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So i have had the misfortune to contact a debt collections agency to recover a debt from a customer that refuses to pay. This customer is a sandwich short of a picnic and has come up with countless lies and strange statements to get out of paying yet this only started 11 days after we did job and he was satisfied at the time. He says things like "im going to sue you, my lawyer is telling me not to pay" then when pushed further he says he will speak with his lawyer when he is back from holidays in September so clearly has not spoken with anyone. He even said he was ex RCMP and then sends me such a badly written and grammatically incoherent mail that i almost had no idea what he was saying. He sent a similar badly written mail to the debt collections agency threatening to sue them too, all this and he is selling a million dollar home in Kelowna and my invoice is less than $300!!!
Anyway to the point of all this it seems that after a couple phone calls an e mail and a letter the debt collection company think the debt is probably not recoverable so i can either close it or leave it open so it hits his credit rating. This is the third time i have used a collections agency and not one of them seemed capable of recovering the debt, it seems the law is very tight on what they are allowed to do so people just get away with it, particularly people who have no intention of paying and refuse to answer calls or mails.
Where are all the bad boy collections guys with their tattoos and big boots ready to kick the door in?

Siouxie

CRT Claims up to $5000 | Small Claims BC

printer

Interesting stuff but there are of course fees which appear to be $75 if done online but there may be other fees for disputing their decision etc..
Thing is i wonder how much different this is to debt collections companies, i mean if i look at their 3 point fact sheet it states

1. Negotiation – first you communicate online with the other party to see if you can quickly settle the dispute between yourselves.
2. Facilitation – if that doesn’t work, trained CRT staff will try to help you settle.
3. Adjudication – if you can’t resolve the dispute, a Tribunal member may make a decision that can be enforced like a court order in Provincial Court, unless you or the other party files a notice of objection.

Number 1 has already been done to death, number 2 may have no affect i don't know and number 3 sounds ok until you get to the end of the sentence where it says they can make a decision unless the other party objects which i'm sure would be the case, then where do we go?

Aviator

Collections agencies in my experience are a waste of time. For personal debt, all someone has to do is to tell the agency the debt is in dispute, to stop calling and only communicate in writing, then ignore the letters. For $300 a collections agency is unlikely to put a lot of effort into it. Provincial court is the way we go, but for $300, how much time and effort is it worth? If it is a matter of principal, I guess the amount may not matter. For a claimant suing, the defendant can also counterclaim, which may or may not be successful.

Not sure how you think this will end up on someones credit rating?
We have had some success with Provincial court, but even with judgement in your favour, you still have to enforce the judgement to get the money.

dbd33

My understanding is that, at least in Vancouver, the BC small claims court is backed up for a lifetime; it may not be a useful tool depending on the age of the person you want to collect from.

I was pursued by a debt collector for five years ending a few months ago. We sold a house, possibly there was $25 unpaid on a rental water heater contract. About a year later the debt collector phoned and demanded the $25, I asked for documentation of the matter, the debt collector said I'd have to contact the water heater rental company, I declined to pay and I declined to run around finding out if there was actually a debt. The debt collector than phoned several times a week and sent text messages at all hours approximately one per day. Whenever I spoke to her in person I stuck to the position that she should produce some evidence of the debt or **** off. Lots of screaming, screaming to a script, ensued, ruined credit rating was threatened, public humiliation, small claims court, always the same stuff. She seems to have gone away now, perhaps she's died, perhaps there's a statute of limitations.

Anyway, if you sell the debt to a debt collector, that's what they do. I think they hope the target will pay the small amount just to get some peace.

Aviator

Not in BC. They are easy to get to stop hassling you. Simple as telling them the debt is in dispute, don't call again. Never another word from them. Small claims in BC has eased since the under $5000 claims went to an online process.

scilly

I ended up being pestered for several months by a debt collector some years ago ......... for a debt owed to The Bay by the OH who has NEVER had a Bay card! That has always been my card, with no second card ever issued.

I contacted The Bay several times, I would provide them with all our details, they would agree with me that the agency had the wrong guy, would pull the debt agency off, but then they would come back to me.

The man who incurred the debt had just 2 names, but they were identical to OH's first and last names ..... even the same spelling of his rather unusual first name. However he also has a second and third forename, and he always used those initials as well as first and last names. The Bay also knew from the items bought that the other man was in his 20s or 30s, not past retirement.

All the agency was doing was checking the names in the phone directory and going for OH every time, even though the land line was last name, first name and initials. Plus of course the house address was not the one they had for the other guy "but he might have moved".

As I say, it took about 5 or 6 months before I stopped getting the calls. I was getting angrier and angrier as time went by.

I have to say, my dealings with The Bay were always pleasant ............. but they didn't seem able to convince the agency that they were continually contacting the wrong guy.

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Apparently the debt is registered with credit bureau and one other source i cannot remember and it can sit there for at least 2 years. Copy and pasted debt agency note as below:

At this time I do not view this as a collectable account. I would recommend one of two options to you, 1/ Close the account with our office and pursue legal action or 2/ leave the account open with our office and allow it to continue to damage his credit rating and eventually when he needs a loan or anything in which they pull a credit bureau on him it will show and he will be forced to clear it at that time

caretaker

I'd phone his lawyer's office and ask them to straighten out their stupid client and see that you get your $300. Tell them that he is referring the case to them and inform them that he was satisfied with everything but paying for it and it's time to show me the money. If he's selling an expensive house he may not want word to get out that he's a rip-off artist.

Almost Canadian

My experience of debt collectors is that they are not able to do anything you can do yourself.

I don't know how it works in BC, but is there a possibility of registering a builders' lien against the title to the property? If so, I suggest you do that but keep an eye on the timelines (in Alberta one has to do this within 45 days).

In Alberta, notice of the fact that a lien has been registered has to be given to anyone that has certain forms of encumbrances registered on the title. This means the mortgagor which usually results in pain for the debtor.

Aviator

Even if the agency (not all do) report to a credit bureau, there are two, so it would only likely show up on one, if the guy knows what he is doing, he just files an 'in dispute' with the bureau and that pretty much sorts that out for him. Especially for such a small sum. I seriously doubt is till make squat of difference to his rating on its own. If he has other outstanding debts, that may have more of an impact.

Collection agencies work against anyone who is intimated by them. Other than that they are as much use as a toothless guard dog. With current legislation (in BC the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, Part 7) http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/...atreg/04002_00
Because of this, we have never used them. Provincial Court is far more effective for amounts under $35000. Often all it takes is a notice of claim.

Aviator

If the debt is a construction debt, this is likely the the way I would go.
Builders Lien Act

Danny B

I had UPS after me a few years back for unpaid brokerage fees on a delivery. All I got was two letters in the mail. Seemed a bit slack to me as I was expecting more. I have since used UPS and they still deliver to my address, I'm not even blacklisted. Debt collectors are too soft nowadays.

dbd33

My brother used to be employed as a winkler, one of his duties was to go around to flats while the tenants were out and take the front door away "for repair". That's the way to pressure debtors, or sitting tenants.

Aviator

I have UPS sending me monthly statements for 10 cents!