The Other Side Of Debt Collections – Straight From Source
Posted on May 17th, 2007 by Marc Chase Posted in Debt Collectors | 10 CommentsHello all, DC here. I wanted to thank Marc for allowing me to post my opinions and thoughts regarding the issues raised on MCG. I have been in the Debt Recovery industry for over 10 years and worked in various departments such as telephones, doorstep visiting, IT, contract management and business development.
I am not here to judge or lay down the law, but simply offer advice or suggestions from the other side of the fence.
If you have any questions or queries please do not hesitate to ask.
In addition, if anyone has any stories or have been helped by the debt recovery industry, I would like to hear about those too.
Best regards,
DC.
DC,
You’re very welcome and I really appreciate you taking your time to share the other side of the story.
Folks, I’ve had a few conversations with DC and he is truly a nice guy. I think this is a valuable post because there are two sides to every story. Collections, believe it or not do play a very important role in our economy.
I don’t advocate the sleazy ones, but there are some good ones and they do benefit in ways you may not realize.
For example; They lower costs to corporations which in turn lowers costs to consumers.
How about struggling single parents who cant get a dime out of the debt beat spouse?
Anyway, this is a good opportunity to chat with a reasonable person, ask questions and more then likely learn how to best handle debt problems if you’re faced with them.
I strongly encourage all the questions and input you have.
PS. You may notice some things mentioned that sound like violations of the FDCPA. DC is from another Country where they have a few different laws.
Sorry if this posts twice. Didnt seemt to work the first time.
First of all, great blog Marc and DC thank you for offering your point of view in a civil manner.
My question is about collectors making judgement calls. I am on a fixed income due to an illness.
I had a library fine from a few years ago that was 40.00. 2 months ago it was turned over to a collection agent and the bill had gone to 300.00
I explained my situation and said I would pay 25.00 a month on the 300.00. He refused to take it and then said he will send the sherrif to my house if I didnt western union the entire amount.
I know he couldnt do that but it just seems like greed and uncalled for behavior. I mean I guess I dont have a question, but why go to such extreme behavior?
I can see a debt like child support, taxes, credit cards..but something this petty when a person is on fixed income, shouldnt the collector just save his energy for something a little more worthwhile, or do you think anybody that owes money is fair game?
Again, thank you for your time in helping us understand.
Interesting post. Good job on both your parts for opening up the lines of communication.
I have a little bit of a personal question. Debt collectors are a “neccessary evil” and as much as most of us dont like you, we do understand.
My question is about your personal feelings. Do you take pride in your job, or is it just a 9 to 5?
Does it stress you out fighting with people all day or do you leave it all at work?
I know my credit group still chats with a lot of their clients after the credit is fixed, but they are in a different position to you. Do you ever make friends, or are most of them slanted towards the negative
Pretty much I just think it would be a horrible job and dont know why you would want to do it. I dont see where you would get a personal sense of satisfaction.
Sherry,
Firstly, I don’t think your offer was unreasonable. However, what sometimes happens is if a debt agency has been employed by someone to collect a debt i.e. your library, the library will give the agency criteria to work with, such as how long they are allowed to have the debt for, how quickly they expect the debt to be collected, the maximum time arrangements can be made over etc.
If the arrangement you offered exceeded the librarys criteria, the collection agent may not have been allowed to accept it.
Alternatively, a lot of agents work on a commission basis dependant on whether they collect “full” payments, and if he had accepted an arrangement he may not have been entitled to a commission. Good collectors should be fully employed on salary, not bonus.
In addition, these collectors will speak to 50 - 100 people every day and without being too blunt, they do tend to hear the same thing over and over again and distinguishing between those that have fallen on hard times and those that are just giving excuses is sometimes difficult.
I am sorry that you got a hard time from that collector, maybe he was having a bad day.
Hope this helps.
DC.
Well now that does shed a little light for some people. If the collectors have rules set by the OC, then they don’t have the power to negotiate.
Now, where Im going to go with this is maybe not allowing commissions to collectors given the nature of the business.
I know here in the U.S., a growing trend is to put people on salary’s because consumers dont like the results of commissioned people….Car salesmen for example.
I can see an arguement why collectors should not be on commission. It may eliminate the extreme group from going overboard. No doubt the collector
will argue that point because they deserve to earn a living as well.
hmmmm I divorced 5 years ago and was granted custody of our two children. I didnt recieve any child support for 3 years despite the court order.
I make a fair living (enough to pay my bills) and never faced collection problems but It was a huge help to finally get child support after so long.
I don’t know if that was due to a collector or child support services, but I guess this could be a “chalk one of for the collector”.
As mentioned, I’ve never had debt problems too bad but I’ve heard the stories. I think if we could get rid of the bad apples it wouldnt be such a hated industry.
That responsibility probably lies on the internal policies of each individual agency. Perhaps harsher fines for the owners who let their employees cross that line.
Rick,
I do take pride in my job, not in a sadistic way, we provide a necessary service and I like to think our organisation is a market leader in the field. Not because of collections, but because of our standards. We try to be the professional choice within the market place, our reputation built on good customer service, not bully boy tactics.
We actively seek to introduce new standards, such as introducing training courses and qualifications for debt agents and collectors. Every bad news story or article is another blow to the hard work we are putting in to try and change the perception that people have about our industry.
When I first started in the industry it was very stressful. Collecting debt all day from people who do not want to pay it is difficult, and sometimes soul destroying. You don’t always get arguments and abuse on the phone, you can also get elderly people crying in tears, threatening to kill themselves because of the stress. I once took a phone call from a lady who had her head in the oven whilst she was talking to me (I managed to persuade her to stop). Its not that easy to just forget those things when you go home at the end of the day. But over time you become hardened to it. Its a job you either like or hate.
We don’t make friends with debtors for obvious reasons, but we try to be polite and courteous. We still get christmas cards every year from some debtors because we have helped them out.
Its not a horrible job, its just challenging. For the non sadistic types, the satisfaction comes from helping these people get their debts cleared. For some people in debt, just picking up the phone is a difficult step.
DC
And there you have it, it’s no fun on that end either.
All we need to do now is get the bad collectors to take DC’s stance and we’d all be in a better place.
Believe it or not, we face similar problems. Although we are the nice guys to most consumers, its filled with its share of scumbag credit repair companies and we have to fight that all day as well.
Wow that must have sucked.
Gonna hate myself if I start feeling for the collection agent.
This is a great post. Marc and Anonymous both nailed it. I think the problem is the commission structure and more responsibiliy by the owners to make sure their staff
stayed on the ethical side.
I am a collection attorney. I will tell you that when a collector gets out of line, as one has with Sherry S., you sue them and their agency. Debtors are people and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Anyone that does not understand is something less than human. That is why Congress enacted the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Although I am a debt collector, I routinely sue collection agencies that tolerate and/or hire sleazy collectors. I sue them for damages plus attorneys’ fees. We have not lost a case yet. I don’t care if a collection agency will not hire me because of my principals because they only need fear me if they run a sleazy shop.
Thank you very much for the input Gary.
Folks, I’ve come across some collection agents the past few months LIke the originator of this post DC. Gary who just posted a comment and a few others.
I think these people need to be recognized for their integrity in an industry most of you dont like. Im going to put a post of regarding this matter Monday.