Archives September 2018

For clarity purposes, let me reiterate that customers approach you for a reduction of EMI’s (Equated Monthly Installments), due to being unable to cope, hence delinquency for one or more months.

If you consider approving this remedial request and the overdues is not that high, say 2 EMI’s, why do you suddenly need both, when clearly the delinquency is due to a proven dire situation where termination proof being one example is presented, and more proof that a new job was recently secured where the first salary was paid, but insufficient to service the backlog. Why demand the down-payment immediately? Where would they get the funds in the middle of the month, after paying partial backlog of rent, renewing family residence visa’s, backlog utilities etc.…?

If the customer is sincerely unable to meet the requested down-payment and can source 50%, it is also refused, and the customer is informed that legal action will proceed, totally closed for negotiation.

Below are my mind-boggling questions:

1. Why would you not consider a customer’s partial payment as their token of commitment, with a promise of a PDC for the balance down-payment on their coming salary date, specifically, when you are the bank that holds their salary personal loan?

2. Why does the same months of unemployment equated to the months of delinquency, not taken into consideration, when previously, the customer was regular from inception?

3. Why is it then necessary to threaten the customer with legal action, when they just showed you their commitment in line with their ability to meet a partial payment and then complete the full payment on their salary date?

4. How is a customer 1 month in default with an auto loan EMI, who has submitted a remedial request that is ignored for an entire month, is then demanded the new EMI to be included in the down-payment (2 EMI’s) and if it cannot be paid, legal action to attach the vehicle is informed and actioned? Why is it the customer’s fault that the creditor has taken one month to revert with their response? Does it seem like the customer has not taken responsibility for their debt or the bank cannot contact them?

5. Alternatively, the customer pays the 1 EMI as a down-payment, the collector promises that once the payment is done the restructure will be submitted for review, but thereafter the account is allocated to the next collector, who has no knowledge of the promised history, so the customer is once again grilled for another EMI, and the saga continues, until the next collector allocation in the following month. So where is the consistency or are delinquent customers simply treated like degenerates, just because they shouldn’t have a voice?

6. Besides being totally target oriented with little or no empathy for humane situations, why is it so hard for collectors or their managers to show some form of degree of empathy, to fully support debtors who show that they have taken ownership and responsibility for their debt? Why do you continue to generalize and paint each debtor with the same brush?

7. Why is it not possible for a collector to not comprehend that they are dealing with humans who are subject to any kind of negative situation like:

a. Being terminated from their employment without prior notice, just a letter on the table one fine morning;

b. Or their spouse who could be the main bread winner in the household is terminated;

c. Or their salaries are reduced without notice to commission only;

Can you simply understand why debtors approach remedial companies or reach out for any form of support after failing to derive at an amicable arrangement with their creditor? It is possibility clear to you at this point that you have no right to run any remedial or other company down when you find that the debtor has approached them for help? Who has time to waste to incur additional fees when their creditor should have helped them in the first place? So how are you qualified to question the debtor on how much they are paying the company and then informing them that they are just wasting their money?

Life hands us all forms of challenges, of which nobody is not susceptible to facing them. Hence, no, you are not entitled to boss your customers around, push them into a corner and threaten them with legal action if they justified their situation to you with documented proof?

It’s a very bad feeling for the customer to find themselves in this position, where it was not self-inflicted, they never knew they would be terminated, or their salary reduced to commission, so whilst you are in your comfort zone of monthly salary assurance like clockwork, just imagine for a second that on the very date, no salary is credited, and you get the letter on your desk.

Would you expect empathy and sympathy from your creditors? So how is it you are acting inhuman? Is it not in the best interest of your employer to receive partial debtor payments than file legal action? Business evolves and so when you break the cycle, at some point, you are affected, seems you are oblivious to this very pertinent fact!

YOU TELL ME…

Collectors, before you step into an employee’s place of employment, or direct demanding emails to the CEO and/or their Head of Human Capital of their organization or company, due to their delinquency, then understand that somewhere along the line, there is a valid reason why most debtors are unable to pay their EMI’s (Equated Monthly Installments).

How many times have I said to stop painting all debtors with the same brush? So, let me correct your very limited experience about human life and the obstacles they face, at inopportune moments, when they least expect, situations that are most times not self-inflicted, but just realizing that it simply presented itself in their reality, where it is out of their control. Not every individual is able to ‘save for a rainy day’, or ‘accumulate emergency funds’, because these days life in general is tough for most people, regardless of where they are in the world, it’s realism, get accustomed to it as soon as you can.

When your vocation requires you to deal with people daily, then try to treat them like humans, even if it’s a very hard task for you. Somewhere deep inside of you there must be some form of humanity that resonates with you. However, if you really find it very hard to do, then simply put yourself in someone else’s shoes, who was terminated from their employment at short notice, who has no emergency funds, has all kinds of family commitments and has no money to pay their EMI’s, until they can secure a new job.

Many of you have demanded that the customer borrow money from friends and family, please understand that this capability is not open to everyone, where sometimes they won’t cross that line when they know that it is virtually impossible to repay the money in the following month, with zero income. It’s pointless making one hole to cover another, as it will come back and has more negative repercussions, which they don’t need, not at this stage.

So, when you act snidely, obnoxious, demanding, abrupt and think you are smart trying to prove a point to the customer with the entitlement that you are in a position of strength, taking great pleasure in wielding your power, then take a step backwards and ask yourself, why you cannot comprehend true situations presented to you, when:

a. They have explained to you, in detail, why they can’t pay their full overdues;

b. They have justified why they can’t pay the demanded high down-payment for the requested settlement, therefore requesting leniency for a reduction in the amount;

c. They are able to Justify their initial delinquency with documented proof, which you anyhow don’t bother to take into consideration;

d. They are pleading for your help and understanding, and you simply hammer them with 62 calls in a short period within one day, demanding, threatening, being abusive? Is this acceptable?

e. You initiate unnecessary action to present yourself at their place of work demanding to meet with the Human Resources Manager;

f. When you directly send emails to the CEO of their employment company and include the Human Resource Director, with your grievances against the customer, who by the way has not refused to repay their liability, except they requested leniency for a reduced EMI, which you refused;

g. You don’t care that your actions in points ‘e’ and ‘f’ could cost them their job being terminated due to your actions;

h. You have already filed a legal case, which has run it’s course, but don’t persue your next legal action, instead you continue to victimize the customer at their place of work, simply because you can;

i. The customer now loses he’s job and is terminated and you act with no remorse, except continue victimizing the customer for the money. Right here I wish to ask you how you expect the customer to pay their liability, now with no income, courtesy of your actions;

j. You don’t realize your actions has now brought extreme hardship onto the customer, because:

i. They cannot secure a new job because you filed legal action;

ii. They must send their family back to their home country;

iii. Their children and loved one’s suffer;

iv. They get into dire delinquency with no income, so the situation worsens, with a probable outcome of facing multiple legal action filed against them, so unemployment continues for months, sometimes for more than one year;

v. They end up virtually living from hand to mouth, borrowing from everyone without having to pay back and most times, living in a small room with absolutely zero sustenance, existing a sub-human life;

Is it your fault that the customer was indebted to creditors? Absolutely not, however, you take the burden on your shoulders when you are the root cause of this extreme suffering, because you are in a position of strength to respect and appreciate the customer’s dire debt situation, their please to reduce their EMI’s, where they never refused to repay their debt.

I will repeatedly stand by my philosophy that when you sow bad seed and you inflict harm and damage on any human life when you had the opportunity to reach out and take their hand, but you acted entitled and refused that help, then somewhere along the line, that seed will surface in your life and then please don’t ask ‘Why me?’, think back to when you could take the right action.

Life have evolved, times have changed, displaying kindness, empathy, care and love is the order of the day, because our only job is to try and touch a life daily to help those suffering today to transform their lives in happiness, joy, full recovery and future success, to rebuild and survive.

Your old ways are damaging lives and in so organizations and economies, so my suggestion is to think about the pain you inflict on people’s lives and learn to master the art of happiness and to help people transform their lives, do it, for your own personal transformation, because you probably need it more than anyone else in the world.

We never achieve great success by being mean and nasty, read the most successful people’s biography in the world, it tells it’s own story, which you should learn from.

I recall being instrumental in securing approval from a major UAE bank in 2004, where  upon signing the Agency Agreement, the senior manager informed the agency owner that if the agency at all oversteps the line to victimize their clients, she would personally ensure their contract termination and I respected her for that, because she was aware of the many methods of victimization applied by agency staff, with no recourse from them and most times, known to the banks collections staff and management, and I know this, because I escalated many incidents.

As an agency afforded the privilege of a bank contract, surely you should ensure that your staff operate with utmost respect and integrity, in line with supposed bank policies and principles, when you interact with their customers? Regardless of whether they are default, that point is irrelevant, you are not addressing some garbage from the street, but in most instances, someone who is facing hard times and a dire debt-crisis, which could not be self-inflicted, like losing a job and being terminated from their employment, unable to secure new employment for a no of months.

Yes, you are assigned to achieve targets, but at the cost of destroying an individual for a few hundred or thousand dirhams, you’re not interested in their ‘story’, you only want the money, period. In some cases, customers have presented proof of their termination, even their new employment visa, where once you see the customer has a new job, you become more demanding, you forget the customer has just gone through a few months of zero salary.

Today was classic, a collections manager asked me how long the customer was in the country? I said 4 years, where the customer was terminated 4months ago and just secured new employment, so obviously the customer is 4months in default. She proceeded to say ‘Good, so if he is here for 4years, that means he must at least have 8 friends he can borrow money from to pay he’s overdues, as we can’t wait for he’s salary date”, which is 4 days away from here demanded date!

Hell, it’s beyond a joke, sincerely. I wonder sometimes if these people are human and then they are unconcerned about the devastation they incur in someone’s life, simply because they exist with no empathy to even accept a partial payment. They even inform customers if they don’t have the full overdues or EMI, then don’t bother to pay! Who does that?

This past week we had an agency representative directly email the CEO, which was in my previous article, luckily we stopped the termination to present to the Human Resources Director, that the customer was not being irresponsible, that he had approached a remedial company to assist with remedial, that he’s wife was terminated from her employer and that she had just given birth to a baby with a deformity, which costs a lot of money for critical surgery, exceeding their medical insurance limit. These documents were sent to all he’s creditor banks and not one bank or agency took the time to review them and revert with a positive response.

Today, another agency demanded the new offer letter of another customer who just secured a job and when she informed him she didn’t have the visa yet, he informed her that he would be going to the Authorities to check her visa and if he finds it, he will approach her Human Resources Manager, remembering the customer was only 3 days into her new job. So, what would be the consequences if he showed up at her place of work? Right, she would be terminated!

Regardless of an agencies performance, are we saying that we accept to secure payments based on these principles, knowing:

1. You were the reason someone lost their job today? You hound them at work, slip into the building unauthorized, until their HR or GM notices, inquires and finally they are terminated?

2. You are the reason they have no money to sustain themselves and their families when they offered partial payments?

3. You’re that entitled to control a situation of whether a customer remains employed or is terminated? Since when are you the ‘powers that be’ to dictate who survives and who is left destitute? Yes, you can say that the customer made the debt, that it’s not your problem, that emotions has nothing to do with this. But I say, where is your humanity? How do you exist without a conscience, or are you oblivious to the fact that it will come around to you too? That’s the Law of Life, not anyone’s law, because we sow exactly what we reap, sometimes worse and then don’t please ask ‘Why?’ Sit with your lot and stew in your lesson!

There are professional ethical methods to apply, to achieve effective collections, this is certainly not included in the ‘book of rules’ and I found it horrific that bank collections managers, to whom these cases of victimization is escalated, simply choose to ignore taking action or reprimanding the agency, and I can only believe that it’s easier to ignore. There is only one bank that reprimanded an agency and demanded an agency representative to leave the office of the customer in my presence. I am here to inform you that your methods are not allowed, because customers have the right to protect themselves, we are in the UAE, not in any other country, where all people are afforded the opportunity of respect, or don’t you know this? Or do you assume that you can wield your power because you are aware that the customer has legal cases, so they are not able to lodge legal complaints against you for harassment and victimization? One day, you may not be that fortunate, it happens, and everyone gets a chance.

I have personally instigated the termination of a few of these representatives, where I witnessed these horrific incidents, because they created that situation, they acted as though they were above the law. Let me inform you, that you are not, you are just an employee tasked by the bank to collect money. So, respect yourself first, then respect the bank customers as they are not your customers, therefore acting entitled, demanding, bossy, abusive, obnoxious and plain rude, is abhorrent and unacceptable.

In life we should undertake our assigned tasks with absolute self-respect and dignity to achieve anything, because no one individual with this kind of habit and personality, ever achieved success and if they did or they are still enjoying the moment, then be assured, it is short-lived.

Daily we are reminded of how much we should try to contribute to others happiness and allow people to thrive by working as a team, supporting each other and being happy, so tell me, how is this possible when you’re acting like you don’t even have self-respect and that you’re shameless?