Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Debt Collection Agency Rudeness to PAYING CUSTOMER

The following was posted on http://www.pissedconsumer.com/ recently.

First, background. I loaned my name to a friend of mine so that she could have a phone with Verizon. Shortly after she got the phone account she got into some trouble and was unable to pay the bill, and at the time neither was I. Time went by, Verizon sent notices to her address which was eventually vacated, and the account went into delinquency... after it did she tried to make a payment or two on it but gave up as she was also supporting a family and trying to keep a cell phone going with a different company. Two years go by... and I get a notice from this debt collection service called Allied Interstate. I'm wondering who these people are, and I call Verizon, and they verify that this is an agency that collects money for them and that indeed this old debt was valid.

So, I call Allied Interstate, a rather pleasant woman answers the phone and in the discussion she proposes these payment options which didn't at all fit with what my friend might be capable of paying all at once. I settled on $10 a month which would have incurred an extra charge of $6.95. The bill was over $250 total, and I thought about it, and though I'm unemployed I did actually have just enough to pay it by check. So, I repent of the $10 a month idea that my friend wanted to do and decided, "I just want this thing off my back." Mailed in a check for the whole amount.

The next day Allied Interstate leaves a message saying to call them. I'm like "what are they wanting now?" and it's 8 pm and my dad's in the shower and this isn't something I want to be his business. I talk to this male person, and he is abrupt and rude, the more so after I tell him I've changed my plans and am paying the whole amount up front. He starts treating me like I'm lying, and asks me these stupid questions like am I voluntarily doing this, and saying basically that AI won't accept the check unless I have a phone number to be reached at. His tone just gets more aggravating by the minute, he cuts me off when I try to tell him I don't really want to be called here, and he just acts like I screwed up by paying it all up front instead of letting them own me for two years on this stupid phone bill.

I was so angry after this, because of the verbal treatment of me doing the best thing I could do which is pay it all and have done with it, that I had to pray to God and you don't even want to know what it was I was praying for. All I can say is they better take the payment and leave me the hell alone or the next time I get a call and that asshole is on the phone taking the answer call, I'll file with the state attorney and have him up on stalking charges. Of course if there is also a class action pending or proposed that I hear about, I'll be signing up for that.

No comments: