Mrs Long has a conniption

Oh dear, it seems I have done it again. I've gone ahead and offended someone and they've complained about my 'attitude'.

Meet Mrs Long (not her real name). Artists's depiction on left.

I was tasked with the routine matter of making a field visit to Mrs Long's last known address as she had not been responding to attempted communications from a Creditor. It was a fairly run-of-the-mill job where I was to update contact details if she still resided at that address and negotiate a payment arrangement or make enquiries with the current occupants and neighbours if she had moved.

It's not really work I like doing, but it's the bread-and-butter stuff I get along with other work from various companies I subcontract to.

Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan. I should know that by now...

No-one was home at the time of my attendance. That's okay, I went and made some enquiries with the neighbour who confirmed Mrs Long did indeed reside at the address.

Cool! I left a card with a message asking Mrs Long to give me a call at her earliest convenience and then went off into the sunset to the next job.

Around 30 minutes later I receive a phone call from a man who does not identify himself but states he is calling on behalf of Mrs Long.

Okay. I explain to him that due to privacy laws, I cannot discuss the matter with him without her consent. He tells me that Mrs Long is standing next to him. Why doesn't she speak to me then, I wonder?

I give him some of the details of my visit but I explain I don't feel comfortable discussing the financials without hearing Mrs Long give her consent. You might be surprised to learn, Dear Reader, that not all spouses inform their partners about their spending habits.

At this point Mrs Long comes to the phone and immediately asks who I am and what I want in a clearly hostile tone.

I would have thought who I am was rather obvious from my card which they clearly had found...

But no, Mrs Long is giving me the third degree in that raised voice that doesn't allow me to get a word in.

I try to explain the situation again for her benefit, but Mrs Long overrides me; "Excuse me, excuse me, it's my turn to speak" she interrupts, more than once.

What?

I'm not going to go into the detail of this 'conversation', which comprised mainly of Mrs Long berating me. I did try to wrestle control of the conversation from her, at which point she said:

"I don't like your attitude!"

Excusefuckingme?

Up until this point, I had remained nothing but polite throughout the conversation. Actually, it wasn't even a coversation - Mrs Long would hardly allow me to say anything and then would interrupt me before I could finish as, apparantly, it was her turn to speak. Still.

I would have thought, given that she owed a substantial amount of money, that a bit of politeness on her part would have been a better tactic, rather than going on the offensive.

But what really pisses me off is that she wanted to make it personal. She didn't like my attitude.

So, while she was still droning on, I hung up on her.

Now I fully understand that debt causes people to get stressed and defensive but, at the end of the day, if you expect me to remain polite to you, extend the same courtesy.

Anyway, I get a call from the company I subcontract to the following morning, before I had a chance to email my report. They had a complaint from Mrs Long (who also doesn't want to hear from me again and I am trespassed from her property).

They said they apologised to her on my behalf and that made me a bit angry since I hadn't done anything wrong. I know that was just to mollify Mrs Long and didn't actually mean anything, but to think it might give her some level of satisfaction just irks me.

Apparantly my call did motivate Mrs Long to contact the Creditor and make a new arrangement, so job well done and all that, but I still feel pissed off!