Expert: Creditwrench - 6/23/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi...
I work at the switchboard for an office of about 15 people. I have a co-worker who is in serious debt and continues to spend, spend, spend with credit cards living well above her means. Needless to say, she is behind on her payments.

I answer the phone all day and can do without all of these collection calls. She has four different companies calling her. She's a friend of mine and we've worked together for over 20 years so I don't want to be confrontational but I'm fed up.

I have tried telling the people to stop calling here, remove our number from their call list and call her at home but to no avail.

Would you please give me some leverage or advice on how to get these calls stopped to our workplace?

Thanks,
Carol

ANSWER: I'm sure you realize that they are stealing from your employer who has to pay both you and the other employee as well as paying for the phones and phone service which is intended for company use and for customers to call in to the company. All of that costs money and when they call in to take care of their business without any intention of doing business with your company they are stealing from the company in net effect.

Therefore it is the company who is being injured and it is the company who has the right to take action, not you. What you might do is to tell your employer about it and tell them to send the debt collector a cease & desist letter. If they ignore that the company has the right to sue them.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I'd love to write a cease and desist letter to each one of them, however, how do I get their names and addresses?

Answer
That's simple. Ask them for the name and address of their company. If they won't give it then tell them you are sorry but you will not be able to take their call or give out any information and just hang up on them.

When debt collectors call you need to take the initiative and you control the call. Don't ever let them control the call.