Consumer complaint received 2017-01-19
Company: Monterey Financial Services LLC
State: MN
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: Communication tactics
Sub-issue: Threatened to take legal action

Complaint:
Received a call from Monterey debt collecting agency. spoke with XXXX first day, very rude. when she asked about me paying debt in whole I told her no she responded with " then what are you calling for XXXX XXXX '' I began to respond but then got frustrated at the way she was talking to me and told her she was a rude XXXX Today I received another phone call from her coworker XXXX who was just as aggressive and rude. and when I told her I was not able to make that payment in full she did not offer me a payment plan. I had to ask. She said yes what could you pay I told her {$5.00} dollars she said that is not good enough and as I was trying to ask her to help me figure out a reasonable payment she starts getting more aggressive and began to tell me when to speak and says that I knew I had to pay this and that this is my fault and a long list of other things. She asked me why I even have a debt and I began to say why she then cuts me off again after just telling me that I cut her off. Her communication tactics were to get me upset enough to say that I refused to pay. she said that she was going to mark this as a refusal to pay and terminate the call. after I asked her repeatedly to help me figure out a reasonable payment. She never helped me figure out a reasonable payment and just kept getting loud and talking over me. I asked her how is anything supposed to get resolved if you do n't even know how to talk to me. Her goal was never to set up payments because when I asked for solutions she kept being rude and repeating to me that this was my own fault. she terminated call. when I called back her coworker gave me the supervisors number and told me she did not need to speak to me. yes in the recording I called XXXX a XXXX for being rude and I had to talk over XXXX to even be heard. XXXX said that because {$5.00} dollars was n't going to help that I needed to pull out a loan and or get a credit card and pay today or they will report this as a negative on my credit. not once did she try to help me figure out a reasonable payment plan again that was n't even offered to me. I asked to be switched to someone else and she kept talking. nothing got resolved and I was disconnected. I believe I was put on hold and I had to hang up because I did not hear anyone which was her goal again to get me upset enough so she could mark my file as refusal to pay when I never said I would n't pay, I feel as though XXXX and XXXX should have better communication skills. Collecting a debt or not the way I was handle was not okay even after asking for help from XXXX to see what should I do her only response was fast talking me and telling me to get a credit card to pay today. I am currently at work I will not stop what I am doing to leave work to go get a loan or credit card I can not afford. I understand that debt collectors are trained to be aggressive but if Im asking for help to figure out a payment plan what was the reason for them being aggressive even after I allowed her to belittle me I asked can I speak now she talked over me and continued with saying {$5.00} dollars is n't going to do anything versus us coming up with a solution. I do n't believe she had the intent to set up payment arrangements at all

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation