That Isn’t How Debt Works
I worked in a call centre for an electricity company and once got this incredible call.
“Can you see the debt on my account?”
“Yes, it’s currently at $2500”
“I know that, I’ve had a payment plan for over a year now; it was originally $5k.”
“OK, so how may I help you?”
“Can you just wipe the rest of it off?”
“You want me to write off $2500 that you owe us? I’m sorry but I can’t do that.”
“This is ridiculous! You can clearly see that I’ve been paying it off!”
“Do you mean that you want to pay off the remainder in one lump sum?”
“NO! I don’t see why I should have to pay the remainder at all!!”
“Umm… because you used $5000 of electricity and we gave you the option of a payment plan or a card meter to pay off you debt.”
“You don’t get it do you?! I can clearly afford to pay you back as I’ve been doing it for the past year.”
“I’m sorry but I don’t see the problem here?”
“Look, I can afford to make the payments but I don’t see why I should, can’t you just accept the fact that I can afford to pay and we’ll forget the whole thing?”
“OK, let me get this right. You used $5000 of electricity, have paid back half of it, and now think that you don’t have to pay the other half because we are trying to make some kind of point?”
“Exactly!”
“Let me get my manager for you…”
My manager ended up passing it to her manager after another hour of this. I never did find out what happened in the end!