First muppet phone call.... (Made me laugh)

[Robbiecat]

I've just had a phone call from a call centre in India, which I ASSUME was from someone like the IVA Council. I was irritated and didn't really listen to who it was because they interupted me worming a cat at the time!

They started to go off on some pre-rehersed preamble about how there is government legislation that lets you write off debt, yadda, yadda, and the conversation went a bit like this

Caller: "You are X of We'll-now-pronounce-your-road-name-completely wrong-in-a-foreign-accent"
Me: "Yes"
Caller: "You may think you have been sold an IVA"
Me: "No, I *KNOW* I've *ENTERED* into an IVA, there was no selling involved"
Caller: "Sorry, I mean mis-sold an IVA"
Me: "I wasn't MIS-Sold anything, becuase I haven't bought anything. I have however entered into a financial agreement."

::Pregnant Pause whilst the caller decides what to say:: (I wait..)

Caller: "Government legislation, blah, blah, blah.... you may have been mis-sold an IVA".
Me: "I haven't been mis-sold anything, because I haven't bought anything..."
Caller: (Clearly this isn't going according to his script) "I can write off 75% of your debts because you have been mis-sold an IVA.."
Me: "You need to speak to Melanie Giles for advice, because YOU ARE the weakest link, Goodbye.."

OK, he caught me on a bad day and I should have been polite, but quite frankly I couldn't be ar$ed. I know d*mn well I haven't been "Mis-sold" anything, and if anything, Melanie pushed the BR route more than the IVA when discussing my options, with the resultant comments along the lines of if you do chose BR, we can advise, but it'll be far cheaper to do it on your own... An IVA was my choice and certainly not through pressurised selling!!!

Be aware that they are now phoning rather than writing folks!

RC

[ianmillington]

Nice one [:)]

Ian

[MelanieGiles]

It's time the regulators, the OFT and the Insolvency Service sorted this hideous area of the industry out.

[ianmillington]

I think the DTI do their bit, of course. Maybe we ought to have a word with Graham Rumney at R3 to see what he can do.

Ironically, this could be good news. Can you think of a more irritating way to try to get across their message? How many people contacted in this way are going to take them seriously if this is the method now employed? Relatively few I would hope, especially if our clients have been warned at the start it could happen.

Potentially shades of Lord Haw-Haw (for the more mature amongst us) I would suggest!

Ian

[Moneystinks]

We usually get male callers called Alison etc etc.

Well done you!

[MelanieGiles]

I think that you operate a great system Ian, in telling your clients that this may happen to them, and I am going to incorporate a paragraph into my standard post-IVA letter as well.

And talking about R3 - when you think that a certain IP linked to a certain "Council" makes statements like - "people who have no assets and want to pay their creditors back need to see a psychiatrist" you do wonder where the teeth in these organisations are?

[ianmillington]

If you want a head start on the wording I'm quite happy to share what I send with you. We are on the same side methinks. Let me know.

Graham Rumney does his very best and is on our side in the battles with NR/MBNA etc, but he has a hard job. I know that ours is a divided profession. When I started in insolvency the mucky end of the market was liquidation (particularly CVLs). Now it's IVAs it seems. The main critics from within the profession of what we do seems to be those who spend their time doing pre-pack administrations and who possess a bedside manner guaranteed to dissuade anyone from asking them to do an IVA for them.

In my view they miss out an awful lot. In the past, the biggest kick I used to get out of my work was running a Section 98 meeting. Now, its the relief you see on someone's face or hear in their voice when you tell them their IVA is approved and they've actually got that second chance. Priceless, that is.

Ian

[MelanieGiles]

Ian - would be grateful if you would send me the paragraphs you insert into your letters. Many thanks for that.

Being head of R3 can be a lonely position, and Graham is probably one of the most active leaders we have had - but I fear he gets little suppport from the profession as a whole.

Agreed about the corporate side - I still do my fair share of liquidation and administration work so I guess I see both sides of the fence, but I do prefer the personal side. I think it takes a pretty special practitioner to deal with consumer debt cases - my other business partners would not be suitable and they recognise that, but they are outstanding on the corporate side so I suppose it's horses for courses.

[emma_t]

I am really worried about getting calls to the house like this as my mum would answer and she knows nothing of my situation[:(]

If I did answer robbiecat, my answer would be a lot less polie than yours and I woud not be able to put them in a post on the forum, to many ****[;)]

[TheMatrix]

How do they get hold of your phone number, it's not on the insolvency register

[MelanieGiles]

From other sources of data which are readily available - such as BT.

[chris.g]

Everytime you fill in your phone number on a form, whether it be paper/phone or online it is sold on...UNLESS you refuse your permission. The little ticky boxes where they say 'share with partners and carefully selected organisation' unless you refuse they will sell on your info on to Data Co's who then resell to other companies.

[kallis3]

I refuse to enter my phone number on forms now. I either put my old number down (on BT Broadband talk and so have a different number but the old one is still there), or I enter 01 and a load of zero's. This usually works. You can always go ex directory. Whenever I speak to a company on the phone and they ask for my number, I refuse telling them that it is ex directory and I cannot give it out because of my job. I doubt if they would know whether this was true or not

[kallis3]

I sometimes just put consecutive numbers down. It's usually for things like insurance. I have even been known to put down a duff email address if all I am asking for is a quote for something. I never give out my mobile number either

[TheMatrix]

I'm ex-directory too, for a moment there I had a horrible feeling that the creditors were selling on our information but I could not imagine why they would do that anyway.