I have seen agents lose their licenses -- not for harassment, though.

That being said, if a complaint is filed, I have seen the Ministry often order the agency to cease action on the file in question, and to only communicate in writing. So that usually resolves the issue.

Under Brian Pitkin or any of his ex-collection registrar predecessors, can you name one collection agent in Ontario who has lost their license in the last 500 years for harassment?

On Harassment ...

On the three times in a week -- initial calls don't count until they reach you, and return calls to you don't count either.

If you are being harassed, the best thing you can do is file a complaint with the Ministry of Consumer Services. One complaint probably isn't going to do anything, but if a particular agency or collector gets too many complaints for the same reason, they will likely be investigated by the Ministry, or have their license revoked in an extreme circumstance.

The problem as I see it is "what constitutes harassment"? What is "repeated and abusive contact"? Under Subsection 22(6) of the Regulations to the Ontario Collection Agencies Act, it says "No collection agency or collector shall contact the debtor more than three times in a seven-day period on behalf of the same creditor". What happens if a collector contacts the debtor four times in a seven-day period on behalf of the same creditor? Is this illegal? According to the Regulations, it is. Is this harassment? Probably not? Does this constitute "repeated and abusive contact"? Probably not..

Under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, the Regulations state that it is an offense to drive more than 100 kph on any 400 series highway. What happens if you drive 101kph? Are you speeding? According to the Regulations, you are. Will a police officer stop you and charge you for speeding? Definitely not. What if you are charged with driving 110kph? Will a judge convict you? Probably not?

You begin to see the problems in both defining and interpreting the law. Even judges at the Supreme Court of Canada who are legal scholars, previous law professors at very prestigious law schools, and have practiced law at the very highest level of the legal system have difficulty in determining the meaning of a single word or a phrase in attempting to reach a decision in a case. Nine judges sit on the Supreme Court of Canada and it is not unusual that a case is decided with a 5 to 4 decision. That means, 4 judges disagreed with the decisions of the remaining 5 judges.

Ask 5 different people what does "harassment" mean to them and you will get 6 different answers. You now begin to see the complexity that both lawyers and judges have in dealing with this problem.

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Educating one Consumer at a time..

True, true, but then there are laws preventing harassment, so while they may call once a day, repeated and abusive contact can and does have consequences. I know a man who has fun with these types of guys, and it pertained to a debt he had in the mid-late 90s when he had a massive heart attack. I believe the unsecured debt was for a credit card to Sears. He had a lot of fun with them and it was humourous to hear him on the phone with them. Nevermind, it was a family passtime! His kids (my age) got in on it. They gave up eventually.

Because they are buying for pennies on the dollar, I see that the business decision may be to hang on for a bit. However, I would never pay. It's just business to them, and it's just business to me. They can shove their play on morality up their collective behinds. They know not the word.

Logically speaking, what you say makes sense. And in some cases, a collection agency will move on to focus on an easier "target". Having said that, the vast majority of collection agencies and especially debt buyers, who usually only purchase statute-barred debts for pennies on the dollar, have learned from their experience that if a person is harassed long enough, eventually that person will break down and make some form of payment just to get this "monkey off their back". With today's sophisticated auto-dialer machines that collection agencies use, it requires no effort to keep calling a debtor constantly, especially at the most inopportune times, i.e. meal times. Most people CANNOT refuse to answer a telephone call and when they answer, the collection agency is right on their "case" and the intimidation and harassment begins. The collection agencies use this theory. "If you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it is bound to stick."

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Educating one Consumer at a time

When the CA figures out they have someone who knows that this is a stat barred debt and won't pay a dime, ever, why waste the man hours and money trying to collect on a debt they can never collect from? Will they not just move on as a business decision?

LOL.

Couldn't be any clearer there!

No biggie, playing with debt collectors is one of my favorite past times.

It gives me great pleasure to report that there is definitely a SOL on all collection calls anywhere in Canada . It ends when you are safely tucked away in your "underground condominium" ( grave ).

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Educating one Consumer at a time

Just to clairify, 7 years later. (13 years since date of last activity.)
7 years since it was purged from the CB.