ZZPS hound a dying man and say they'll only stop if they see a death certificate

D_P_Dance

, I am so so upset with their attitude, I have never spoken to anyone so rude and unhelpful...

I too have experienced rudeness and unhelpfulness from a DC who features frequently here.  The irony was that I was trying to help them find a conman who had given the address of one of my rental properties.  

Sandtree

Half_way said:

Private parking is all smoke and mirrors

But the comments about crying because of heart breaking stories etc is not really aimed at the companies but at the call centre agents who are rarely on much more than minimum wage and are doing a crapy job and get told a hundred fake stories for every real one.

I'm sure there is plenty to take issue with the companies themselves but I have more sympathy for the people who just need a job and so end up being on the other end of a line being threatened or being told if they don't waive it etc that they'll be responsible for the caller's suicide etc.

Timeouts

Sandtree said:

Coupon-mad said:

I know, that one made me cry because not only do I have four young (hopefully well-balanced) adult children making their way in life, but my family has also been touched by the horror of a sudden suicide which I am not going to go into further but did involve the desperation of (non parking) debt.

So, when I read stuff like that it makes my blood boil.

Have you ever had a job in debt collection?

No comments on this company or its owner or the general morality of parking tickets etc however if you ever have worked in debt collection you will find that every day is full of people talking of recent bereavement, threats of suicide, terminal diagnosis etc. Its not a nice job to have, but people get cold to the stories quickly because so many people are simply lying. The result of everyone crying wolf is that the minority that the claims are true for aren't believed either. 

My debt collection days were for shopping debts... people ran up £3,000 on buying furniture. TVs, clothes etc and then didn't pay their bills. We're going back a few years now so perhaps people didn't realise about computer records etc but we had the woman who's mother had died "this week" 6 times over the last 4 years. The guy who's wife had just received a terminal diagnosis with 3 months to live so many times over the last decade that I lost count. The person who said they'd slit their wrists if we wouldn't extend their credit to allow them to get a new tv, hifi or whatever it was they wanted to extend their debt plan further on this month. The woman who claimed her husband had left her in the middle of the night and taken everything she'd ordered so we should chase him for the debt - this included a gas cooker, 2 king size beds, 2x 4 seater sofas... deep sleeper?

The tears dry up fairly quickly and the boiling quickly turns to the fact that you and other customers who pay their bills are the ones funding these people that renege on their agreements, falsely claim to be ill etc and are happily sitting at home with their new 75" TV that you've effectively bought for them.

I'm sure you worked for a regulated debt collector and had rules to follow.

I do not doubt anything you say 

But here, we talk about rogue traders who are not regulated and have no rules.

In contrast to a 75" TV, on here it's all about a piece of paper that has a purported value of £100 .... 

These rogue trader debt collectors damage regulated firms 

However even in the regulated industry, there are still rogue traders

D_P_Dance

. people ran up £3,000 on buying furniture. TVs, clothes etc and then didn't pay their bills. 

Which is why Brighthouse went bust

fisherjim

Half_way said:

The key is to understand that there are debts, such as above where someone has clearly purchased something on credit such as a TV and then not paid.

And then there's private parking land, where the so called debts are highly suspect in the first place.

Private parking is all smoke and mirrors, if you can confuse people into thinking these are fines, Parking charge notices (PCNs) are the same as Penalty charge notices (PCNs) and that a debt from not repaying a loan, credit cad etc is the same as a so called debt for not paying an un regulated parasitic parking  parking (ppc) for  parking on your property then that all helps the PPCs in spreading confusion, and In turn getting their grubby hands on people's money

Good post.

D_P_Dance

Monies allegedly owed to PPCs are only payable iif a judge in a county court establishes that a breach of contract has taken place and that the claimant deserves to be compensated.   Until that happens private PCNs are disputable invoices.  Comparisons with consumerable debt are invalid imo.

Snakes_Belly

Sandtree said:

Coupon-mad said:

I know, that one made me cry because not only do I have four young (hopefully well-balanced) adult children making their way in life, but my family has also been touched by the horror of a sudden suicide which I am not going to go into further but did involve the desperation of (non parking) debt.

So, when I read stuff like that it makes my blood boil.

Have you ever had a job in debt collection?

No comments on this company or its owner or the general morality of parking tickets etc however if you ever have worked in debt collection you will find that every day is full of people talking of recent bereavement, threats of suicide, terminal diagnosis etc. Its not a nice job to have, but people get cold to the stories quickly because so many people are simply lying. The result of everyone crying wolf is that the minority that the claims are true for aren't believed either. 

My debt collection days were for shopping debts... people ran up £3,000 on buying furniture. TVs, clothes etc and then didn't pay their bills. We're going back a few years now so perhaps people didn't realise about computer records etc but we had the woman who's mother had died "this week" 6 times over the last 4 years. The guy who's wife had just received a terminal diagnosis with 3 months to live so many times over the last decade that I lost count. The person who said they'd slit their wrists if we wouldn't extend their credit to allow them to get a new tv, hifi or whatever it was they wanted to extend their debt plan further on this month. The woman who claimed her husband had left her in the middle of the night and taken everything she'd ordered so we should chase him for the debt - this included a gas cooker, 2 king size beds, 2x 4 seater sofas... deep sleeper?

The tears dry up fairly quickly and the boiling quickly turns to the fact that you and other customers who pay their bills are the ones funding these people that renege on their agreements, falsely claim to be ill etc and are happily sitting at home with their new 75" TV that you've effectively bought for them.

You are not comparing like with like. Companies like DRP and Zenith are chasing claims that are disputed. They are totally unregulated.

Some of the claims that they chase are for parking tickets issued to freeholders for parking on their own land or to disabled people whose badge has been delayed.

I am sure that there were occasions in your work that you came across people that have genuinely fallen on hard times and some empathy is needed to reach a resolution. There will though always be people who will spend more than they receive in income however much they earn. I have come across people who have spent inheritances in a very short space of time.

Part of the problem is that there is little financial education in schools. I was taught logarithms and tangents etc. but never about interest rates and APR. I have never picked up a logarithm table since I left school but I have taken out mortgages and loans.

Claims as a result of parking tickets are very different from the scenario you describe. I fought my corner against the PPC and I did not engage with the debt collection agents. As with many other posters on this forum it is not about affordability. I would have sooner given £100.00 to the first beggar that I came across in the street that pay it to the PPC. It was a matter of principle.   

fisherjim

Sandtree said:

Half_way said:

Private parking is all smoke and mirrors

But the comments about crying because of heart breaking stories etc is not really aimed at the companies but at the call centre agents who are rarely on much more than minimum wage and are doing a crapy job and get told a hundred fake stories for every real one.

I'm sure there is plenty to take issue with the companies themselves but I have more sympathy for the people who just need a job and so end up being on the other end of a line being threatened or being told if they don't waive it etc that they'll be responsible for the caller's suicide etc.

I have as much sympathy for debt collector call centres specialising in chasing fake debts as I do with the Indian fake BT call centre that told me last week my broadband had been hacked and they were going to disconnect it.

Umkomaas

fisherjim said:

Sandtree said:

Half_way said:

Private parking is all smoke and mirrors

But the comments about crying because of heart breaking stories etc is not really aimed at the companies but at the call centre agents who are rarely on much more than minimum wage and are doing a crapy job and get told a hundred fake stories for every real one.

I'm sure there is plenty to take issue with the companies themselves but I have more sympathy for the people who just need a job and so end up being on the other end of a line being threatened or being told if they don't waive it etc that they'll be responsible for the caller's suicide etc.

I have as much sympathy for debt collector call centres specialising in chasing fake debts as I do with the Indian fake BT call centre that told me last week my broadband had been hacked and they were going to disconnect it.

Looks like they haven't disconnected you yet FJ! 😄

Sandtree

Timeouts said:
I'm sure you worked for a regulated debt collector and had rules to follow.

No, this was the internal collections team before the debt was sold to external collectors for 5p/£1

We did have rules to follow but those were more aimed at maximizing recovery than writing off debts. A lot of people starting in the role would be referring every case because they felt compassion for the caller but it only takes a few cases in the first day or two where you can show them that people are recycling excuses all the time that they become more cynical and stop referring offers of £1 per week indefinitely on the £5,000 bill they've run up in the last couple of months.

fisherjim said:
I have as much sympathy for debt collector call centres specialising in chasing fake debts 

I think you'll find very few of them "specialise" in parking ticket debt recovery.  This tends to be the no interview temp type work because of the level of churn of staff because whilst you may think that they are rude to you but many customers are much ruder back... whilst my work wasnt "fake debts" I've been told hundreds of times they'll find me and "do me in", rape my girlfriend etc. Unlike customer service work where you'd just terminate the call the reality is that if you are going to get money from the person you're going to have to go through the threats, name calling etc

They will not be law graduates who've had a chance to study the legality of PCN enforcement but someone given a couple of hours training (if they're lucky) and told to get on with it. I'd suspect many are not aware there is any question mark over the legality and clearly the little training they've had and their scripted answer will all state it is.