Hello, reader. Thanks for stopping by. Here you'll find pop culture oozing out of the page, funky finds, criticisms, funny vids/pics, and just whatever I want to entertain you with.
Don't ask questions. Just take what I give you. Trust me, you'll like it.
This evening I've spent a total of four hours (so far) working on bills. Not my own, but a friends. They're in deep doody and need a little help, so I'm doing my research.
Basically, my friend cancelled their wireless account with the now defunct Cingular and switched to Sprint. Ever since then they've been bombarded with calls from a mysterious "BCR", or atleast that's all it says on the caller id. They're not picking it up! (Private Caller or Unknown on the caller id...not picking it up!) I did research online and found out it's a collection agency. Through the grapevine, somehow, we figured out it was Cingular and have ignored them since then.
Today, I decided to end this crap once and for all, so I picked up the phone and an Indian guy started rambling off a bunch of stuff.
"You owe $600..Visa or Mastercard?" "Can you tell me why I'm being charged $600? Can you send me a detailed bill?" "Ohh..no. No we can't do that. But if you settle now we'll reduce it to $400." "I think I'd like to settle this matter with Cingular directly." "You can't do that. They tried to contact you and couldn't so they handed the account over to us now. You have $500 from Cingular plus a collection fee from us, so that's $600 you now owe. Would you like to settle now?" I fucking hung up.
So anyways, as you can see, I'm pissed and so is my friend. Basically what we learned tonight is that:
collection agencies tack on a HUGE fee to your so-called debt
DISPUTE, DISPUTE, DISPUTE! You don't have to pay anything, especially to a collection agency that says you owe X amount. Ask for proof from them, and go one step further, ask for proof from the company you owe. Don't just pay cause they say so. Find out what the hell you owe for and do the homework.
The second part of my blog is about disputing things like this and exactly what are your rights. Here are some links that could help if you have this problem:
If you also have stories of debt collection nightmares or just if you want to offer up some helpful sites, let me know! Post a comment or contact me. I love to talk about this kind of stuff. It really ticks me off that there are people out there that just love to screw people out of their money, even when they're down on their luck and have no money whatsoever. My blood justs boils! I'll save the rest of my ramblings for another day. Hope this post has helped atleast one person today...