I received a phone call 2 weeks ago from a Ms. Ortiz from GC Services regarding a past due balance on my Bank of America Credit card. I got this card almost 8 years ago, and haven't used it in over 5 years. I am not denying that there is an oustanding balance, but I am debating the past due amount.
The woman told me I owed them $5,471.94 due the day of her phone call. Prior to hearing from her I didn't receive any form of written notification regarding the balance, so I had told her what I was capable of doing.
As a person who just makes it by living paycheck to paycheck, missing any significant time off from work can hurt you financially. I was a pedestrian hit by a landscaping truck back in late 2005. With the accident, and impending surgery in May of I was out of work for 2 months, and as a result, I missed several weeks of pay during that time, putting me way behind in everything.
After explaining this to her (as well as other various people), she said that what she may be able to do is a hardship payment plan, where I give her 10% of the balance now and then do a monthly payment thereafter. I told her what I was physically able to do ($100 every two weeks, and that was streching myself really thin!), and she'd call me back, or I'd have to speak to her supervisor.in the interim, this phone call took up 30 minutes of my work time, and being short-staffed in my office, this did not make my boss happy.
Ms. Ortiz called me back with her supervisor on the phone. She transferred me to him, and the tone he had with me was unexcuseable. I was not notified by him that my call was recorded, or that this was an attempt to collect a debt or any of that other stuff. He said he wasn't sure why an accident in 2005 had anything to do with this balance, and I must have used the card since the accident to rack up such a high balance. He said he couldn't understand how a $1200 card became $5400 outstanding, and that it was my fault for getting in the accident in the first place.
I was so appalled I started to cry. He told me he'd have to call my parents (I'm 28 years old, definitely in "adulthood"), and I told him that my debts were none of their business. My parents had already previously loaned me money to make sure I had a place to live, and money to get to and from work each day, and they have cut me off from providing any other money. He said he'd have to hear it for himself. I conferenced my parents in and they were not notified that the call was being recorded. Mr. Cogswell would not give his name, his address, his phone number, and was so beligerent to my parents. My father told him his manner of speaking and what he was doing was a "scare tactic" and asked for the legitimate balance due. Mr. Cogswell talked over my father the entire conversation, and when my father finally said, "Send my daughter a breakdown of what she really owes and we'll see what we can do, if anything at all". Mr. Cogswell (who was still talking over my father) finally said, "Well I can see where this is going", and hung up on us... Isn't he trying to collect money from us and _HE_ is the one that hung up? So after he hung up, the call never disconnected.
My mother and I proceeded to have a conversation about debt and what happened to me prior to getting on the phone with them (ie, my conversation with Mrs. Ortiz). I finally hung up with her, and Mrs. Ortiz called me back about 30 minutes later.
It turns out my conversation with my mother was recorded without my knowledge, and Mrs. Ortiz started interrogating me about my conversation with my mother. When I asked her about her supervisors tone and manner of speaking to my father, she said, "Well that's water under the bridge, and I'm sorry about that". Actually no, it isn't water under the bridge. He had me to the point where I was having an anxiety attack on the phone with them.
Mrs. Ortiz said she sent me a letter on May 9. She also faxed a copy of that letter to me on May 13. I finally received a completely different letter of notification May 23, with a letter dated May 14.
I will now be sending a certified letter to them disputing my debt, and asking them to stop calling me at work. I was in Atlantic City these last few days for work, and received 12 voicemails from Mrs. Ortiz. I had heard that there is a lawin Pennsylvania that a collection agency can only call on you once a day. I was gone for 2 business days.
I'll keep you posted on my goings on with GC Services.
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