Day in the Life of a Debt Collector

[jeffrey]

The cubicles are cramped and the workers focused with solemn intensity. Their job is to make call after call — perhaps 300 a day — to people who want nothing to do with them, who feign ignorance, who yell at them or, worst of all, don't answer the phone. On a good day, they might talk to a dozen targets.

A computerized sign on the wall implores them to "Always be collecting." Later it urges them to "Smile while you dial." They wear Mardi Gras beads to lighten things up and applaud when one gets a commitment from a debtor to pay.

Busy bill collectors deal with the blues | ajc.com

[Broken Arrow]

Thank you sharing. Very fascinating indeed.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I actually would be curious to sit in on some debt collection calls to see how it goes. For years I had an agency calling first my apartment, then my house asking for a certain person. I always told them that was not me. They were polite, and then it was months before they tried again. But they did follow me through a phone number & address change, too. Finally, I asked exactly what business they were. When we hung up, I called the business (one of those consumer debt counseling places) directly, told them who I was, my phone number, and who they had called for at my address. They seemed to to accept my word that I really was not the person they were seeking and they never called again.

I got polite calls a couple of times from a collector looking for the daughter of a friend. Without my knowledge, the young woman had given me as a reference when taking a car loan. At first I told them I would give her their message, which I did. A month later they politely called again. So, well, I gave them her current phone number. I presume she had been evading them, and I did not appreciate being put in the position of even having to decide what to do, so I just followed the "honesty is the best policy" theory. Give me as a reference to underpin your legitimacy and I will act in a legitimate way --like it or not.

Recently, I got a polite call from someone saying they represented a government agency in another state. I honestly do not have a phone number or address for my brother from whom they were seeking to collect a debt. I did tell them that, yes, he had lived at this address some years ago. The caller did get a little snarly when I told her I had no further info, and she certainly probed a little rudely to determine if I was his wife (We have the same last name, had shared an address years ago.) She asked for more info, and finally said in a way that seemed meant to sound threatening that ,"They're only going to keep calling you." (Yes, she said "they.") I felt that was just a tiny sample of how it might feel to be the subject of a collections call. In reality it did not bother me, as I cannot help them and I do not owe that state anything. If they would continue to call, I am not the person they seek and that they should stop calling me.

Ugh! I would hate to be a collector! The article says the one company puts 20 people through training every month and only 3 actually stay with them. Six months of employment is an achievement! Whoa! The guy who says they focus in on pride, honor, and anxiety to motivate payments---well, I can tell you he probably has me pinned. Those would be the things to knuckle down on me with.

[MoneyMoney]

well, I actually was being chased by the money collector back in 2003/4 just because I invested in some business that wasn't doing well. The debt collector had me on every month and some of them were polite and some of them were swearing all the time. I guess it how they worked make you fear so one would return their debt! Anyway things changed now! At that time I was in Hong Kong.

[boefixepa]

UUgghhh...I could never have that job. I just could not handle it.

[PrincessPerky]

One company called my husbands cell phone for months for another lady whom we had never heard of...

He tried telling them he wasn't her and had never heard of her, he tried telling them his cell phone minutes were being wasted by a company who was NEVER going to get through to this stranger...he got really mad after three calls in the same day once and swore (I yelled at him for that) he was hung up on, questioned as to his honesty "you sure you don't know her?" and finally he started asking who they worked for...after a week of attempting to get someone to stay on the line long enough to tell him the company he at least got a supervisor to talk to him and promise not to keep calling....

they called back one more time, and heard an immediate "may I speak to so and so your supervisor" (we wrote the name and the name of what might be the company down cause we knew they would call back) he was hung up on and thankfully has not heard from them since...

I cannot imagine ever doing that job...

[finsub]

it was very useful

thank you for the post - most intresting