Monday, August 01, 2005

Monday Credit Collection Blues

I work in a credit department, so I know all about the ways credit managers try to collect on an account, but I was mishandled this morning by one of my own credit line managers.

We have a jewelry account with a large well-known jewelry company for our wedding rings (and a couple of add-ons here and there... watches, etc). It's in my name but Josh pays it, which was the plan all along. We weren't touching his credit for awhile to help him close out an older item on his credit history. In fact, we only just now used his credit this weekend for the new computer. With the exception of one time during the no pay, no interest time and this month, we have made over-the-amount payments AND paid them early. Trust that I am telling the truth, b/c I am not about to lie about my pay history and have it bite me in the butt later on... even somewhere slightly anonymous like my blog.

Anyway, my credit report still shows "paid as agreed" and even "paid 10 days prior to terms" on one occasion (I check my report alot... as you should!). However, our so-called credit manager called me bright and early this morning for payment status. I asked her why she was calling on a perfect account that only once went two weeks beyond terms. For her information, Josh really was taking the payment to the actual store tonight, but I doubted she'd believe that. He was going to mail it in this morning, but we didn't have any stamps since we mostly pay everything online now and hardly ever have a use for stamps. He was going to buy stamps, but didn't have the cash to do it without putting it on his debit card, so he just decided to drive the payment by tonight after work (it's at our local mall, so it'll be open). I did manage to tell her all of that after she asked if we had a joint account that I could pay out of AFTER I said that I'm not taking care of it over the phone b/c my husband deals with the payments on that account even though it's in my name (you know you like run-on sentences!). I proceeded to tell her about the stamps, and then she wanted to know when I was going out and buying the stamps!!!!!! By this time, I was livid. I told her to stop acting like a robot and talk to me like a human being. I said I was getting the stamps, and I didn't know what time of the day I was getting them. I told her she's not getting any more specific payment information than that. She asked again when I was getting the stamps, and that's when I completely lost it. I told her I was picking them up at 12:49 or something, and asked her if that was specific enough for her? She said "If that's what you want me to write down." I finally said "Write it." I hung up on her as she was asking her next question. If I'd said anymore, I'd have had to call my Grandma and PaPa and tell them what a bad Methodist I'd been.

What a way to start out a day! I had to spill the beans to my cubicle-mate, who happens to be our in-house collections person. She said I should have transferred my call over to her LOL. THAT would have been funny.

How sad is it that I pondered over this post for about 30 minutes?

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