Oooooh...yeah, bad call

Through a credit report, I tracked down a borrower's place of employment - we'll call it Haven House. I looked up Haven House, and found two numbers. I call the first one, and she picked up the phone directly.

She said she was at work and couldn't talk very long, but we went over a brief financial statement and got references. Haven House was run by a state agency, she said, though she didn't work directly for the state. She gave her position as "counselor", and I didn't press for details. Looking at the financial, she seemed a good candidate for a hardship program (spouse unemployed, recent medical issues - LOTS of medical bills, etc.).

The senior collector on that evening (it was a late night, and just the two of us on the team that night) decided otherwise, and pressed for payment arrangements. She said she would have to discuss options with her husband and would call us back.

A week passed, and all attempts to get ahold of her on her cell phone were futile. I had tried her work number a couple of times, but it went straight to voicemail identifying her by name. I left vague, general messages with my name and phone number, and kept trying to get through.

Finally, one late night, I called her at work, and got her voicemail. Since the message identified her specifically, I decided to leave the computer message instead of my general voice message, which we can only do in a case of positive identification that the phone belongs to the borrower.

I hate the computer message - affectionately known as "the FOTI bomb" (don't ask me why - I can't explain for legal reasons). Its tone is rude and condescending. It is blunt. It states that we are a collection agency and we are calling you (by computer phonetic pronunciation of name) regarding your defaulted student loans and to call us back to discuss arrangements. "This is an attempt by a debt collector to collect a debt. ANY information obtained WILL be used for that purpose." It is a very intimidating message.

But I was annoyed. So I left it.

And she called back, and asked to speak to the manager when she got on the phone with the collector who answered. Katie, our then manager, picked up the phone, and the borrower went off on a rant. I didn't realize it was her until I overheard Katie say, "Yeah, I apologize for Nick's behavior - he was completely out of line."

I looked over at Katie, who waved her hand, paused the phone, and said, "I'm selling you down the river to get you a program. I'll explain later."

Katie wrapped up the call, and turned to me. "It's going to be a hardship program, but she'll definitely send it back, and she never wants to speak to you ever ever ever again. I told her to ask for me directly any time she has to call."

"What did I do? I was never anything but polite with her."

"I know - you are always polite with anyone. But...Haven House is a battered women's shelter. And apparently, you dropped 'the FOTI bomb' on the Rape Crisis phone line last night."

I felt my guts drop. I couldn't come up with anything to say.

She smiled. "I know you didn't know, so it's okay. It's got just her name on it so that if an abusive husband checks phone records and calls there's no identification. She'll return the paperwork, you'll get credit for the hardship program, and it's all good."

I'm not sure what was worse - the idea that I'd dropped the bomb on the line, or the idea that I'm sure everyone in that office who checked messages thought I was an abuser checking up on the phone records of my victim. I'm pretty sure I'm going to Hell for that one.