[vineyardmike]

Patric McKenzie, aka @patio11, is a great writer, and as the article discusses, he has done a lot with helping people manage debt collectors. I once had a ISP send me to collections over a paperwork fuckup (not my fault) when returning a cable modem. Patrick’s writing helped me understand my legal rights, and how to handle it (and how to find additional trustworthy information).

This article was really interesting in the context of my $150 cable modem. I wrote the collection agencies a letter with a paper trail (as he suggests) informing them about how to contact me, and my dispute of the debt. The debt magically disappeared. This article really illustrates what happened behind the scenes, which was a pretty cool full circle.

As someone with a high credit score, it makes sense why they bothered to contact me. When I wrote the letter, informing them I understood the law and required paper correspondence , I clearly became “not profitable” to them - regardless of the debts legitimacy. Surprisingly powerful insight about how it works behind the scenes. When reading the article, I couldn’t help but think that you could almost intentionally avoid paying debts if you had a lawyer willing to help you fight the system. The economics of the debt collection system seems like it’s not worth fighting anything.