Over the beginning years of my work life, I have had many different types of jobs; however, one of the most entertaining, distressing, ridiculous, and sad was doing collections. I worked collections at a loan company, at 2 banks, and in a medical practice plan. All had their quirks. The first collection job was at a loan company in Georgia. I was 21 years old and didn't realize that this loan company was taking advantage of every customer they had. The customers were generally poor, put up the household furnishings for collateral and were routinely "pyramided". That means that if their loan was behind they could be brought up to date, given some cash, and started over. I guess today they give it a legitimate name......refinancing. This job ended up with the manager making bogus loans,hiring an inside man to help hide the money, changing his name, and moving away. The GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) was looking for him last time I knew. (And that is only PART of the story). While I was there a man brought a shotgun into the office and threatened to shoot me if I didn't leave him alone. I told him that if he paid his bill, I wouldn't have to call him. (I knew he wouldn't shoot me.......or at least that is what I thought.......boy was I stupid)
I worked at a bank doing collections on mobile homes and doing repossessions on seriously delinquent people. I once put a person out of their home the week before Christmas. I had been working with them for 8 months, and I could not get a dime. I had no choice, I sent the sherriff to evict them. That sounds horrible to me now, but, for some reason, I was alright with it then.
If you are late on a bill and a collector calls you, please don't think you are going to tell them something they have not heard before. We have heard every excuse under the sun. We don't believe most of them. I once was accused of causing a divorce because the husband kept giving the money to his wife to pay the loan, the wife kept spending the money on whatever it was she spent it on, and then it was my fault for causing the fight when I called to say the loan had not been paid every month. He yelled at me on the phone that it was all my fault. I said "Why do you keep giving her the money?" He said "Because she is supposed to pay the bill!!" Had I been a little older, I would have said "You are truly an idiot!" One guy told me that it wasn't his fault that the bill did not get paid. He said he faithully took his bills each month, put them in a stack, and paid them until he ran out of money. He said "I can't help it if when I get to your bill there is no more money left!" I told him "Next month, put it on the top of the stack."
I have heard stories about kids peeing on the bill, dogs tearing up the bill, people swearing that they had paid and I better find the money, being out of work, between work, in a divorce, going on a vacation and they needed the money for that instead, being sick, having children sick, having the bills burned for heat, giving it to a girlfriend/boyfriend, being sued and can't afford it, praying for money, borrowing money, yelled at, swore at, threatened, propositioned, and any other number of things to excuse delinquency and get by for another month. I will say this............I was always nice. I knew that I could get more with honey than with vinegar. Even with all of the excuses, my "regulars" liked me and I liked them. We had an understanding and I tried to help when I could, but I didn't take in that family that I evicted...........they would probably still be living with me.
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