I admit, it was quite a treat listening to the agents in the next room (I mostly did bulk form production; things like mass produced boilerplate forms with names inserted, etc. I did not deal with debtors directly. I occasionally did file maintenance, once it was determined that I knew how to evaluate data sources and condense them, then append to the debtor's file in a reliably consistent manner.), as they would have literally *EVERYTHING* the agency had on that debtor, their debts, their recent credit card purchase history (via the credit reporting infrastructure), and a host of other information RIGHT THERE at their, IN THEIR HANDS. Sorted by date, address, relevance, and a host of other factors.
I expect it would be a bit like trying to argue with an officer of a secret police.
Tried and true staples like "I can't afford that right now!" would be met with "Really? So, that 2000$ laptop you bought last week on [insert date, time, store] using your VISA card is somehow more affordable than the 300$ debt you owe the phone company? DO explain." on a pretty regular basis.
To be fair, the people that had just a single outstanding debt were usually mortified when it went to collections, and would bend over backwards to either find out how the debt occurred, or to remedy the debt quickly and efficiently. The agency I interned at would always treat them with courtesy and good candor, and would work with them through all stages of that process, even if it resulted in a non-payment to the agency. No, it was the "repeat offenders" with files that were literally several inches thick of hard copy, with numerous debts--- those were the great ones to hear getting a successful contact on.