@Weird Tolkienish Figure I don't hate you. Actually, I don't mind debt collectors. My cousin's first job after college was as a manager of a debt collection agency. He didn't stay long though.
Debt collectors are a necessary evil. How much money is lost if a creditor doesn't at least try to collect a debt from a deadbeat debtor. Most creditors don't have the time or resources to go after the deadbeats, so they need the services of a professional.
If you run into trouble, most creditors will try to work something out. I had a situation some years ago where I could not pay a few creditors according to plan. I called them ASAP, explained the situation and we worked it out. And it seems they must not have reported me to the credit bureaus because my credit was intact. If you ask for help from the creditor and fulfill your obligations under any new arrangement, odds are you won't have to deal with collectors.
The trouble comes from irresponsible types like this Wilson guy I mentioned in my prior post. He's a professional deadbeat. As far as I know, he has stiffed 2 car dealerships, a jeweler and a furniture store. There could be more. The more recent calls are from collectors representing lenders who made student loans to this deadbeat. One lender loaned this guy money under a federal student loan program. Our tax dollars at work. Didn't anyone bother to check his credit history before loaning him our money? Guess not.
By the way, this guy is one of the reasons I don't favor blanket student loan forgiveness, which is floated by the commie left from time to time.
My cousin told me that he and his employees were under considerable pressure to get results. So maybe that's why so many collectors go out of bounds from time to time. But that doesn't excuse the threats, annoyances, harassment and talking to the neighbors. The collectors should be assertive, not aggressive. They should not be terrorists. We have enough of those.