Can this be Considered A Form of Harassment?

May 2, 2022

 For at least twice today, I heard my wife talking on her phone. During the first call, I heard her politely say in Tagalog, "Huwag muna ngayon". ("Not now."). At that moment she was doing something on her laptop. About two hours later, she's on the phone again. This time she said "Huwag na. Ayaw ko na ...". ("No, I don't want to anymore").

 So I asked who was it. She said it was HomeCredit (sorry I have to mention this company's name). They are offering her avail for a loan.

Greetings, dearest readers. I have started a different draft this morning, but I want to let off some steam at the moment. So let me rant for now. For the record, I don't want to discredit any company. I will just share my experience with this company, and this is not the first time!

Good Payer.

My wife got a laptop a few months ago from the above-mentioned financing company. For the record, she is a good payer. (She handles her finances more effectively than I do.)

Perhaps, because of her good payment record, the company decided that she is qualified to avail of their loan services. She already mentioned last week that the company informed her about that.

In the back of my mind, I was thinking "Here they go again."

Several times in a couple of hours, her phone received four missed calls from different landline numbers. The area code indicates that the calls were coming from Manila. I know it's them.

Just a few minutes ago, around 7 in the evening, her phone rang again. I answered the phone.

My Past Experience With That Company.

I recalled my experience with that company a few years ago. It was not a good experience at all.

The first time I received a call from that company was because my name was given by my brother as a reference person. At the time, I was not on good terms with that brother (I have three brothers).  Since they can not contact my brother at the time, they asked me if I could relay a message to them. At first, I believe, I said I have no contact with my brother anymore.

Then the next day, I received another call from a different representative from that company. I repeated my previous response. However, it did stop there.

They will call me as early as six o clock in the morning and sometimes as late as seven in the evening. Sometimes, they will call me while I was in a meeting.

There was even a time when will keep calling me while my son was in the hospital.

I knew that they were call-center agents. They will always try to read through their scripts.

I even memorized their questions. That when the caller introduced him/herself, I will give my response in sequence before they can ask the questions.

However, I was really pissed off. For weeks, I think it went on even for more than a month, they kept calling me. I even asked for their supervisor so I can ask that they remove my name from their list. But they would reply it's not allowed.

Image Source: Pixabay with modification

I Know How They Should Work

I had experience working as an IT support for a call center before. Normally, if the person was already contacted, his/her response should be recorded. Those agents are reading scripts from their screens. Most of the questions are answerable with yes or no and they can mark the response on their computer. Then the person should be removed from their list if deemed "not qualified" or "not interested"

 Can This Be Considered A Form of Harassment?

Just like what I experienced before, I said "No" to them countless times. If I had not threatened to sue them, probably they would not stop calling me.

The same thing now is happening with my wife. This is only the second week that they repeatedly called her and I know they will still keep on calling in the coming days. She said no each time. Why is her name not tagged as "NOT INTERESTED" or something?

Just today, they called her at least seven times. Four were unanswered. But was the first "No" not enough?

My question is, can this action be considered a form of harassment? Can we sue them for harassment?

I believe they are bordering on the legal boundaries of doing aggressive marketing, and I am sure that what they are doing is no longer ethical.

Thanks for reading.

P.S.

I was planning to buy a new tablet this week. I have the cash, but I wanted to invest my money in something that will earn me passive income. My option was to avail of this company's financing services. I thought they cleaned up their policies already. I was wrong. Therefore, I will never avail of their services. Not ever.