Death in the Family? Here's an unpleasant collection agency story...

This is a real story. It's not related to my business, so I want to share with you the two reasons I'm publishing it here. The first is that if you have someone close to you die, you won't want to go through this. The second is that it's too lengthy--don't worry, it's only a few hundred words--for most social networking sites. But it needs to be told so you'll be aware you have rights and should not be harassed by the uncaring.

After spending several quite awful months in the hospital, my mother died of cancer in October, 2008. I obtained several copies of the death certificate, and, duly distributed them. One went to Toronto Housing, the umbrella company that rented her apartment to her.

Fast forward...

Today (May 6, 2010), and less than a week ago, phone calls came into our home phone number for "Helen Neilly" (yes, my mother). I tell the callers she's been dead for 1 1/2 years. They don't have proof, so they don't believe me. This collection agency--I don't know how to spell their name, but it sounds like "IKO"--tells me I have to submit a death certificate to them so they can close her file. I was my mother's executor, so I asked them for details: was there, for example, an outstanding debt? They would not tell me because the matter was confidential. Go figure! Stupidity rules.

When I told the guy today that I have a fax confirmation to Toronto Housing from November, 2008, well, that didn't count. The fax wasn't to the collection agency, so they didn't believe in it. It was my problem, or it was Toronto Housing's problem. I couldn't figure out which, as this guy hung up pretty quickly.

Also, and this seems merely an inconvenience for this collection agency, it's *against the law* for them to make these calls without having first contacted me in writing. In Canada, collection agencies must conform to The Collection Agencies Act. Among other things, one of the first statements in the Act is "A collection agency may not: Contact you until six days have passed from sending you a written notice of the following:..." (emphasis is mine). This agency has not only not contacted me in writing, they will not even bring themselves to tell me what the issue at hand is. 

Icing on the cake? I was told in my second last call that unless or until I comply with their vague demands, they will not stop phoning me.

And the legitimacy of collection agencies is where? Certainly, it goes down the toilet with the kind of uncaring, insensitive, rude people that continue to harass me. It really causes me to question the 'skills' these types must have had to have been hired in the first place. Sure aren't communications skills.

Next stop? I know something about my rights--and you should too if you're ever put in this situation--so will probably be contacting the Ministry of Consumer Services. I would truly like to see this or any other agency like it put under the scrutiny of the public eye, to somehow account for their actions. Would they, if they could, defend themselves on the basis of their "bottom line"?

Collection agency 'people': how do you live with yourself? What if you were on the receiving end of calls like the ones you've been making to me; would that be okay with you?