What can one do about harrassing phone calls that involves less time, money and energy than a law suit? I have been getting phone calls every day for the past three weeks, from a collection agency, for a person I have never heard of. This person shares a last name with my live-in boyfriend, so I can guess how they came by our number. But I can't get them to stop! We regularly call them back and leave them messages saying that we've never heard of the person before in our lives, that we are on the do-not-call list and since we have no established relationship with these people, they have no business calling us and that we expect to never hear from them again. But the next day, we invariably come home to more messages from them.
We don't have the time or money to sue them. What else can be done?
"I'm sorry I/we can't come to the phone right now but please leave a message. I/we are receiving annoyance calls and the phone company has a trap on this line. The phone comapny will be in contact with you shortly if they suspect your line as the annoyance caller" :)
or a buy a product called an "inbound call blocker." It allows only those callers who enter a special numeric code onto their touchtone phone pad to ring through to your number. This device is highly effective in preventing unwanted calls. However, you must be certain to give the code to everyone you want to talk to. Even so, you could miss important calls from unexpected sources, like emergency services.
Dumb question, but have you said the magic words? "Take us off your list." This works like a charm every time I get a telemarketer, and it even worked as a way to end the daily calls to my cell phone from the same number.
However, it sounds like your case is more extreme than the regular obnoxious variety. Would suing them actually make them stop? Is a restraining order good for telephone communication? hrmm...sorry, I can't provide any useful insight here...
Call Screen (*60): Your phone can be programmed to reject calls from selected numbers with a service called Call Screen (SBC Pacific Bell term; other phone companies might use a different name). Instead of ringing on your line, these calls are routed to a recording that tells the caller you will not take the call. With Call Screen, you can also program your telephone to reject calls from the number of the last person who called. This allows you to block calls even if you do not know the phone number. Most phone companies charge a monthly fee for this service.
It sucks if you have to go this route b/c it has a monthly fee attached to it, but maybe you would only need the service for a month or two and then you could cancel the service after the losser gives up on calling you.
I guess this is my big problem... "This letter should include your name, account information, and instructions about when, where, and how they may contact you"
They absolutely may NOT contact me! The whole point is to STOP them contacting me.
We had a guy from a collection agency calling the office I first worked at once every two days for some bogus SBC billing problem. You can not get those people to stop, and they will abuse any and everyone who answers the phone. Every time I hear about an office shooting, I secretly hope that it happened at a collection agency call center.
You need to find out which agency it is and do your best to talk to someone who isn't a complete waste of human life and can get your number taken off of their list of numbers to contact. I'm not sure that anything scares them due to the nature of their work. Otherwise, I think that you should break up with Mr. Lebowski and move to Denmark.
rationalist - step three "This letter should include your name, account information, and instructions about when, where, and how they may contact you" Is ONLY if you agree that the debt is yours. In your situation, you would only do step 1 & 2, but to be quite honest, I would skip step 1 and only do step 2. Step one would obviously require you to give the callers an address to send the report. Who wants that! If the debt is ligitimate, they would have sent you the debt information via mail. I would also question how it is that they have your telephone number and not a current address? This is beginning to sound more and more like fraud.
You might also want to file a complaint to your state Attorney General's office - they have always been extremely diligent and helpful in solving complaints.
The problem is that they call while we're at work. Then we call them back to tell them never to call us again, and they're not there, so we leave a message. Then they call us again the next day looking for this other person, completely oblivious to the message we left. I'll give them a call during business hours tomorrow.
when i moved to NM from CA in 2001, i was given a new cell number by verizon. turns out the number they gave me was for some woman who was a deadbeat and a collections agency started calling my phone. i couldn't convince them i didn't know her, blah blah blah. it went so far as them telling me they'd stop calling me if i sent them a notarized letter explaining the circumstances.
at that point i told them to fuck off (literally) and started going off on this person with suitable language and how i don't owe them jack.
the calls stopped.
good luck...
Okay I've grown up with a similar experience. This won't be easy for you to hear, but starting when I was just about 8 or 9 years of age, we had been getting phone calls on a regular basis from a collection agency looking for a person by our same exact last name, but his first name was, get this, "Whale." It went on for days, weeks, months, and yes, years. Granted, they weren't as frequent down the stretch, my parents still get them once in a great while. What eventually slowed them down was when we spoke to each of the companies individual supervisors or managers to make sure they took our names off the list.
Yes, we demanding they take us of their list at the time but that failed. And we even had to change our number. That didn't even work. This was most rampant in the late 80s so things might be a little different now.
I had a call the other day from the guy who wants the Model Number on your copy machine.....So I just gave a string of numbers which ended in the alphanumeric letters: asshole.
za 165921asshole. He immediatedly hung up the phone.
Apr 10, 07 8:22 am ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
harrassing phone calls?
What can one do about harrassing phone calls that involves less time, money and energy than a law suit? I have been getting phone calls every day for the past three weeks, from a collection agency, for a person I have never heard of. This person shares a last name with my live-in boyfriend, so I can guess how they came by our number. But I can't get them to stop! We regularly call them back and leave them messages saying that we've never heard of the person before in our lives, that we are on the do-not-call list and since we have no established relationship with these people, they have no business calling us and that we expect to never hear from them again. But the next day, we invariably come home to more messages from them.
We don't have the time or money to sue them. What else can be done?
leave this on your message machine:
"I'm sorry I/we can't come to the phone right now but please leave a message. I/we are receiving annoyance calls and the phone company has a trap on this line. The phone comapny will be in contact with you shortly if they suspect your line as the annoyance caller" :)
or a buy a product called an "inbound call blocker." It allows only those callers who enter a special numeric code onto their touchtone phone pad to ring through to your number. This device is highly effective in preventing unwanted calls. However, you must be certain to give the code to everyone you want to talk to. Even so, you could miss important calls from unexpected sources, like emergency services.
Dumb question, but have you said the magic words? "Take us off your list." This works like a charm every time I get a telemarketer, and it even worked as a way to end the daily calls to my cell phone from the same number.
However, it sounds like your case is more extreme than the regular obnoxious variety. Would suing them actually make them stop? Is a restraining order good for telephone communication? hrmm...sorry, I can't provide any useful insight here...
or how about this:
Call Screen (*60): Your phone can be programmed to reject calls from selected numbers with a service called Call Screen (SBC Pacific Bell term; other phone companies might use a different name). Instead of ringing on your line, these calls are routed to a recording that tells the caller you will not take the call. With Call Screen, you can also program your telephone to reject calls from the number of the last person who called. This allows you to block calls even if you do not know the phone number. Most phone companies charge a monthly fee for this service.
It sucks if you have to go this route b/c it has a monthly fee attached to it, but maybe you would only need the service for a month or two and then you could cancel the service after the losser gives up on calling you.
that's an idea (the last one). If all forms of communication fail, then we may have to try that.
Yes, I have definitely said the majic words.
I guess this is my big problem... "This letter should include your name, account information, and instructions about when, where, and how they may contact you"
They absolutely may NOT contact me! The whole point is to STOP them contacting me.
Call my two friends, Tony & Sal - they are Sour Tuna's boys from the west deli, tell um I sent you.
Give them the name, and the number that calls you - they will sort it out
We had a guy from a collection agency calling the office I first worked at once every two days for some bogus SBC billing problem. You can not get those people to stop, and they will abuse any and everyone who answers the phone. Every time I hear about an office shooting, I secretly hope that it happened at a collection agency call center.
You need to find out which agency it is and do your best to talk to someone who isn't a complete waste of human life and can get your number taken off of their list of numbers to contact. I'm not sure that anything scares them due to the nature of their work. Otherwise, I think that you should break up with Mr. Lebowski and move to Denmark.
Or try Lawchinect.
Well, I've just filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, so we'll see if it helps at all.
rationalist - step three "This letter should include your name, account information, and instructions about when, where, and how they may contact you" Is ONLY if you agree that the debt is yours. In your situation, you would only do step 1 & 2, but to be quite honest, I would skip step 1 and only do step 2. Step one would obviously require you to give the callers an address to send the report. Who wants that! If the debt is ligitimate, they would have sent you the debt information via mail. I would also question how it is that they have your telephone number and not a current address? This is beginning to sound more and more like fraud.
You might also want to file a complaint to your state Attorney General's office - they have always been extremely diligent and helpful in solving complaints.
The problem is that they call while we're at work. Then we call them back to tell them never to call us again, and they're not there, so we leave a message. Then they call us again the next day looking for this other person, completely oblivious to the message we left. I'll give them a call during business hours tomorrow.
when you answer....tell then you will get tone to talk to them..... then just hang up...... get it...dial tone...holler....haha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ve21XwzXqs here u go
when i moved to NM from CA in 2001, i was given a new cell number by verizon. turns out the number they gave me was for some woman who was a deadbeat and a collections agency started calling my phone. i couldn't convince them i didn't know her, blah blah blah. it went so far as them telling me they'd stop calling me if i sent them a notarized letter explaining the circumstances.
at that point i told them to fuck off (literally) and started going off on this person with suitable language and how i don't owe them jack.
the calls stopped.
good luck...
Okay I've grown up with a similar experience. This won't be easy for you to hear, but starting when I was just about 8 or 9 years of age, we had been getting phone calls on a regular basis from a collection agency looking for a person by our same exact last name, but his first name was, get this, "Whale." It went on for days, weeks, months, and yes, years. Granted, they weren't as frequent down the stretch, my parents still get them once in a great while. What eventually slowed them down was when we spoke to each of the companies individual supervisors or managers to make sure they took our names off the list.
Yes, we demanding they take us of their list at the time but that failed. And we even had to change our number. That didn't even work. This was most rampant in the late 80s so things might be a little different now.
I had a call the other day from the guy who wants the Model Number on your copy machine.....So I just gave a string of numbers which ended in the alphanumeric letters: asshole.
za 165921asshole. He immediatedly hung up the phone.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.