My father had a credit card with Capital One (another denizen of the consumer complaints) which he paid with his SS check and state of RI retirement. On April 19th he suffered a severe stroke and as a result, entered a nursing home. Each month the nursing home received the two checks minus a total of $50 for "personal" expenses such as clothing, toilet articles, etc.
Dad had no savings or checking and lived month to month. Capital One was not his only account, unfortunately. After several months of explaing the situation to the morons at Capital One, they turned the account over to Encore.
These idiots called every morning at 8:30 AM (I work until 3:30 AM and that was ridiculous) and persisted in demanding to speak with my father despite the fact that he was in a nursing home and was not competent even if they did speak with him.
They would not speak with me although I had Power of Atty for him. Despite being told he was not in my home they called every morning and often several times daily looking for him. This should have ceased as they refused to talk to me and my Dad was not there. It did not.
On July 24th my father passed away and at 5 PM that day, 3 hours after he died - yes, on Sunday - these morons were on the phone looking for him. I told them he had died and that he had no estate and massive bills and if there was any money at all left after paying for his funeral I would put the money on his medical bills rather than paying Encore or Capital One.
The man said he was sorry, he understood and would (finally) take my number out of their automatic dialer (personally I think those should be outlawed as they are used for harassment and they also do not even have the courtesy to say hello right away - they make you say hello several times because they are so freaking important they could not possibly spend 3 seconds extra on the phone - WRONG! I'm a nurse and my work is a million times more important than anything those amoral jacka*es do)
Anyway I digress. The next day and the next day and the next day, Encore continued to call. I finally ended up calling them back again and getting the voice mail of some woman who was in charge of collections and let her know that my father was gone, his obit was in the Providence Journal on the 26th and there was no money and to stop calling.
I did not swear or yell, but I was firm. They still called and continue to send mail. When they call they still refuse to talk to me. Next step, I will give them the number of the cemetery. I have sent a letter with a copy of my father's death certificate but I think people who work for companies like this assume everyone is a liar and cheat and they have ignored it.
Yes, people do try to weasel out of paying bills and my Dad was not very good at handling money but he's gone and I have no reason to lie about that. The calls are slowing down but I cannot even describe the amount of hatred and animosity I feel for Encore and companies like them.
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