So - here's my guess as to what happened:

#1 A person signs up for Columbia House using a joke name. Maybe his unfunny friend signs him up using this name.

#2. The computer at Columbia House opens the account and gets stuff sent to the guy.

#3. The guy doesn't pay for the stuff.

#4. A computer at the debt collection agency sends a letter using the joke name.

Whose fault is this?
90% the imbecile who used the joke name to sign up.
5% Columbia House for not having a human in the loop or at least profanity-checker software or software to screen out "Daffy Duck" or "Buzz Lightyear."
5% Debt Collectors for not having a person to tell Columbia House to pay closer attention to whom they open accounts for.

I am offended by this story being spun as "evil debt collector agency insults man who is broke."

Please rub together the two brain cells you "journalists" collectively have at ABC.

Apologize! They should have to pay a LARGE fine.
I do believe it is illegal to harrass anyone in most states and this is most definitely harrassment!
Never mind that they bought it with this name on the account, it is their responsibility to check, but then, the people working in their mailroom probably cannot read English either.

The ABC News front page caption of this story includes a profane word. Oops!!! Someone forgot to proof before posting.

I was harrassed for months by someone calling my home asking for my husband. After several calls, I finally pressed them WHY are you calling my husband? Stop calling here. The man said, "Have him call me". I said, "Why? What do you want with him?" the man, "I am not a homosexual. just have him call me." Huh? My husband called them. Long story short, they were debt collectors, trying to reach someone else who had the same NAME as my husband. They were trying to collect a hospital bill. My husband called the hospital and let them know, he had NOT been hospitalized since the Vietnam War, and that time he was in the jungle of SE Asia and on Uncle Sam's dime. After asking his birth date, the matter was cleared up with the hospital, but of course the bill collector, well, they are still out there.

I have received several debt collector phone calls regarding other members of my family and half the time, I can't understand what they are saying anyway. Its obvious that some large companies have outsourced outside the United States and their English is so-so. Also, I had a company that began calling at 6 in the morning and as late as 11 p.m. But, I suppose if people don't want them calling, pay your bills!

I have suggestion for those who are harassed by debt collectors. Harass them back. Get them to hang up on you. It works. I've done it in the past. Have them send you information that they have legal right to operate in the state that you live in. Have them send written documentation of that information. Ask them for the name of their supervisor. Ask them for a copy of their business license for the state that you live in. They have to abide by the same laws as everyone else. They don't. And have them prove that they are who they say they are. If they are not. Report them. It works. It has worked for me, and they stop calling.

Sorry Jane, This is most likely just the beginning. That debt will be sold to another collection agency in 6 months, and you'll be dealing with another call about this debt.

Same thing happens to me. Someone with a similar name, but a different middle intial, didn't pay his Mastercard bill. In turn, I get these abusive calls about every 6 months. When one agency can't collect on it, they sell the debt to another collection agency. They in turn, start back at the beginning of the list.

I realize there's a lot of deadbeats out there that should pay their bills. But to me, those collection agents are lower than the deadbeats.

In the state of CA they only have 4 years before the debt is past the legal statute of limitations to collect on. That is from when the bnill is due. If you haven't made a payment in 4 years it can stay on your credit but they cannot legally collect or take you to court. The debt collectors hate this knowledge being spread around. Check your states statutes. Also, your debt is to the original part not the debt collector and you can tell them so.

I had someone from a collection agency constantly harrassed me over the phone because the person they were trying to contact wrote me down as a reference. He kept calling me a liar. I finally had it and had a shouting match with him and was able to obtain his name and company name. I then told him he wasn't getting any information from me and hang up. That was the last call I received. Thank goodness. They are really nasty people. I don't know how they can sleep at night.

All you have to do is ask for their address and send a Cease & desist letter telling them they are not allowed to call you. They can still send mail but no calls. B4 they give the address you have to listen to their little attampt to collect. That is why attorneys say they will stop the calls. That is all they do.

Susan; I sent such a letter to a collector harrassing me for money I didn't owe. They actually called me to refute the letter & said there was no such law (although I'd researched it & know that it is.) So sometimes that's not "all you have to do." At this point, to make them stop, I'd have to have them charged with a crime & I'd have to fly to another state to pursue the matter. Neither is worth it, considering the amount they're bugging me over. The consumer has no rights in the American Corprocracy. Welcome to the Land of the Fee & Home of the Slave.

Seems pretty straighforward: simply inform the debt collector that they have contacted the wrong party, that you have never conducted business under that name, and that they should make a better effort to locate the actual Mr./Ms. Face. Meanwhiile, check the state and federal statutes on debt collection, and then contact the appropriate enforcement agency and file a formal complaint for a threatening communication: the letter appears to make a threat of assault by defecation. If you have already contacted the collector in writing, asking for any clarification or protesting the claim of debt owed, then this letter may not constitute a timely response, since it is incorrectly "addressed", so it may be that the collector has exceeded the statutory time limit for response and has thus voided the debt as well. But in general, at the first telephone contact by a collector, demand that they document their claim(s) in writing via postal mail; and at the first written notice, respond in writing with a demand that all further communications must be ONLY in writing, and explicitly demanding that they not telephone you at all, and stating that you will not discuss the matter over the telephone. The written record is your best source of defense if their actions ever have to be challenged at court. Also, if one collector has already dropped the ball on required written responses, be sure to convey that fact in writing to any other collector who contacts you about the same debt: in many cases, once one collector fails to respond in a timely manner to a legitimate request for documentation or clarification, the whole debt becomes permanently uncollectable.

I get calls from collectors about family members not paying their bills. When they are asking me questions about how to contact them, all I have to ask is "did you ask me if they can borrow from you?" their answer is always NO. So I tell them then dont call me, you should have asked me first before you lent them the money. Kind of funny but it works for me.

Collection agencies are evil. It is one thing if you owe the money, but they don't seem to care enough to get the facts straight.

We get 5-7 calls a DAY from a collection agency for a roommate we used to have here back in 2001. We have repeatedly told them we don't know where she is, where she moved....one of the collectors said "Oh, the menage a trois didn't work out, huh?" On the last call, they screamed "YOU TELL HER WE'RE GOING TO NAIL HER A**" and hung up. And that was the supervisor! They told us they're "onto (y)our tricks" and say they get the "oh, they moved out" excuse a lot. We offered to send them proof of occupancy and they sneered at us. Since they're in NY, we have contacted an attorney and are suing them for harassment. If we win any monetary damages, we're getting a new phone number.

I am the contact for an author whose real name, address and phone number is confidential for security reasons. I repeatedly receive calls from that hospital collection agency who refuse to identify themselves but demand to speak to the person with the pen name of the author who has not been near a hospital.

I used to get a lot of calls for a woman who was obviously writing bad checks.

The first thing I do when I get one of these calls is to tell them this is not her phone number and to please take my number off of their list, 70% of the time that's the end of it. If they say "oh sure she doesn't live there ;-)" I then ask them what address they have for "her". 99% of the time they don't have an address for her, just the phone number. At this point I know they don't know my name, or my address, I tell them to quit calling me and hang up. If they keep calling me I just unplug my phone and only plug it in when I need to use it, as I have cell phone and use that instead. It's just the smallest of inconveniences for a short time, and one need not get a lawyer or make anymore calls. If you don't have a cell, then just get your number changed. It will be a lot less $ than getting an attorney, etc, etc. Your family and friends will understand...

Collectors will just be calling and calling more and more in the future thanks to this great economy. What a great job our goverment has done. Can you just rejoyce in their wisdom. I love my President. Let's Keep This Up.

1) This sounds a LOT like someone else signed up the guy as a prank. Very juvenile but not uncommon.

2) To Jane etc - When a debt collector calls and gets SOMEONE ELSE on the phone (e.g. spouse) they're can't tell you it's to collect a debt (privacy and such). which is why they don't explain why they're calling, which of course makes you wonder if something fishy is going on. Yes there is, it's a debt collector fishing for money. After you experience it a couple times you pick up on the debt collectors right away.

I think the collection letter was addressed to a (fake) first name because their database couldn't discern a gender. A letter to John Smith would have been addressed to Mr. Smith, but the computer didn't know whether to send this one to Mr. or Ms. Face.