“It’s the way of the times”, a quote my associate uses far too much, “The way of the times”, so common, so true. As a call center customer service representative, it’s hard to make a connection with a client you can’t see, in any job you are not suppose to take anything too personally, there’s really no reason to think about the client after you set your disposition. I must admit plenty of times I couldn’t help, but feel pity for these people, not only are they dealing with the simple fact that they are filing for bankruptcy, or the financial hardships that brought them to us, but dealing with the consistent uncontrollable harassment from creditors, and the crazy things they say. We deal with the harassment of creditors as well, just a taste of the power they have over our clients, they are rude towards us, they feel as though they are entitled to whatever information they want. “It’s not enough they call all hours of the day and night, or that their short and cold, you can’t even understand these people, Mary? Or Tom?, with thick Indian accents, it’s like they are trained to say the worst things to a person. During the holidays they are terrible, “Maybe you should pay your bills instead of buying your children Christmas gifts”. The threats are insane, “If you miss another car payment, we will report your car as stole and you are going to go to jail”. When a client calls in you can usually tell what has pushed them over the edge, the creditors, they threaten to take their whole pay check, tell them outrageous things like, “you might as well pack your things, because you will be living in a alley in a deep freezer box, get excited”, of all the things I’ve heard it gets better, a gentleman got teeth implants, but fell behind on his payments half way through, he was getting harassing calls and letters from the dental company on a daily bases, a representative from the company told him, “ You might as well put your teeth in a box and mail them back to us”. To my surprise it doesn’t just stop or start with, the elderly and other adults, it gets worse. A few days ago a creditor herself called in, she wanted to know if it was illegal to contact underage debtors, I replied as in teenagers? She exclaimed younger, ten and fifteen year old children, how’s that possible I thought, as in the parents are putting electricity or cable bills in their children’s names? No, the debt acquired by the children themselves, medical labs, doctors visits, medications. Creditors are taking it to a whole other level, children! I think these people sit in a dark room in India, watching war videos of death and mass destruction for hours. They have these guidelines’, like you are required to come in on the wrong side of the bed, think of the worst things you can say to a person, and then increase it by ten thousand percent. Threaten these clients, homes, families, jobs and personal security. And, last but not least, do not end your call until you at least make someone cry, if they hang up, call them back, because honestly this is just the way of the times.