Please help me w/ this bogus debt collection

[Nevernose]

Cingular Wireless calls my house every day. Sometimes, they call four or five times a day. 90% of the time, it's a recording, telling me to call them back or pick up and they'll answer automatically.

Occasionally, an actual human being will call and ask for Omar. There were so many calls for Omar, in fact, that eventually I changed my answering machine to say "Hi, there's no Omar here, and there never has been. I don't have any idea who Omar is, and he can't be found at this phone number. Once again, I do not know anyone named Omar. THERE IS NOT AN OMAR, NOR HAVE I EVER HELD AN ACCOUNT WITH CINGULAR WIRELESS!"

I have never held an account with any cellular phone company, in fact. I think cellular phones are horrid inventions (In fact, I still have a rotary phone upstairs). I have talked to their representatives, their supervisors, the people in billing, the techies in charge of the automatic dialing, and everyone in between.

No one by that name lives here, nor has anyone but me or my immediate family had possession of this phone line since at least 1968. Sometimes they call four or five times a day.

THEY'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY WHAT DO I DO?

[madmom]

1. give them your lawyers name and phone number and say...

can you say harassment?

[Nevernose]

3. But is it technically harassment?

When they're not even harassing the right guy? Civil law is fo frigging confusing to me...

[madmom]

7. I don't know, it seems to me..

if you told them and they keep calling it is. Besides in most cases like this, once the name of a lawyer is mentioned they can't back off fast enough.

[meisje]

2. Change you name from Omar to Joe

errrr something

[autorank]

4. Call your local telephone company. Ask for the group that handles

harassment. Tell them what's going on and that you have explicitly said that no one by the name they ask for lives at your place. Be sure to tell them that you've asked them to stop calling on numerous occasions. They will have a procedure for harassment which may include hitting star plus a couple of numbers when they call or saving the voice mails. At that point they've established that you should not be called by Cingular and that Cingular continues to do so. They can then put a block on Cingular calling you, at least from the call group numbers you've received calls from. That should do it. If not, then find out who the President of Cingular is, get the name, address, etc. Send him/her a certified letter outlining the situation and ask him to take care of it. This actualliy works.

Good luck.

[liberalhistorian]

5. Send a CERTIFIED letter

to their collection department, referencing your telephone number since you don't have the account number they're using, demanding that they immediately cease contacting you by phone and advising them that no one by the name they're seeking resides at the address using that telephone number. By law, they must comply with the written request to cease contacting you by telephone.

Be sure to keep the return receipt you receive indicating that they've received the certified letter. If you continue to get calls from them, advise them that you sent a certified letter demanding that they cease contacting you by phone and that you have the receipt to prove that they received it. You may have to send or fax them a copy of the receipt (do NOT give them the original, under any circumstances). Tell them you'll notify the FTC the next time they bother you by phone. They won't want to hear that, because the FTC takes violations of the Fair Debt Collection Act very seriously and they know it.

What's probably happened is that the phone number they want is very similar to yours and they're just too fucking lazy to verify that they actually have the right number. Collectrolls always think they're right no matter what, and they think all debtors are lying thieves.

[NYC]

6. Write a letter to the Attorney General of your state.

Doesn't matter if that's the correct thing to do, just do it. Mail a copy to Cingular. Also, every time Cingular calls, tell them you have sent the letter.

[bridgit]

8. omg not cingular we dumped them out...

:banghead:

as a practical matter, they can't make you pay for what you never had with them

[intheflow]

9. Ask them to provide you evidence that

they issued your phone number to one of their wireless customers. If, for some stupid reason they can produce such a document (like their collection department is working from a typo'd phone list), contact your phone company and get records showing you've been at your number since 1968.

If the harassment continues after that, call a lawyer.

[Nite Owl]

11. Check your Attorney General's

web site.

Here's what NY has to say:


How Can You Stop Them From Calling You?
You must write a letter to the debt collection agency to ask that they stop calling you. Once an agency receives your letter, they may not contact you any further except to inform you that there will be no further contact or that their agency or the creditor intends to takes some specific action.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/consumer/tips/debt_collectors.html




this was to the original post! sorry

[Nevernose]

10. Right: certified letter, AG's office, ask for (and give) proof

Thanks, guys!

[SummerGrace]

12. link to HearUsNow.org

Scroll down at the site -there's contact info for companies and suggestions for contacting FCC and state agencies.

http://www.hearusnow.org/wireless/consumertips/consumertipswirelessphoneservices/howtocomplainaboutcellphoneservice/