Y'all ever get phone messages that say 'Please return this call to (number)'

[Oeditpus Rex]

and don't give you a clue as to what they're about?

I figure they've gotta be telemarketers or collection agencies, but I have no outstanding balances and I'm on the "Do not call" list. :shrug:

[MissMillie]

1. I called once and it turned out they were looking for someone else

it was American Express. And I don't know why they had my number for someone else's name, unless the number used to belong to someone else, which I guess was a possibility considering I had only that that phone number for about 3 months.

They asked me if I was Mr. X, I said no, they asked if he lived at the home w/ that phone number and I said "no" and that was the end of it.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Y'know, I bet they're about my ex

I used to get bot messages that were "about an important business matter for (DBA she once used for a genealogy thing)." Once, I picked up and punched 4 or whatever for "This person is not at this number," but the calls kept coming for awhile.

Damned if I'm gonna rat her out, anyway. We're still friends.

[SoxFan]

2. Collection Agencies

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) limits who a collector can talk to and what they can say. This routine is designed to keep them from running afoul of the law.

Ironically, it's now a dead giveaway as to who it is, so the point of the underlying law is really being defeated.

[grace0418]

10. Not only that, it doesn't help the problem at all.

If a collection agency called and identified themselves, identified who they were calling for, and actually had a human on the line when I picked up, they would get a response from me much sooner. I thought it was some telemarketer or political thing. They never said who they were calling for and hung up if you picked up. What if I had several roommates? Which one of us is supposed to call back? As it was the call was for my husband and I'm lucky they would even tell me anything over the phone. What a pain in the ass. All over a bill that we never knew was being sent to us and that never arrived.

The people who are going to ignore collection agencies will do so no matter what. But in our case the stupid company would've gotten their money weeks sooner if the collection agency wasn't so cryptic.

[skygazer]

3. I get those - I hate 'em

I flatly refuse to call anyone who doesn't tell me who I'm calling. It's like the wrong numbers who ask, "Who's this?" and I always tell 'em - "You called me - who the hell are you?"

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. I know, huh?

Caller ID and voice mail — best inventions EVarrr. :thumbsup:

[MissMillie]

11. My outgoing message says this (word for word):

"Hello. If you are using a caller ID blocker, I will not answer the phone until you identify yourself. You have reached.." (and I give my number) "Please leave a message."

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Mine just says

...nope, not gonna tell ya. Then you'd know it was me if you called.

:tinfoilhat:

[MrCoffee]

4. that's how my student loan servicers roll

that's never a good call.

[catmandu57]

7. It's a collector

The ones I hate are those damn automated ones, I pick up say hello nothing, so, i hang up. My wife will stay on the line with me telling her to hang the fuck up, but she stays on then hangs up when they start or the computer hangs up.

[grace0418]

9. "Hi this is Sean Lee. Give me a call at..."

Fuck off Sean Lee. Tell me where you're calling from and who you're calling for, and have someone on the line if I fucking pick up the phone. :mad:

[grace0418]

8. For us it was a collection agency. Even though we pay all our bills on time

every month and have no outstanding balances with anyone except our mortgage. When my husband was first diagnosed with diabetes last year, he tried to order his supplies through Byram Healthcare. They insisted on sending the supplies to our house where we are not home during the day. After the first time we decided it was too risky (they left it on our front porch in the middle of a busy Chicago neighborhood) and he stopped ordering from them.

Well, apparently they sent us some bill for the co-pay of $18, which makes no sense because we paid with our credit card. The bill never arrived, nor would we have ever expected it. So they sent it to collections. No phone call, no second letter, nothing. When I finally determined what it was (after a bit of runaround with the collection agency) I called Byram. The billing department employee didn't seem the least bit surprised nor did she give a shit that our credit rating would be negatively affected by their idiotic billing process. And even though I have no idea what the "co-pay" would be for, I just paid it with a credit card because it wasn't worth arguing over $18.

It also took two additional phone calls to Byram to get them to convince the collection agency to stop calling us. The whole thing was so unnecessary and idiotic.

[LibertyLover]

13. Funny story about being asked to return calls - about a year ago my husband

called me at work in a panic. He had been out shopping and returned to find a message on the answering machine from that told him he had a long overdue bar tab at X Bar in Brooklyn, NY in the amount of several thousand dollars (we live in Maryland and the first time he was ever in NYC was after we got engaged and I took him up to the Met Museum) and threatening legal action if he did not pay it. The message ended with a "please return this call at this number" . After he calmed down (he has a very low freak-out point and does not handle stress well) he called the number. It turned out that the person who called was looking for an old friend, had googled the name, which was the same as my husband's and had called our number to see if it was his friend's. The message, threatening to my husband, would have been absolutely hysterical to the long-lost friend, who would have recognized the name of the caller, the bar and the old joke about an overdue bar tab. The caller, an old man in his late 60s or early 70s as it turned out, was devastated to learn that his message had caused my husband to have a panic attack and chest pains (of course he has chest pains when I tell him I'm going to be delayed at work so you will forgive me if I'm somewhat cavalier about them). He apologized to my husband profusely.

[DarkTirade]

14. I've gotten a few of those

And they seem to happen day after day for a few days... then stop. And every single time they manage to make it happen right when I'm trying to fall asleep. They don't repeat the message, so I'm not even conscious enough to write it down.

No clue what it's about. But it's getting REALLY annoying.