Debt Collection. The rights of a 3rd party?

Whatsup said :

Ask for the callers name, company name address and phone number. If they will not give it to you hang up. If they do provide it ask to speak to a manager / supervisor, tell them that you do not have details for the person they seek and request that they do not contact you again. Follow it up with a letter advising that you will be taking further action if the harassment continues.

The further action threat can be enough to encourage them to back off sometimes.

That is what I have been trying to do but they will not repeat the company name, never give their own name nor will the fool on the end of line put me through to his supervisor. It really seems to be a nasty company this one. I guess come august I will be awaiting the next call to see if I can get the company name and try some of these other tricks on the buggers.

Ask for the callers name, company name address and phone number. If they will not give it to you hang up. If they do provide it ask to speak to a manager / supervisor, tell them that you do not have details for the person they seek and request that they do not contact you again. Follow it up with a letter advising that you will be taking further action if the harassment continues.

The further action threat can be enough to encourage them to back off sometimes.

Tell them your relative has decided to pay the debt and is putting 10c a fortnight in your bank account to pass on to them. Give them a street address to write to, and ask them to write to you so you can make formal arrangements. they won’t write – but if they do, come back to the forum for advice on next steps!

give them chopper read’s phone no…

or the terrorist hotline’s…

as a kid, our home no. was two reversed digits from a popular club in another suburb and we got myriad calls for this club, often asking us to get some patron or other – we used the ‘nag on, i’ll page them’ line and left the phone for a while…

The Brad said :

If you can’t beat ’em, have some fun with them.
JB’s suggestion of Moshi moshi is good, or just go even sillier. Ask them if they

– have a voucher, or would like coke with that.
– Say “And then” every time they speak (spot the movie that refers to).
– Give them the number….of Pizza Hut…..no, Domino’s.
– tell them you already gave at the office
– ask them to hang on a second and you’ll get the number, then walk away. Come back every minute to see if they are still there. If so, tell them you’re still looking. Repeat.

The time before last I did have some fun with them because they called when I was in the UK for a holiday and it was 2am. Every second word I used started with the letter F and had 4 letters, as well as the occasional 4 letter C word, the guy was not ammused and was starting to get angry.

Actually indeed that is what I dislike so much about this is the people are really rude and pushy. This last time they called I told them to never call again (as I usually do) and the response from him was give us his number and addresses and we will stop, but if you don’t then we will keep calling.

All this for about $1000.

PS The little turd does owe me about $100 so might use the line someone else suggested of saying when you find him let me know too.

One call? Every six months?

geez, that must really throw your life into turmoil. Such an imposition….

It is not the imposition that is the issue but the fact it has been going on for about 4 years and every time I politly tell them I do not have his number and to never call again. Also the issue has nothing at all to do with me (and I am pretty sure they are aware of that) so why keep flogging a dead horse by calling me?

Tell them he’s had gender reassignment surgery, and has recently been involved in a court case where he successfully sued a doctor because his lesbian life partner and he now have two kids to look after instead of one…

Tell them he is dead….

I thought after 12 months of no payment being made to the debt collectors that they can’t pursue it anymore and it needs to go to court.

I’d say ask them politely to never call again, and if they do then they are conducting business in a harassing way.
There is quite a bit of law on debt collection – brush up on that and you will def find something interesting.

Why not throw the Privacy Act at them.

Next time they call say the clearly hold incaccurate information about you (ie you are not who they think you are), and if they don’t f#ck the hell off then you will ask the Privacy Commissioner to make them f#ck off.