Debt collection agency demands woman put her long-deceased dad on the phone — so she maliciously complied

Debt repayment can be exhausting, especially when dealing with loans left by a deceased family member. While creditors often pursue overdue payments, some debtors face unexpected challenges. Reddit user u/georgetgwtbn recently shared her own experience, explaining how, after managing nearly all of her late father’s debts, a collections agency insisted they could only speak directly to him—despite his passing years prior. This "bizarre" demand led her to comply in a way they wouldn’t soon forget.

“Some months after my mum sold up and downsized, I got a letter from a debt collection agency saying I owed them £134 (approximately $174) and some pence, including interest and fees,” the woman wrote. Confused, she decided to call them, having “no idea” about the outstanding charge. Through the conversation, she learned that the pending amount was for broadband services at her mother’s former home. She clarified that there must be a mistake, as the phone line and broadband had been part of an all-in-one package, which she had canceled before selling the house.

After some back and forth with the supplier, the agency informed her they couldn’t cancel the broadband service “because the cancellation had not come in from the account holder,” she explained. However, she insisted that all connections were registered in her name. The collections agency disagreed, claiming her late father was the original purchaser of the package. “I explained that there really must have been a mix-up as he had died a few years earlier," she added.

“I took over control of the telephone line and broadband account, paying that single bill for my mother since she no longer had my father's income to cover expenses,” she explained. At this point, the representative on the other end of the line informed the woman that the agency would need to speak with the account holder—her deceased father. “They insisted that they had to speak with the account holder and could no longer speak with me on the matter, refusing to speak with me again,” she added.

After facing repeated denials, collection letters, and legal threats, the woman decided to visit her father's grave. While at the cemetery, she called the agency and informed them that the account holder (her father) was ready to speak with them. “I left the mobile by the gravestone while I wandered around the quiet,” the post revealed. "I heard some irate voices at the end of the line, so picked up the phone and asked if they'd had any joy speaking with the account holder."

“An angry voice asked what was going on, so I explained where I was and that I would love to know if my dad had said anything to them. I had been unable to reach him under six feet of churchyard dirt since we buried him a couple of years earlier,” she recalled, causing a stunned silence on the other end of the line. The call was then escalated to the agency’s senior manager, who promptly apologized and assured her that the issue would be resolved. A month later, she received a new letter from the creditor stating they had determined there was no debt to be paid.

When asked why she didn’t just impersonate her father, she explained her discomfort with doing so, even with a friend or voice-changer. u/Honigmann13 remarked, “I had a similar experience with my mother, who had been deceased for four or five years at that time. Some companies insisted that they needed to contact my deceased mother. Fed up with this, I provided them with the address of the cemetery.” “I occasionally receive offers for life insurance for my mom and dad. First, they have been gone for over 25 years, and second, neither of them ever lived in the house where I currently reside,” u/Diligent-Touch-5456 shared.