We mentioned in a prior blog post the sheer frustration — often accompanied by fear — that consumers in Texas and across the country feel when they are suddenly confronted by aggressive debt collectors.
The tactics engaged in by individuals and firms within that massive industry, as well as the overwhelmed feeling often experienced on the receiving end of harassing communications by beleaguered consumers, were alluded to in our August 5 post entry.
We expand on that post a bit today by referencing the calm and purposeful response of one person seeking debt relief from a persistent and unresponsive collection agency. We sprinkle a few relevant details from that person’s story into today’s blog entry to educate consumers and, hopefully, increase their confidence as they seek to deal with harassing collectors.
What that man did as a threshold matter after receiving a phone call regarding a debt he flatly did not owe was to send the calling company a certified letter informing it that it was acting in error (that letter subsequently featured in court). Notwithstanding his demand that the company cease contacting him, it continued to do so, and he took copious notes concerning every communication.
Importantly, he also contacted an experienced debt-relief law firm, which filed a lawsuit on his behalf in a federal court.
That action is sometimes what is flatly required to get a collection company’s attention, and it did the trick for the Illinois resident, although the company continued harassing him for about a month following commencement of litigation.
The man eventually received a settlement from the company, noting in the wake of the case that the lawsuit was all about principle.
“[T]hese people are slime who abuse and exploit people,” he said, adding that he was appalled by collection firms’ specific targeting of elderly people for harassment in many instances.
Individuals pressured by such entities command rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which we discussed in the above-cited blog entry.
They also have ready recourse to a proven debt relief attorney who knows how to deal with unlawful collection efforts. The result of such representation can be, as noted in this post, a settlement in favor of a harassed consumer.
Source: credit.com, “How one man got even with a debt collector … in court,” Bob Sullivan, Aug. 27, 2014