I received a call from this number today - caller was abusive and would not tell me what issue was about. It was like someone trying to mug you on the telephone. I hung up. They immediately called back. It is awful that verbally abusive people can call you in your home and beat you up for no reason.
I worked at Blitt & Gaines for awhile, and anybody coming on here to defend them is just absolutely ridiculous. These people use any and all methods to get their money, regardless of how it could affect the debtors, or if they really have the documents necessary to prove this debt. Word of advice to people getting called by them, CALL THEM ON THEIR BLUFF. 90% of the time they can't produce a signed contract, or any original statements of your account mostly due to the fact that the majority of their clients are bottom of the rung debt collectors who buy up as much debt as they can and keep close to no records on file. The biggest reasons they get money from people are by either trying to scare debtors forcing them to make payments, or they go to court and the debtor decides to ignore it and not show up so a default judgment is entered. Also, even though this is not entirely on subject, these guys treat their emoloyees like they are entirely disposable at any time, so of course they don't care about debtors. This is one of those offices that have new employees every month (including their legal dept), and its usually younger people who have no idea just how shady this place is.
"I can only imagine that you are uneducated professionals, unskilled ex Wal-Mart workers who could not succeed at pushing a cart in front of someone entering the store and saying "welcome to Wal-Mart." I suspect you couldn't manage the smile."
When working as a debt collector, I held a Bachelors Degree in Business & Communications and was working on my Masters Degree in Accounting & Finance. I am now a CPA and am working towards my MBA; my career focuses in fraud investigations. Prior to debt collections, I worked at one of Chicago's largest law firms as a legal assistant.
"CC companies are charging rates that exceed what once could only be found among loan sharks."
Stop playing the victim! You're calling collector uneducated but you can't read the terms of agreement for your credit card? If you didn't like the rate, then why'd you take the loan (credit cards are short term loans)? One of the reason that CC companies have such high rates is because the risk is so high due to people who don't pay their bills! Guess what happens when you pay your bills on time ... you get reasonable rates!
90% of the time they can't produce a signed contract ...
take a course on business law and learn a thing or two about contracts before assuming that a signed contract is need to collect a debt.
A contract does matter if the debt is over 4 or 5 years old (which a lot of people on this site are talking about this old or older), without the contract statutes of limitations is up. Ever heard of that...? Also, if you noticed, I didn't just say contracts. Maybe you should take a course on learning how to make an intelligent rebuttal.
Attention Ladies and Gentlemen, let me give you a little insight as to the practices of the infamous Blitt and Gaines, PC.
Imagine you make a poor decision in your life, obtain a high interest hidden-fee credit card. Imagine you pay them three times over and they say the account is closed. Then several years later, ay nine or so, you start receiving hasrrasing calls from this attorney's office. Why????
Because, their practice is to run credit reports, find small debts where the account has not been closed or it has been charged off, take that little amount, contact the card company (very frequently the crooked Capital One) and turn it into a debt of ten times the amount. You might contact them repeatly and offer to pay the entire amount. They might accept it and say they will send you a letter stating it's paid in full. Guess what, you will never receive it because if they find you and they think they can steal from you they will pursue it in court and try to intimidate you to suck as much money from you as they can.
As for former debt collector. It's easy for you to judge others if you have never been a victim of these practices. You may very well be educated. If so, kudos to you. However, the majority or collectors, as we can see by the note from Deal with it, most are uneducated and indeed should upgrade to a Walmart position, so at least they are doing an honest job.
And, please, how dumb do you think all of us are?! If you want to have interactions with the dirtiest, bad-mouthed person you possibly can, have a conversation with a debt collector. And p.s., most of them have more debt then the people they are calling.