provident agents [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

teamspirit · 16 April 2011 at 6:02PM

carolwat wrote: »

Just want to say that this is exactly what will happen. As soon as the customer has paid the required amount they move backup a stage in arrears and the money is clawed back by the agent.

This is true, but if they arent in a position to pay the required amount then the agent wont be refunded. There will be very few cases where an agent will gain. Provident are suffering with high arrears, probably due to the massive push in sales in the last quarter run up to christmas where they expected agents to acheive huge volumes of sales. They could never expect to reach these without some sort of effect being felt in the way of bad debt. Now they are feeling the repercussions of this, they expect the agent to pay for it.

stormchild · 17 April 2011 at 12:48AM

Maybe there needs to be a mass walk out of agents. Then provident may have a rethink on this. I have already spoken to all my customers telling them of this situation. My customers back me all the way to the point that if I leave then none of them will pay their accounts or a token payment weekly. I will then go to another company reserve them loans and be in an even stronger position than before as anyone on reduced payments would be given a loan to suit their new circumstances. I am in contact with a few people and believe there is private meetings being arranged to see what type of backing there may be. If this type of unrest gets back to provident then they may have a change of heart and take a long hard look at themselves and their tactics in this current financial climate. Presently all development managers are doing telesales to drum up business that then may put customers over the top financially and then reduce payments, cab or debt management. Who then suffers? The agent again, not the D.M who usually end up with a big fat bonus and a pat on the back (for doing so well) I DONT THINK SO!!

sharpy2010 · 17 April 2011 at 4:14AM

teamspirit wrote: »

Apparently we have to be made accountable for the arrears on our books.

You cannot possibly be responsible for someone elses inability to service their loan, and as such this is disgusting.

What Provident are trying to force you to do as an agent is to get really nasty with customers and threaten them to pay. This may not be what Provident are aiming to achieve, but its certainly what will happen.

teamspirit · 17 April 2011 at 2:34PM

Im not really sure if a mass walkout is a good idea, as tempting as it seems. They would just terminate our agreements and during the current economic climate there are plenty of willing people to fill our shoes. But we still shouldnt be held to ransom. Unfortunately as im sure you're aware Stormchild, most of these decisions are made by the 'money men' in the higher positions. Most of them have never knocked a door in their life, or had to collect a round. They have no idea what its like. They think that by deducting this money we can suddenly make people pay more! If they could, we wouldnt have any arrears in the first place. But we do not live in an ideal world. We're supposed to be approachable when people face hardship, and do our best to help people through it. It has even been suggested by someone that if someone falls behind, give them another loan and take the arrears out of it to bring them upto date! Thats right, theyre in a hole lets just make it deeper shall we?! No wonder we have a bad name.

teamspirit · 17 April 2011 at 2:55PM

I remember not so long back they used to 'fine' us £5 if we made a mistake on our loan agreements! it as just like being a child again, if you dont behave you dont get your pocket money! they suddenly stopped that though, maybe someone told them it was illegal??

blondie_norfolk · 17 April 2011 at 10:01PM

:mad: provident agent myself only way of beating the commission rip off, when you hit your hitlists, is to save your pluses, and save the money you get that week for the weeks you get a minus.or how about a one day stoppage/strike. its illegal to drip feed but thats what they are pushing agents to do,(but please any agent dont do this) i myself could end up losing 115 this week which is totally unfair, and i know agents that could be losing up to 200 a week in commission.i think any agent thats reading this should post to your facebook.and dont give the dms their bonuses.:mad::mad: angry agent norfolk

stormchild · 17 April 2011 at 10:34PM

Hi Blondie, all it would take to stop D.M getting bonus(don't forget that if they don't get it neither does A.M, Rom's, Dom's etc nice thought aint it)is to miss a £500 sale from your and colleagues sales targets for a few months. Lets see them squirm then when all their jobs are on the line.

tea690 · 17 April 2011 at 10:44PM

i have got a provident loan and a greenwood loan...we had bad credit but a good income...then due to a tax credit balls up we had to reduce our payment so we had an arrangemnt with the prov and green manager that we would pay a nominal amount for the future untill situation improved

my provident agent told me about the new charge on friday and told me her manager told her to tell the customers to pay provident and not greenwood so they wouldnt be charged

ITK1 · 18 April 2011 at 6:58PM

There are many home collect companies who would look to recruit good agents, explore your opportunities by logging onto the lenders compared website and looking for the companies who trade in your area and see what they have to offer, this is a very competative industry and you are no doubt worth far more than you realise.

stormchild · 18 April 2011 at 10:37PM

I have an interview on Thursday already set up. I am keeping my options open at moment so at least I have the choice to go quite easily. I have been with them a while so it would be a wrench and all my customers support me in the stand against these bully boy tactics from provident. Most are disgusted and providents name right now is mud. So much for them helping communities and a softly softly approach to the subprime market. I think its disgusting that provident managers could go out and favour one company over another (tea690) as they are both the same company and in most cases work from the same offices so are in effect cutting the other brands throat. This is only to further that DM's career but I would think that would only end up in lost collections bad debt charge and certainly sales as these customers will not always be in that situation. I think that is very shortsighted and would only be done by someone who has no real understanding of the business they are in.

provident agents [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

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