As I progress further into retirement I have more time for nuisance phone calls.
Making the phone calls, not receiving them.
A good target is debt collection companies. Quite a few letters threatening court action are sent to my address but, thankfully, not bearing my name.
I had to deal recently with the case of Mr Yuang Lu, apparently living with me, and being pursued for £28.07. I advised the young man on the other end of the phone that this call was being recorded for training and quality purposes. Then I asked for his help in establishing where in my house Yuang Lu might be living. I had checked the bedrooms, wardrobes, cupboards, everywhere... but no sign of him.
In 20 years living at the address, there has been no Yuang Lu as resident, visitor, friend, or dining companion. The young man replied that his company's trace department had made inquiries and must have found a good reason for sending the letter.
Could I speak to the trace department about the nature and results of their inquiries? The young man's voice betrayed a hint of disbelief at this request: "I can't just pass you through to our trace department, sir. You can certainly write to us."
I said I had no time to write a letter. (It's better spent putting debt collection staff through their paces.)
The young man went into reassuring mode: "We wrote to your address but not to you. We wrote to Mr Yuang Lu. It has no significance against your property or you credit rating." I asked how he would feel if he got such a letter at his own address? He said he gets quite a few from other debt collectors. Involving Yuang Lu? No.
He tried further re-assurance: "I can't emphasise enough how generic these letters are. Hundreds of thousands are sent out. Our company alone sends 10,000 a day."
Trouble is it doesn't say generic on the letters. It says final notice in big red letters. There may be anxious people who would settle a small debt that isn't theirs.
To be helpful I requested the trace department send a description of Yuang Lu and I'll keep an eye out for him. And a Miss Xin Zhou who, according to a letter received the other day, lives in my house and owes somebody £19.28.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article