Just in case you're bored

I have found a new way to entertain yourself. If you happen to get a call from a bill collector and the debt is not yours, you too can make your day a little more exciting and fun.

This really happened. (I dunno, maybe I shouldn't put this on my blog, but hey, just keeping it real.)

Background: I get the occasional call about debt that doesn't belong to me because of strange coincidences in my life. Won't go into detail--let's just leave it at someone else has the exact same name I used to have, incurred debt, and left me to deal with the consequences and bill collectors. Joy joy joy.

Anyway, usually the callers are polite and friendly, I set them straight, we have a little laugh, and we all move on. I don't hear from them again. Fortunately, it doesn't ever hit my credit report, because, well, it's not my debt. Simple enough.

Not today. Today, I got to experience a call from a rude, abusive bill collector. He interrupted me continuously as I attempted to explain why he called me instead of the right person. He told me it was my problem, and that I had to send or fax him something to prove it wasn't.

THEN...for extra love, he hung up on me in the middle of me talking. Wait a minute! Isn't it typically the consumer who hangs up on the bill collector? Well, yeah, especially when it's THEIR DEBT.

So today, I got mad and I got smart. I called him back. Yes, I did. During the first call, I asked to speak to his manager because of the way he was speaking to me, and he said there wasn't a manager available. I mainly called back to find out the name of the company and see if someone else answered and I could gripe to them, or see if someone else would send me to a manager, but guess what? Mr. Cheerful answered. I said I wasn't sure if I had talked to him or not, and he assured me I had. :-) He said he hung up on me because I was arguing with him. Imagine that!

So, after Mr. Cheerful informed me once again that the call was being recorded because it was an attempt to collect a debt, I said, "Good, because I want it recorded when I tell you once again that this is not my debt, and that I feel it is unacceptable for you to be speaking to me so rudely and abusively, even if it were my debt."

He kept going round and round with me about needing me to fax him something to prove it wasn't my debt, but he was much calmer, let me tell you. I finally took down the fax number and told him I'd think about it, and he got me off the phone as fast as he could after that.

So, I think I'm going to call him back tomorrow just for the heck of it, because I might be bored and want to talk to someone about how their day is going. I kept his phone number just in case. >:-}

(Disclaimer: I know that being a bill collector has got to be the suckiest job in the world, but that DOES NOT EXCUSE treating people like trash, whether it's their debt or not.)