A Collector’s Candid Intention to Violate the FDCPA
June 3, 2008 · Print This Article
One of our Program Managers was talking to an agent from a collection agency today. The agent was extremely upset that the clients were unable to make payments to their company even though we had explained many times that our clients had financial hardship. The clients were a couple raising a mentally handicapped son. The social security benefit they receive for their son is minimal. In addition, the father has experienced a 3 month job loss and the mother has not been able to work for over 7 years to due a serious injury and has to rely on crutches and a wheelchair.
The agent’s reply to the Program Manager’s repeated refusal to give in to his high payment demands was to list off the names of 10 of our client’s neighbors. We do not know for sure if these were truly the names of our clients’ neighbors, but the agent insisted they were. He went on to add that he had their phone numbers and would start calling them right away about our clients’ situation if he didn’t receive a payment.
Our Program Manager said, “If you did that, you would be violating the FDCPA.”
The agent paused, then said that it wouldn’t be a violation if he didn’t disclose the reasons for his call.
Our Program Manager replied, “You would still be violating the FDCPA.”
The agent ended the call with Provanta abruptly.
The Program Manager immediately contacted our clients to let them know of the agent’s unprofessional behavior and warned the clients that while it was probably just an empty threat, to keep Provanta informed of any misconduct by this agent or anyone else.
Most collection agencies and collectors prey on consumers and take advantage of the fact that many do not know their consumer rights. That is why many collectors get away with outrageous harassment threats and why many people give in to their tacitcs. All of our representatives are fully informed of our client’s rights and they are not afraid to assert them for our clients.
(Ref. 1512)
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Written by Provanta · Filed Under Blog, FDCPA Issues
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