I have dealt with collectors on a different angle. I have many family members in the business. I find that collectors are like sales people...you have to have a really irritating aggressive and abrasive personality in order to succeed in it. I hear people say what collections work does to them, but primarily it is what the collections companies need to succeed. They need a**holes...lots of them. Its a tough job to be yelled at, lied to and hung up on....just to recieve the same negativity from your superiors if you don't hit your numbers. It is just like a sales floor. Stupid contests and incentive prizes for the winners....the losers are treated like losers (as if it would improve performance). But the truly good people and nice personalities, do not do well in collections. Compassion will not get money out of someone toward their debt. It is boring and monotonous to just make calls and make calls....and not pleasant calls, not service calls, collectors are not helping people, People don't want to hear from collectors.... and, do the collectors enjoy talking to them? no! they are calling the scumbags who default on their obligations, had no clue how to live within their means....don't pay their bills...ok, some are due to hardships out of their control... but mostly the hardships are just because they chose to drink all night and no show for work and lost their jobs. Lost their jobs due to anger problems, bad decisions, poor performance....Or maybe they are just jerks too...decided 'maybe if I hide they won't find me and I can keep all the cool stuff I bought on credit'.... 'Maybe they will chaulk it up to a loss and I will get away with somethng for nothing'. Really....who want to be a collector? What a crappy job. And if only the a**holes do well, then being a successful collector probably means you are a jerk. I'd never admit to doing such a crappy job....I'd rather be a high priced janitor...no matter what the pay, you still have a crappy job. But, at least the collectors have a job and I'll bet they pay their bills. Because they certainly don't want their coworkers calling them...how embarrassing.
Want to get rid of collectors? Get rid of deadbeats, require an IQ test for a credit card and there won't be a need for the business of "Collections".
You are so right, kind of like in the telemarketing bunch, the slick manipulators get the sales, same concept.
When I get a rude jerk on the phone, I always tell them that you will get more cooperation from me by talking to me like I am a human being. A lot of times it will calm the raging beast and they will have a civil tongue.
For the rude jerk, I simply ask for an address and when they ask what for, I tell them, to send you a cease and desist letter, certified and return reciept requested. Usually they will not give me the address they will hang up on me and then the next call will be from a nicer collector from the same agency. The good cop, bad cop routine, like we don't know what they are doing. Come on, we are not stupid.
If I owe the debt, I will pay it, but if you treat me like crap, you are not getting a dime.
Collectors like Salespeople
Kay, I have to respectfully dissagree with your assessment that 'Salespeople have to be aggresive and abrasive' in order to succeed.
I would agree that some of the mechanics a CA uses to pursue a 'victim' are similar to how a salesman pursues a client. However, no clients I've been successful with any of these past 30 years would've given me the time or day if I'd employed 'aggressiveness or abrasiveness.'
Persistance certainly, but even the smallest friction between you and a client can prevent communication and you'd fail. Telemarketers don't fall into my catagory of professional salespeople. But even with them, they have to show some advantage in the product that they offer. Otherwise, we tell them to hang up and not call back. That's a world of difference when you're comparing them to CA scum.