I am, unfortunately, at a point in my life where I am dealing with collection agencies. Because of an emergency room trip to an Exempla hospital, I am dealing with M J Hecker and Associates, a collection agency that pretends it's a law firm.
Because I was still married when I acquired this bill, my contact information is still my ex-husband's where no one is ever home. Not only does Hecker & company not leave contact information on the voice mail, they get angry at you for not getting back to them. When they get someone on the phone, they don't say who they are, they just throw a name and a bunch of numbers at the person answering the phone and expect the message to get through.
When they finally reached me at my new home, they "took exception" to my voice mail greeting (recorded by my 12 yo son) and called my landlord/employer and expected him to pass on the message. When I returned the call, I only got a voice mail. Without raising my voice, I told them that I was appalled by their lack of professionalism, whoever they were—they didn't say, of course—and if they called back and got my voicemail that they were to leave a message and not call my landlord again.
They did not return that call for TWO MONTHS. When they did call, I mentioned this to them and they cited my 'attitude', saying that I'd only called to harass them (hello??? I was returning a call.). Then they proceeded to talk over me every time I tried to say something. If they'd sat on the phone and yelled, "Yada, yada, yada" every time I tried to talk, they could not be more unprofessional.
I ended up angry and hung up the phone. The annoying little insect on the other end immediately called back and I demanded to speak to a supervisor who was only slightly more professional than the insect was. Not only would she interrupt and brush me off, but she asked me to illegally send a check for about $25 more than I had in my account.
By then end of the call, the supervisor was also talking loudly over me to the point that I couldn't give them my new address or find out how much I still owed on the bill. I barely got the address of where to send the checks out of her. I actually ended the call by calling her a profane but well-deserved name, something I have never done to a collection agency before.
I have reported their conduct to Exempla (with whom my dealings have always been good and fair), and I'll be printing up these reports up and putting them on the billing department's desk.
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