For context: Iused to work a direct selling company’s call center. Subscribers would place their orders, most of them had a credit line so we would ship the orders and payment was expected by the next scheduled date for an order (aligning with the next catalog). Some subscribers would place orders way below their credit line or had such good payment history that in some cases, a second order would ship without requiring a payment for three previous one.
When I started there, subscribers had digital options to place orders and pay for them, but due to a large number of older users, we also had the option for them to mail in the order and a check, check could also be mailed separately. Also, since entering an email was optional, all the key information was sent through regular mail.
On one of my very first days I got this call. SUB will be the caller, and ME, well , me.
- Me: generic greeting
- Sub: I just got a collections letter in the mail!!!! And I have already paiiiid!! Why are you sending me this?
- Me: I’m sorry about this, can you tell me the name on the company in the letterhead.
- Sub: its Not-a-collections-agency inc
- Me: ok Sub, that is not a collections letter, it is from our pre-collections department as you had a past due balance. However, I see that we received a payment on 04/25/2018 (not real date), so you can disregard the notice, your current balance is…
- Sub: cuts me off why the hell then would you send a collections letter if you had a payment? This is a scam! You’re just trying to charge me double!!!!
- Me: ma’am, your payment was due on 04/19/2018, since we didn’t receive a payment then, the letter was generated. You can just ignore it , your payment has been received.
- Sub: but I did mailed in my payment!! Why would you still send it?
- Me: when did you mailed it ?
- Sub: 04/20/2018
- Me: ok, remember payments that are mailed in take 7-10 business days to reach us and be applied, that is why you still received the letter
- Sub: but the payment was sent, why did I still receive the letter ?
- me: you sent your payment but there was no way for us to know this until we actually received it, so the letter was still generated and mailed. If you see the date on the letter , you can see when it was mailed.
- Sub : but whyyyy would I still get the letter if i paiiid?
- me: (tired at this point ) ma’am, once you put something in the mail, there is no way of taking it back, the letter was sent even before you mailed in your payment. You can just ignore it as payment has been received.
- Sub: ohhh I get it, you should had said that…
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