When A Creditor Call

The first good feeling of having hired an Attorney to represent us in bankruptcy came when the first collection company called.

"Hello," the collection agent said after the automated caller connected the line.

I replied, "Hello." After he asked for me by name, I said, "This is him."

He continued, "This is Mark from Truelogic Financial. I am a debt collector, and the puropse of this call is to collect a debt." That's the standard legalese required when debt collectors call. If you're receiving calls from debt collectors who don't advise you who they are and what their intentions are, then they are breaking the law.

"Before you go any further," I interrupted, "I'll give you the name and number of my Attorney and you can contact him."

"Okay," the caller said.

It was that simple. I gave him the name and number of our newly hired Attorney, and he actually said, "Thank you," when we ended the call. It was a very liberating feeling to know that one less debt collector would be calling us every day.

* * *

If only the second debt collector to call -- less than an hour later -- had been as professional.

"I'm calling from Bay Area Collections," the caller announced, then asked for me by name.

"This is he," I answered.

He asked for me again. "That's me," I repeated. This collector was obviously calling from an out-sourced call center somewhere in India, and the language (and culture) barrier would be apparent.

When he asked me to verify my zip code for him, I asked, "What's the purpose of this call?" I guess in India they aren't so concerned with the legal requirements of debt collection.

When he began to run down the standard phrase, I interupted him again. "Before you go any further, I'll give you the name and number of my Attorney and you can contact him."

"And what will he be doing in this matter?" the caller asked.

"You can discuss that with him," I answered. "Are you ready?" When he didn't answer, I responded to his silence with the name of my Attorney. I had to repeat both the first and last name for him, then I had to correct the phone number when he repeated it to me incorrectly.

The caller then asked, "But it's your bill, why should I call him?"

I answered, "I'm going to hang up now. You can contact my Attorney for anything else you need." And with an abrupt "Goodbye," I terminated the call.

As rude as the second caller was, it was a wonderful feeling to have the tools to be just as rude in return.

I'm sure there will be more callers, for a while anyway, but the phone hasn't rang all evening.