-credit.htm

placo1 · #6 02-25-2003, 08:42 PM

I don't think you were out of line at all.

My wife used to work for a law firm that did collections and she never did that with any of her "Customers". She absolutely hated the job and quit after 6 months, not worth the headache. She new many collectors that acted exactly the way you mentioned and yelling on the phone was a regular occurence. However the people they were collecting from had already recieved letters explaining the situation and the debts were usually over a year old.......not that it gives anyone a right to be rude.

As leathermang stated earlier, they should have sent registered mail to notify you of the situation first before calling and harassing you. You can certainly put in a legal complaint about the situation.

#7 02-25-2003, 09:02 PM

Send them this!

Deadly Cobra Pops Out Of Package
Spitting Cobra One Of Deadliest Snakes In The World
Posted: 11:57 a.m. EST February 25, 2003

CANOGA PARK, Calif. -- Police are investigating some unusual mail received by a Canoga Park man.
When 30-year-old Joseff Calhoun opened up a package last week, a deadly cobra popped out of the plastic foam.

It's a good thing Calhoun closed it quickly, the two-foot-long South African blackneck spitting cobra is one of the deadliest snakes in the world.

Calhoun told police he did not have any enemies and that he didn't know why anyone would send him a snake.

Deputy Chief Ronald Bergmann said Calhoun did receive a threatening letter several months ago. He declined to elaborate.

Los Angeles Police Department Detective Rick Swanston said the person who sent the snake could face attempted murder or an assault with a deadly weapon charges.

DuckMuck · #8 02-25-2003, 09:21 PM

nah...we're all entitled to go nutZ ever so often...what did your wife say about the late payment though? Did she just forget?

#9 02-25-2003, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TANK
He's lucky you didn't drive or fly out and pay him a personal visit leaving tire marks on his face! Good for you, I am glad you told him where to go, I mean are you just supposed to take that!!??- tell the wife to loosen up (well maybe dont tell her that). I think you were more than generous. But then again, I don't need to take a poll to decide what to say like Mr snittle, because I really don't care if someone hates my guts as long as I am true to myself, dont let folks walk all over me and try to remain as honest as possible. However, I guess thats just not "popular" these days.

Yip doormat's are the craze thses daze

Larry Delor · #10 02-25-2003, 10:45 PM

Doesn't matter anymore wether you flew off the handle or not; it sounds like this was an isolated incident anyway.

My next course of action in this situation, is to no longer do business with them, or any company that they are affiliated with. I would probably post their name on a website like this one, so that anybody else that disagrees with their way of doing business can join in my boycott with the slim hope that they will be taught a lesson.*

It seems that lately more and more companies have gotten a real cocky attitude towards their customers. They get to smack you around if you are late with a payment, yet we the consumer, cannot smack them around when they make an error? Not only that, they presume you to be guilty, and you have to prove you are innocent.

I could go on about how at least 2 credit card companies have tried to "get me" one way or another, either through an error on their part (You would not believe how long it takes to straighten out a simple mistake such as a wrong address) or through sudden charges for some membership that suddenly appeared after I told them that I wanted to cancel the account (I had to wait 3 addtl. months before the account was officially closed).

If anybody does feel like making a poll, then maybe it should list the credit card companies/Lenders, and have a "personal experience rating" next to them. Maybe something like that would prevent a bit of heartache in the future for fellow members.

-my two cents, I'll go back to being the docile consumer again.

-Larry

*We look out for each other when it comes to other scams and the like, why should they be excluded.

#11 02-25-2003, 10:45 PM

As was mentioned, these people work for call centers, and they have probably found that being aggressive intimidates people, they probably get higher payments that way. The legality is probably questionable, in most states collectors are supposed to stop calling them if you tell them you aren't going to pay, they just have to repo or go to court then, so they want to avoid having someone tell them that I think...

I don't think it hurts anything to get mad at them, but they won't care either. And it is unusual for a lender to immediately turn a bill over to a collection agency the first time you are 30 days over, but some certainly do, I'm not sure why, it is quite costly to them, they have to give up quite a lot of money to the collection agency.

I probably would have told them I needed to see some evidence they weren't pulling a scam by asking for money over the phone, could they send a letter. And then contact your noteholder and see if it indeed go to collection, and maybe ask them why, though they probably won't care either.

elau · #12 02-26-2003, 12:58 PM

My wife had already sent out the payment on the 7th. It must have crossed in the mail. Now I am due for a refund for extra payment since I paid the full amount off yesterday.

Like I mentioned, it was not even 30 days past due and they gave me an attitude like I am a habitual late payer.

I ususally do not deal with people like that and the reason I threw off the handle was because Stephine went on and on. And when Bill got on the phone, he acted like he is God Almighty himself gave me life lessons. There are plenty more things he said to me that I did not repeat on the thread (30 minutes worth of BS). The point is, he does not even know me. He is probably trying to show off in front of his junior associates. I just like to see what his face looked like when I said what I said and hung up on him. I really don't care if what I said bothered himor hurt his feelings, I had my last words.

As for my wife, I felt she was acting more of a goodie two shoes. Her expectation was that I should have not saying a word and told them I will take care of the matter in a "civilized" way, and that I should not have lowered myself to his level. I just do not believe "turn the other cheek" thing. I have my integrity and believes that if someone show no respect to me, I will extend the same to him, and will stand my ground.

I am never a follower of politically correctness.

rickg · #13 02-26-2003, 03:20 PM

I could write a book on this subject! We've been the victim of more "credit" problems than you can shake a snake at! There isn't room here to tell the whole sordid story. But in synopsis:
1) An old mortgage co had a computer screw-up trying to become Y2k ready and ended up with a list of us home owners that were months in arears of our mortgage payments. They went so far as to post a notice on our house that it was going up for auction a month later, and they weren't even any longer the paper holder!
2) The bank we have our car loan with got my name with a loser with my same name mixed up on their computer, and spent a year trying to get us to pay our car loan. We even went to the bank's branch pres, who "promised " us it would be straightened out. It never was. They eventually tried to garnish my wages.
3) And finally, we have abot two pages of false credit card charges against us. In other words, credit fraud, just like you see on the TV programs. Amounted to somewhere around $30,000 worth!!!!!!!
We've had two sets of attornies , and the state attorny generals office trying to help us. We were finally convinced to file chapter 13 bankruptcy to stop all the collection agencies cold in their tracks until it can be straightened out. That was about 5 years ago. It's still not fully straightened out.
Collection agencies DO NOT follow the rules of the law! There is no one policing them. They will do whatever it takes to intimadate you into paying what they think you owe them. They will NOT listen to anything you have to say in your defense. They only want $$$$!!
We have several pending counter-lawsuits going right now, and will probably drag on for a long time.
Do not feel bad in telling these people what you think of them, but realize they have heard it all before, and are doing that job because they have seriously thick skin, and don't give a damn who's really right or wrong, or what you say to them. We finlly just started hanging up on them and turning to our attorny, and let them deal with it.

rickg · #14 02-26-2003, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 123c
If something like this ever happens to me, I will have my dad help me deal with it. He is a banker, so he knows how the industry works, and he knows how to get nasty and get results. He also knows people in the right places that know how to deal with these kinds of problems, and know how to screw over the other party.

I think Guido and Bubba would do a better job

G-Benz · #15 02-27-2003, 11:26 AM

I empathize with those still living with "Mom & Pop".

The economy was lethargic in the early to mid-80's as well (Reaganomics, remember), and hiring freezes were the norm. I ventured out on my own after college but got laid off. What little I saved dried up in a couple of months, so I was forced to move back in with my parents.

In doing so, I got another job, enrolled in an MBA program, and upon graduation, got a better paying job offer in another state.

I finally moved out for good...at 28!

As a parent now, I have no doubt that parents have no qualms with helping out their sons and daughters, as they desire for you to get off to a good start without all of the baggage (that they may have had to deal with when they struck out on their own). As long as you are making an effort to progress (no Kato Katelins here) your stay is welcome and even encouraged.