Creditors

SpartanFan

We've recently been hit with a significant increase in creditors and collection agencies wanting to talk to our employees about unpaid bills. We have begun to inform them that will will not forward calls to our employees for collection purposes, and have instructed them to cease calling our business and attempt only to contact the employee outside of work. I vaguely remember that there may be some law that allows us to keep creditors from calling business establishments, but that may be my imagiation. Any advice on sucessful measures that keep these obnoxiuos and disruptive calls from swamping our switchboard?

joannie

The regulation would be the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Short version - if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer's employer prohibits communication, they must not attempt to contact the consumer at the workplace.

Notify your employees you will not allow them to receive collection calls, have them tell their creditors, when the creditor calls, tell them not to attempt to contact the employee at work. If they persist, send them a letter notifying them they are in violation of the FDCPA and if they persist, they will be reported to the Federal Trade Commission.

Celeste Blackburn SPHR

A similar thread came up last year. Forum member stilldazed posted this:

You might also try this, something I've used several times in the past, and it has been effective. Just check your state statutes first for a conflict. We have none in Florida. As it turns out, the calls that have been most aggressive and intimidating were from collectors who advised in telephone calls that they could not be stopped, and this message still stopped them.

"While it is not our intent to interfere with your effort to contact (employee name) at times that may be convenient for him/her, we request immediate suspension of calls to our employee's work place. The frequency of the calls are disruptive to others and to our regular course of business. To confirm, it is our policy to restrict personal nonemergency phone calls to workers during work hours as well as prohibit the use of personal cellular phones during working hours in the department in which he/she works.

As a reminder, the following excerpt from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is included for your review.

15 USC 41 1692c(a) Without prior consent with the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collect of any debt:

(3) at the consumer's place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer's employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.

We sincerely appreciate your cooperation with this request and anticipate that you agree that (employee name) should be allowed to work without the unnecessary risk the calls pose to her work performance. "


If you do an "Advanced Search" for FDCPA and collector, you should find some more helpful threads (if you have a problem with the function, let me know and I'll send you some links).

Good luck!

Celeste