collection harrassment

What is the name of your state? ohio. can collectors call your place of employment or contact toyr employer in any way? (i.e collection on over due check)

[djohnson]

Is this the first or third party collector? You can request a third party do not contact you at work. It is better to do so in writing RRR. They are suppose to follow that. An original collector does not to follow any guidlines as far as collection unless it reaches a harassment point then you have other issues.

what is happening is that the company called my wife at work to collect payment and my wife says he was threatening her with legal action (understandable) but he was cussing her and threatening to send letters to her employer. I thought that there may be some exaggeration on her part and called the man myself. After about 15 seconds I totally believed my wife! he cussed me out and I simply hung up the phone. When she wrote the check we had more than enough to cover it. Problem is that another company overcharged the account and left us a little short. That was corrected, but I still have a bounced check. I offered to settle the debt in 3 days, but was told that the check is almost 30 days past due and that it was going to be sent to the county court. I prefer that over being cussed at again but do not want it on credit. More importantly, I do not want my wife calling me in a full blown cry because this man is being unreasonable. I would like to take legal action if i can for the 3 nasty phone calls she had to put up with. That kind if behavior is inexcusable even for the most heartless of the heartless!!! Thanks for your time!

[bigun]

Pay it as fast as possible. You want no part of it being turned over to courts for collection. In many states, judges can award 2 and 3 times the face amount of the check in damages. You will also have a judgment on your credit report. Regardless if it is a paid or unpaid judgment, it is a bad notation. Pay the check and go on with life.

[Ladynred]

If this is a 3rd party collector, the jerk has violated the FDCPA numerous times by his abusive language and possibly even for threatening legal action that they do not actually INTEND to take, they're just using the threat of legal action as intimidation.

You can file a complaint with the FTC online at [url]www.ftc.gov.[/url]

Thanks to all for the advice! Unfortunately he is not a third party, however I am of the understanding that all of the conversations over the phone are recorded (without our knowledge at the time), and if it goes to court I intend to have the recordings brought in to prove the abuse. I agree with bigun and want to pay it to get it off our backs, yet I have to respect my wife and the pain and hurt feelings she has endured throughout this entire experience. I will post replies to all interested as this proceeds and let all know how this turns out. Again, thanks to all who responded!!!!!!!

[Ladynred]

Personally, I think it is utterly ABSURD that an OC can get away with the very same abusive language and tactics that are strictly forbidden to 3rd party collectors. While these 'customer service' jerks who make collection calls for OC's are commonly recorded, supposedly for performance evaluations, I have had far too many of these minimum-wage cretins get very nasty and abusive, some have screamed at me over the phone and called me ugly names !!!!! I had one moron call me at 6 AM on a Saturday morning !! I cussed him out royally and slammed the phone in his ear

I don't know how the public goes about getting some restrictions on OC's for this abhorrent behavior, but SOMETHING needs to be done. If it takes a grass-roots campaign of thousands of people recording the abusive and harrassing phone calls and submitting logs for times of EVERY call, then maybe that's what needs to happen. I'd say flood our congressmen with letters of complaint, but these fools are all so bought-off by the credit card and banking industry (like the $63M that MBNA "contributed" to push that dog of a BK bill !!!!) that it would be like pi$$ing in the ocean !

Sorry.. this BS from OC's just makes me angry... end of rant