rude business practice
I received an obnoxious phone call from an obnoxious
institution today. I will now attempt to give them the public
humiliation they deserve -- well, at least as public as a journal with
under 200 readers can be. :-)
Their machine called my cell phone saying approximately thus: "Please do not hang up. This is not a solicitation. We have a Very Important Message for you. Call 800-967-2070 for your Very Important Message." (The message is not important enough to be available at all hours; they went on to give times to call.)
I didn't recognize the number and Sprint used to do this sort of crap for things related to my phone service, so I assumed Verizon might be similar. I called.
Someone: Hello?
Me: I'm returning a call from you. Who are you?
Someone: [mumble] collection services.
Me: I think you have a wrong number.
Someone: I think you have an unpaid hospital bill.
Me: Whom are you trying to reach?
Someone: I'm not allowed to say.
Me: (silence)
Someone: I'll transfer you to [mumble].
Mumble: Who is this?
Me: I returned a call from you and was transferred here. I think you have a wrong number.
Mumble: [type type] Is this John?
Me: There is no John at this number.
Mumble: Are you sure? We're looking for John Sykes.
Me: I've had this number for several years. Please update your records.
Mumble: Ok. [click]
(Aside: I never gave my number, so they obviously had caller ID -- which would have reported my name as well.)
I understand that this sort of thing is typical for collection agencies: leave a cryptic message to try to dupe the target into calling, and then... what? If it's gotten to collections, the person probably already knows that someone thinks there's a debt. And anyone who's had past experience with collections will probably recognize the ploy and not return the call -- meaning that the only people who return such calls are those who haven't learned about this yet. I really wonder how this is profitable for them.
It seems likely that the subset of debtors who do so willfully, who never had any intention of paying the bill, would give out false contact information. Given that, these businesses ought to try to behave better when dealing with the innocent bystanders. Being a little more up front when I called, not immediately accusing me, and -- gasp -- maybe apologizing for the error would not have been out of line.
But, of course, I am neither their target nor their customer, so they don't have to care. Except that in the extremely unlikely event that I ever need to hire a collection agency, I will now know to do my best to investigate their tactics first and not reward bad behavior with my business. And maybe some of my readers, who might be more likely to need the services of such places, will keep that in mind.
(In case you're wondering, I identified them by googling the phone number -- a technique I will remember for future mysterious calls. I'm not convinced that I ever have a reason to return a call from a collection agency; if they really think it's me, eventually they'll send a paper letter and I'll correct them then.)
Their machine called my cell phone saying approximately thus: "Please do not hang up. This is not a solicitation. We have a Very Important Message for you. Call 800-967-2070 for your Very Important Message." (The message is not important enough to be available at all hours; they went on to give times to call.)
I didn't recognize the number and Sprint used to do this sort of crap for things related to my phone service, so I assumed Verizon might be similar. I called.
Someone: Hello?
Me: I'm returning a call from you. Who are you?
Someone: [mumble] collection services.
Me: I think you have a wrong number.
Someone: I think you have an unpaid hospital bill.
Me: Whom are you trying to reach?
Someone: I'm not allowed to say.
Me: (silence)
Someone: I'll transfer you to [mumble].
Mumble: Who is this?
Me: I returned a call from you and was transferred here. I think you have a wrong number.
Mumble: [type type] Is this John?
Me: There is no John at this number.
Mumble: Are you sure? We're looking for John Sykes.
Me: I've had this number for several years. Please update your records.
Mumble: Ok. [click]
(Aside: I never gave my number, so they obviously had caller ID -- which would have reported my name as well.)
I understand that this sort of thing is typical for collection agencies: leave a cryptic message to try to dupe the target into calling, and then... what? If it's gotten to collections, the person probably already knows that someone thinks there's a debt. And anyone who's had past experience with collections will probably recognize the ploy and not return the call -- meaning that the only people who return such calls are those who haven't learned about this yet. I really wonder how this is profitable for them.
It seems likely that the subset of debtors who do so willfully, who never had any intention of paying the bill, would give out false contact information. Given that, these businesses ought to try to behave better when dealing with the innocent bystanders. Being a little more up front when I called, not immediately accusing me, and -- gasp -- maybe apologizing for the error would not have been out of line.
But, of course, I am neither their target nor their customer, so they don't have to care. Except that in the extremely unlikely event that I ever need to hire a collection agency, I will now know to do my best to investigate their tactics first and not reward bad behavior with my business. And maybe some of my readers, who might be more likely to need the services of such places, will keep that in mind.
(In case you're wondering, I identified them by googling the phone number -- a technique I will remember for future mysterious calls. I'm not convinced that I ever have a reason to return a call from a collection agency; if they really think it's me, eventually they'll send a paper letter and I'll correct them then.)