Question: “For several months, we have been receiving collection calls for employees and one employee in particular. Most of our employees are on the road, so they’re not available for phone calls. Lately, we’ve received “automated” calls, where anyone could answer the phone, answer the automatic questions and receive personal account information. I don’t want to give this employee a hard time since he is already having financial difficulties, but we really shouldn’t be receiving calls every day for him either. Any suggestions?” — Anonymous
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
A collection agency calling for an employee is considered a personal call. It is not for business, unless they are collecting on a business debt.
I had this happen once. I simply told them the employee had been fired and I doubt they would see money anytime soon.
Good Question. I too am a recipient of these particular calls. I have placed a voicemail message on our audix advising the bill collector the employer doesnt address its employees’ personal telephone calls. Now when answering the Collector Caller advise him/her the same and also advise you can only provide information applicable to the business of which you company/employer conducts. This tactic has proven very efficient and has also reduced the collection caller.
Take Care
To some of the comments, the employer has to state they don’t allow calls, not the employee. The collector will continue calling if it’s the debtor stating this, the law is very specific. It’s not a personal call because I’m sure the employee didn’t give the number out and want the embarrasment, bill collectors have a very interesting way of tracking people down and calling them at work is just another tactic. I would be careful about approaching the employee – read up on public policy for both situations in order to avoid a lawsuit.
I took a business law class recently and found out that if you call the company that is making these calls and notify them that you do not allow collection calls, they are to comply. If they continue to call, you can report them and they can face some large fines.
The employee needs to contact the biller and inform them not to call their workplace. In the meantime have the calls forwarded to someone with the ability/time to take personal calls of that nature and have them inform the caller they may no longer call this number and must comply with federal law. Personal information should not be given out for any reason. We have in our handbook that our business contact information is not to go on any credit applications, obviously loans and such are ok but not credit cards. So far the staff has complied and we don’t have this problem.
Refer the person who the calls are for to this guide:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.pdf
Might as well educate the poor employee about his/her rights regarding debt collectors.
Federal law (the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) states that if the debtor tells the collector to no longer call the employer, they are forbidden from contacting that employer. I would have the employee call the collector, tell them they are no longer allowed to call the employer, and have them write down the time, date, and name of the person they talked to. If the collector continues to call, now the employee has a legal action against the collection agency!
Anon, Teyah & Stacey have it right. This is a form of harrassment. The simplest and least involved solution is what Stacey did.
We were recently faced with this same problem. This company was unrelentless, 4-5 calls per hour. Finally, I held on the line until the representative came on and I told her that the person no longer worked for the company and we would appreciate if they removed our number from their system. She told me no problem and that it may take up to 48 hours. We have not received any more calls from this company.
Anon2 is right on the money. This is exactly what I did when I was a receptionist. Personally, I eat collection agencies for lunch, but that’s due to the fact that 80% of my family is in Law Enforcement (my husband included) and I know the laws on this matter.
I personally think that they intentionally {but claim it’s “unintentional” ;) } call the employers office to embarrass and humiliate the person hey are trying to contact. I, for one, won’t let anyone ruin anyones day at my office or on my team (if I can help it). A happy employee is a productive employee.
There are too many receptionists who just give out personal information and make the collection agencies job easier. Pfft! You do your job, no one elses.
Think about it like this … it’s the golden rule here. If you were the employee getting phone calls from a collection agency, how would you want to be treated?
Good Luck!
He needs to actually contact the creditors in question and ask them NOT to contact him at work. They cannot by law contact him there after he states that. Creditors will continue to harass you unless you put a stop to it. You can also send a written request to the creditor demanding to stop calling your place of business. Unfortunately if the bills don’t get paid, the next step will be garnishment, and that I fear is worse than a phonecall to resolve issues.
Why are you answering the questions? Hang up. See below for minor rant. :) Alternatively…
Try putting all your hunting lines on the “Do Not Call” list. This may take care of the automated calls. You have to put all the business lines on though. Not just the main one.
Begin minor rant…
My personal policy is that I don’t do automated calls AT ALL. If they really, truly wanted to talk to someone, a real person would be on the line. As soon as I hear the “Please wait…” I hang up. My rant is that THEY called you, why should YOU hold? Waste of YOUR time.
(Please note: CAPS are used for emphasis, like italics, not “shouting”.)
First, I would never give out any information to a collection agency. When speaking to a collection agency I do not confirm or deny the person is working for our Agency. However, I do let the collection agency know it is company policy that employees are not to receive personal phone calls they would need to contact the employee at home and per our Director’s policy we are not allowed to take messages for personal phone calls. If the Collection agency is persistant about leaving a message I will politely advise them they are in direct conflict with Federal law and they will need to contact the person at their home. Normally, they will say thank you and we don’t hear back from them again.
If by chance the collection agency does call back or it is the same company but a different person we advise they are in violation of federal law and we are requesting their name, phone number etc. so it could be reported. Even though I am polite about letting the Collection Agency know I normally get a hang up call when I want their information for reporting purposes. On auto calls we just hang up.
Put it through to his voice mail, like with any other personal call. If you have a policy on how many personal calls is too many, then you can force the employee to attempt to address the problem. And the problem is receiving too many personal calls at the office — it is not the company’s business where he owes money.
If the calls are automatic and offer access to personal information, I think the ethical thing would be to warn the employee about that (off the record) so he can contact the company and get them to stop that.
I would contact the local police department. Ask him/her what steps you can take to stop these calls (they love it when you ask before you attempt anything). Then, if you have caller ID, take note of the telephone number in the display. There’s a good chance you may be able to block the exchange that is calling. Then lastly, talk to the employee discreetly about the telephone calls you are receiving. Don’t ask for information; simply tell him/her that you understand he/she is going through some hard times and ask for help in trying to stop the calls. (if anything, for his/her own protection of personal information) Good luck.