HELP. Debt Collector - I have no idea what to do! (1 Viewer)

[DonRoeber]

I once had a debt collection agency contact me because I hadn't paid my Zales card. I opened a card during a promotion, with every intention of paying it off as soon as the bill arrived. However, Zales never sent me a bill. A year goes by, and I get contacted by this collection agency. I eventually get in touch with Zales, and they say they'll mail a statement out to me. A week goes by, still nothing. I have Zales send me a -registered- bill, and still, I never recieve it, nor do they have any record of my recieving it. In the end I just paid by check over the phone, but still, it was very odd.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> Reminds of a few years back, when I received a letter from a collection agency saying I had never paid for a magazine subscription I ordered.

How much was the magazine? It's amazing sometimes how companies will use debt collectors on small purchases.

I've gotten nasty letters about stuff from the CD clubs- stuff I never ordered and returned unopened when I received it. I think it was $20-30, & I was surprised they bothered with a collection agency for that. Since I had already returned it, the letters went right in the trash.

 

[KurtEP]

I imagine they just bundle up a large number of them at once and sell them at an even bigger than usual discount to the collectors. I can't imagine a subscription service using collections for a $20 debt, but if they accumulate 10,000 of them over the course of a year, it would be worth calling the collection agency.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Nice story.

I was once harrassed by a credit agency over a bill of about $300. I told them to go back to the company who hired them, that it wasn't a problem, then ignored their following correspondence. They stopped bothering me. I think that this kind of company is bluffing most of the time with their threats.