Well blow me down

Linda got a check today from CRS (collection agency) for the amount that was overpaid on her medical equipment. I admit that I was a bit astonished to see it.

You see, I had called on Monday and asked for the supervisor that I had spoken with in the past. He put me on hold and called over to another department to check. After a minute or two, he came back on the line and told me that he couldn't tell me if they had sent me a payment or not.

I'll admit, I was a bit astonished by this. He explained that the person with the job of cutting checks recently left the position, so there's a bit of turmoil. He said that he would send it through again and that I should wait a bit longer.

I agreed to wait, but in my frustration I made a bit of a tactical blunder. I said, I'll wait, but I don't want to have to call again. If I have to call again I'll probably threaten to file a complaint of dishonest collection practices.

He made the precisely correct tactical response, If you feel that you need to file a complaint, then you should do what you feel you need to do. I immediately recognized my error.

If you don't see why this was a tactical blunder, let me lay it out for you. You either threaten someone or you don't. You don't threaten to threaten someone. That just burns up any good will you might have had without actually accomplishing anything.

The tactically correct thing would have been to express the intense frustration that they seem to be artificially drawing out the refund process, and I feel powerless to do anything about it. That way, it's in the transcript of my recorded conversation, and it emphasizes just how much work I did to get the account resolved. Ultimately, if I do file a complaint, it causes a 3rd party adjudicator to empathize with me and my complaint.

Anyway, I'm just glad to be paid. I think I'll give them one last call to verify that they have not negatively contributed to Linda's credit record (since none of the mistakes that were made on the account were her fault). Then hopefully they will be nothing more than memory.