Cabot- Telephone question

athletesfoot

stebiz wrote: »

I'm getting a bit !!!!ed off with this kind of post. This company pestered me a few times a day,when my wife was heavily pregnant, and I needed to report it to the police. When it eventually turned up at court part of my defence included harassment. They were awarded nothing. In fact I was awarded costs :T

It is the procedure laid out by the parties that govern complaints in the debt collection industry!

Don't shoot the messenger!

It's the procedure I followed and I received a written apology. Hence me deciding to provide MY advice.

What exactly '!!!!es' you off about my post?

Jesthar

athletesfoot wrote: »

It is the procedure laid out by the parties that govern complaints in the debt collection industry!

Don't shoot the messenger!

It's the procedure I followed and I received a written apology. Hence me deciding to provide MY advice.

What exactly '!!!!es' you off about my post?

With respect, if you received a meaningful apology from one of these companies, you are a rare specimen indeed. Many people on this forum have had repeated phonecalls at all hours of the day and night despite making the request to be contacted in writing only. I also have personal friends who have received this treatment - dozens of phone calls a day starting at 7am and going on until 10pm, even on the weekends. I wish I had known then what I do now thanks to MSE!

In this case (and many others), the company have been asked to make contact in writing only. The DCA is now legally obliged to abide by that request, and only send letters - not just for a short time, but forever. Therefore the threat to resume phonecalls after 28 days is against the law.

I should note that these companies are, of course, fully aware of the laws and procedures and their requirements to follow them - they just choose to ignore said laws and procedures in the pursuit of profiteering, and because they can threaten all sorts of things in a phonecall they would not dare put in writing.

If you were lucky enough to have a good experience with any companies you dealt with, then that is something to be happy about. But many, many people are not so fortunate, and find that even if they do exactly as the debt collectors demand (even when their demands are actually illegal), they still receive ongoing constant calls demanding increases in payments which cannot be afforded, with dire threats of what may happen if they don't comply.

Add into the equation that a goodly number of the debts being chased by these companies are not legally enforceable for one of a number of reasons, or may not even belong to the person being chased, and you may begin to appreciate why "do what they ask and they'll go away" isn't always the useful advice it seems it should be

Hope that helps!

~Jes