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.

It is illegal for collections to contact you at work. I work for my employer at home. An aquaintance was getting repeated calls for a cell phone bill, 2 and 3 times or more a day, at my home. It was getting unbearable, and I was trying to work. I finally told them this was my work number, stop calling. The lady said my number was the only number he gave to them on the application. I asked her why they have an application if they didn't check out the information contained in them, and she hung up. It ended the calls though.

Yes, John, that is probably the scenario, however, a collection agency DOES have the responsibility to check to make sure profanity is not used in their collection letters. If they can't do this, then perhaps the anti-collection agency stereotypes are not that false after all.

dealing with wrong call debt collectors is very simple, you just go nutty,get very loud and ask incoherent questions with a bad accent. Lead them on and then scream at them that you are in a hospital,how did they get that number. Basically just be as rude as they are.

I work at UNC Chapel Hill and one of our previous students first names was $hithead (pronounced shi they ed). How is the company supposed to know that that is not a real name? I have met many people whose names are unbelievably inapropriate in English. You can check the online white pages and find nearly every obscenity is someone's name.

This is a weak excuse for a story. ABC knows very well some joker used a fake name and the collection agency uses a computer to send out collection notices. Next...

Unless the guy who got the bill's given name really is Sh1t Face, why should this be an issue? "No one named Face here", end of story. Columbia House should eat the $16 for failing to check the credit reference on "Mr. Face" before they sent him the goods. (Of course, they have been known to prey on teens with no credit...)

I am a debt collector and I sure feel this way about these people. They should just pay their bills and quit their complaining. I really hate having to call them -- they're so rude about their failure to pay. They used to make excuses, now they just cuss me out. You should hear what I say about you when I have you on mute...

Nationwide has called my house to speak with my boyfriend who is on SS Disablity and they told him what a looser he was because he can't work. It was over a bill that he had about the time that he became disabled. They cussed at him and just been rude every told him that they were going to take his house and call family members to tell them about his debt. He told them to go ahead and try. I have told them to cease and disset with contacting my number again. Nationwide has been rude to me and I am not even a debtor. They need to be out of business with those kind of practices.

Tired of debt collectors calling you? Here's a simple way to stop it: Buy a good whistle, engage the bill collector in conversation all awhile putting the whistle next to speaking part of the phone, then blow as loud as you can into the speaking part of the phone!
End of them calling you!

Recently I had my phone number changed and wouldn't you know it I started to recieve dozens of calls for people I never herad of asking me for money when I explained to them I just got this number I was told Do you know how many times I heard that , and I told them guess you are going to hear it again if you keep calling me back , after a week of constanly calling me from early morning until late night I decided to prank them back ... I found a webpage where a man was so sick and tired of this kind of harrassment that the next time a collector called he prentended to be a homocide officer and asked the collection agency how they know the person they were calling and when is the last time they seen him or talked to him ...to make a long story short this man interrogated the bill collector to the point he never recieve another call! I thought this was hilarious Ikept that conversation from a website and when I recieve calls I give them back that same thing. Just like with all these credit card companies that send you mail saying you have been pre qualified to recieve a card they give you a pre paid enevelope to send back your application , well I look through the Sunday paper for coupons and send them back in the envelope,Why not they paid the postage already. I have not recieved any offers lately , Have fun with them instead of getting mad because once they know they got you to that point they will keep calling, or ask for their home number and tell them you will have the person call them back 15 times a day, or if they ask for a certain person ask them to hold on , put the phone down and go do wash come back 10 minutes later and say Sorry wrong number. Think of ways to take up as much of their time as you can I am sure that will end the calls.So sit back with a cup of coffee and let the games begin!

this is a must for all collection agencies, telemarketers and annoying phone calls!

Please sit back and enjoy

Hey ABC why is it you will not post a website for people to hear how to prank a telemarketer but you will AIR on national TV our soldiers getting killed and of all days Veterans day , just goes to show you how much control media has over what is aired and what is not .

say it aint so

I always take it as a most opportune time to practice my Mongolian language skills. If not, constant tapping on my phone receiver may cause my hearing aid to work better.

it is NOT illegal for a debt collector to contat you at work.. UNLESS you (or anyone else) tell them not to. PER FDCPA... If you do not specifically say "do not call my job" they will continue to call. I say if people payed their bills they wouldn't have to worry about debt collectors. For them, it is a job.. it is thier way of paying their bills..

I get calls for some gal who had this phone almost 3 years ago. I like some of the ideas here. I would never put up with a zillion calls a day. If they give me their address then I will take my vacation and go beat them.

By the way debt collectors should be required to verify who has a phone number before calling it.

I'd like to respond to the topic in general... "Bad Debt Collectors."

Perhaps the media should focus on the creditors that have suffered because they have customers that evade paying their bills, the entrepreneurs that are forced out of business because debtors evade paying while the media embraces the debtors by talking down about collectors.

Unfortunately, there are "bad debt collectors" just like there are bad apples in every industry there is. The fact is there are more good collectors than bad. And it's these collectors that are often directly responsible for saving businesses from folding and helping people in debt get out of debt because they are committed to working with them to resolve the problem.

It would be refreshing to see the media embrace creditors and focus on the services and products that are important to consumers and businesses. The sad part of this scenario is that creditors are forced to raise prices to cover for those who want something for nothing.

Perhaps the media that is supporting debtors that evade their financial responsibilities should sit in a debt collectors chair and hear the "abuse" they take on a daily basis from deadbeats that have no intention of paying for their purchases. This is not to condone bad collectors, but it is an issue that is never focused on.

Walk a mile in the shoes of a debt collector and you might get a new perspective on this topic.