Hey..since my relocation to Vermont, I’ve been working hard catching up to bills in the last two months and re-establishing myself into the creative scene (and socially, of course..a guy’s gotta have something to do). In the past couple of days I’ve been receiving a LOT of phone calls from a suspected collection agency and I had to ignore them because I wrote letters to my creditors about my economic situation. Some of them were cool about it and acknowledged it but I’m still working it out with them.
The thing is that this particular collection agency I suspect is inundating me with calls in the last few days this past weekend and I know it is due to their caller IDs as ‘unavailable’, or 999-999-9999 and sometimes it shows the actual number. I can tell that they kept switching 2 or 3 numbers to try and trick me to talk to them so they can ‘bully’ me into paying up.
Keep this in mind that it IS against the law and illegal for collection agencies to harass you with continuous phone calls without leaving an actual voice mail.
They once did that but did’nt leave a message..however they called back an hour later. This is a violation of my rights and besides, being deaf myself, how do they expect me to talk to them this way? What if I don’t want to because I know they’ll try and take advantage of my hearing disability? I don’t use a TTY nor own one and I think they should have the decency to use email instead of phone calls (I use a cell phone..don’t own a land-line).
But I’m aware they don’t like emails because that is a record that can be used against them…and they know it.
All they want to do is BS you on the phone to make you pay up.
I’m trying to figure out ways to get those dorks off my back.
What’s worse…I once got a call from a collection agency in which a hindu (Indian) guy with bad english was trying to talk to me and I could NOT comprehend what the hell he was saying. It was so bad I had to hang up on him. So insulting.
I’d rather have someone speak to me in clear and plain English…(no offense to Lette).
What should I do?
December 20th, 2005 at 8:56 am
Hi Adam - you know what I’ve done on those situations? I just tell them that I cannot hear on the phone well, but here’s my email address - and it actually works, they email me the same day, everyone’s happy. Try that, and if they refuse - start yelling “you’re in violation of the ADA (*#^$%(#(&%^%(&$!!!!!” hehe, let ‘em sweat.
December 20th, 2005 at 9:09 am
…thanks Julie
. OF all the evil things you, me and lette can do together >:). I think I can speak Hindu just to piss off the actual caller. So if they speak bad english, I should do the same, yes?
December 20th, 2005 at 9:24 am
“evil things”
I do it with everyone (ok, hold-up, that’s NOT what I meant! read on) - whether the caller speaks good or ‘bad’ english, because other than chatting with close friends on the phone, I really can’t hear strangers well enough to differientiate between B’s and D’s, 2’s and shoes, etc - so this is my way of being sure I know what the person is calling about, you know exactly what I mean. A lesson learned from HARSH experience - no room for error when someone’s talking to you about your bills or appointments.
Anyone here ever use a Sidekick?…
December 20th, 2005 at 9:29 am
I can hear people on the phone okay but most of the time since it’s a celly, it’s usually a tough challenge to diffrentiate the vowels or speech. As for a Sidekick, I wish I had one but in Vermont, it’s not available since Verizon and Sprint are the only major carriers here..no T-Mobile :/.
I was very impressed w/ the Sidekick when I saw it in Cleveland in action but other deaf people in VT use BlackBerries or the Treo 650 and they seem to do the trick as well as the Sidekick…hmm.
December 20th, 2005 at 9:38 am
explain to me how those work…
December 20th, 2005 at 9:43 am
Julie..you can see the actual device at: www.danger.com. They are supposedly the manufacturer of it and they provide the technology to other carriers, etc. Think of it as a combo cell phone/IM/TTY device in color screen and it uses AOL Instant Messenger or e-mail..even POP3 mail. It’s really sweet.
December 20th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
Pick up the phone. Explain that you are deaf. Tell them that they need to communicate to you via snail mail or email. Provide them with your information. If they do ANYTHING other than take down your information, inform them that you will be contacting the.. I guess Attorney General’s office about the harassment. Also inform them that they (the collection agency) and the company that they work for, may be facing a criminal or civil suit for harassment, and that you are a very sympathetic plaintiff because of your disability and their chosen method of harassment. You already experience enough difficulties using the telephone, and they’re purposefully attempting to take advantage of your disability.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:51 am
Sara…I could try that the next time they call me. I managed to use a TTY relay online yesterday using i711.com and spoke to one of the collection agencies to deal with their situation. It turns out to be one of the credit card folks that tried to reach me and I explained that I could’nt answer the phone due to my hearing-impairment and was driving a lot that weekend.
The online relay thing seemed to do the trick as my weapon of choice >:). I do plan on sending out letters to my creditors to work out a compromise and not harass me with collection agencies again.
We’ll see.
But if they do that again, I’ll use the attorney general to keep them in line.
December 21st, 2005 at 12:11 pm
sanctum, may i ask, what do you mean clear and plain english, no offence lette??
December 21st, 2005 at 12:14 pm
Lette,
Since you’re Irish..I’d thought the Irish prefer speaking in their own dialect and not be told to speak in proper English which is why I thought of you when I wrote it above. I was venting about the hindu (indian) collection agency guy with very bad english and it frustrated me to no end…
……so I hung up on him…
December 21st, 2005 at 12:19 pm
hahaha!! ok, no my 1st language is english!! as with everybody in Ireland,there are only few people who speak Irish all the time!! i only know a few words of Irish language!!
December 21st, 2005 at 12:57 pm
Really? Fascinating. Someday I’ll have to go to Ireland..
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:29 am
Okay..even more interesting developments…
I tried to call one creditor via IP Relay on computer and saved the transcripts on my hard-drive having made 3 attempts.
Attempt #1: Woman answered the phone; was explained about Relay and then transferred me to another line. The line got disconnected.
Attempt #2: Another woman answered the phone; was explained about Relay and then gave me the TDD number and said it should work with my IP Relay regardless if I don’t have a TTY.
Attempt #3: I tried the TDD number again via IP Relay. No one answered after 10 rings.
What does this tell me? That they don’t give a shyte? Or violated my rights as a deaf consumer? They must be this stupid not to know how to use Relay or are instructed by their bosses to discourage TDD calls or Relay calls. Something’s not right..even after the dumbasses continue dunning my cell phone.
Good thing I saved the transcripts in PHP format so if they try to use the court on me..those papers will prove that they violated my rights.
Their asses are about to turn to grass soon.
December 24th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
That is outrageous, but sadly all too common even here in the UK. I always use my TTY system for calling agencies of any kind cos my hearing isn’t reliable enough. I also refuse to handle extensive amounts of personal information by phone at all, because there is still a lot of margin for error with the relay operators and more often the people answering the relay call being crap.
I now refuse to deal with any organisation by phone other than to make/break/confirm appointments. I insist on a face-to-face appointment or written communication. Sometimes they tell me this is ‘impossible’ to which I reply with ‘DDA - reasonable adjustment - get me a manager NOW!’.
Keeping a transcript of all calls is good, but I would go one step further and refuse to do more than request written communications and threaten them with ADA/DDA if they don’t communicate with you in writing. Then if they call you, say “I can’t hear you, I am deaf, write to me on $Address or $email and I will reply as soon as I can. Failure to make these adjustments puts your company in violation of ADA and risk of a lawsuit. Do NOT call this number again. Bye”.
The usual problem I have with our relay services in the UK is that they require the caller to put 18002 as a prefix before the telephone number itself. This means many computer systems are not set up to handle this number of digits so cannot ’store’ this information. I usually refuse to let them have a telephone number unless they can store the prefix as well - or note that it is a textphone. Under the DPA 1998 I have the right to force them to delete incorrect information not storing the prefix means the number they have for me is incorrect.
I can’t set my landline to automatically divert incoming calls via relay, I pick up all unknown or unrecognised CallerID calls with the textphone. If it’s someone who is using voice they’ll either get clue (unlikely) or write to me moaning about me not accepting calls. I can’t use my mobile at all, so anyone who rings it gets it ringing out. I set it so there is no voicemail on any of my phones.
December 24th, 2005 at 4:50 pm
ok can i ask about this TTY as my use of phones is becoming unrelyable and impossible at times??
December 24th, 2005 at 5:33 pm
Natalya,
Yes it’s outrageous and since I’m hard of hearing, I do have the right as a deaf person to be accomodated because I don’t trust calling collection agencies or creditors over my cell phone due to the possibility of being bamboozled by those morons. I had to save the online transcripts just in case a judge calls me into the office but I think I have evidence anyways against them and could force other creditors to back off from me for good.
I’m still working out ways to get these guys to settle with me. They can’t continue to harass me for long and not accomodate my hearing needs. It’s ridiculous.
January 9th, 2006 at 1:07 pm
Currently it’s early January now and I’m working out ways to get the creditors and collections off my back. I closed down 3 card accounts to play it safe and to show them I mean business..I don’t know if they closed the 2 other cards but they might’ve but I know 1 of them is closed and they honored it.
I sometimes get other ‘unknown’ calls from them but slowly, I’m trying to get them to back off and find ways to get them to settle for 50 percent of the balance and if they continue to abuse my phone, I could tell them that I will report to the Attorney General and have them be forced to drop the debt if they cross the line.
I don’t trust collection agencies as well but I’ve tried IP Relay a few times..sometimes they’re cool about it and sometimes they’re stupid enough to pass me off to a TDD line for no reason.
We’ll see…