Called looking for a family member, couldn't give any information regarding the reason for the call but wanted me to give family member's phone number. I don't give out phone numbers to anyone.....especially when they get rude with me on the phone.
Got a call regarding my student loans. Did not answer the first call, so they did call my parents looking for me and didn't give them any information.
I returned the call and spoke with Michael Knotts. As far as debt collectors go, he was affable and polite. He was calling to collect on a student loan that I had allowed to default and was actually very helpful. He assisted with consolidating the loan with another and got me a pretty reasonable payment plan.
This was a federal student loan, so I think he had some good options at his disposal. I cannot speak for how the company would handle collection on a different type of debt. For me, though, the experience dealing with RCS was shockingly pleasant.
This man named Michael Knotts called me regarding my student loan. I understand that it is his job as a collector to try and resolve student loans. I told him that I had the intention of wanting to settle my student loan debt, as well. He asked me if I had other student loan debts, and I told him I did (about 25K) but I had already paid those off. He scoffed at that as if he didn't believe me (??). He was like "Uh, are you sure? Don't like to me, Kristen." I was really puzzled. Yes, is it so hard to believe that I had paid off most of my student loans? Why would you make me feel like I am some sort of delinquent for working hard to pay off my loans over time and that I am lying about having paid off most of my loans? All that was left were these Perkins loans (totaling $4.5K) and I was not in a place to pay them now, so I asked him I could make a small payment now and then pay a greater amount monthly, moving forward. He was awful and rude - "We don't do payment plans. You owe money and you owe all of it. When are you going to pay it?" I asked him to calm down and transfer me to someone else. He was like "You're talking to me." I said yes, I am aware I'm talking to you but I would prefer to speak with someone else because you're extremely rude. After refusing to transfer me and threatening to put me on the phone with legal if I don't talk to him, he finally transferred me to his supervisor who helped me out beautifully and we were able to resolve the matter.
I looked this man (Michael Knotts) up later and found that he was a community college dropout or something who has worked in collections all his life. Figures that he would be bitter about being uneducated. Yes, I paid a shitload for my degree and I shouldn't have had to, but our government is too screwed up to understand what a disaster it is causing for its people from a long-term perspective. Everyone knows that students loans are a freaking joke and scam, but some of us need the money to get a degree in order to not work at McDonalds or Reliant Capital Solutions on an hourly wage in the long run.
Thanks Michael Knotts, for being a snarky, grade A [***].