provident agents [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

19england66

Where has the agents say no web site gone?????? Has it been hacked???

demoralised

It's back, so keep the momentum going, we owe it to shareholders to tell the truth.

demoralised

Something funny going on with agentssayno, several of my posts are not being printed, has anyone else noticed this, is it still run by the same people, noticed blogs appear instantly now, but not at all if you say something they don't like, also they don't always appear below blog you replied to, so a form of editing.

19england66

Provident is on the way out.none of us will have a job home collecting in 5 years max. Not good news but thats it in a nutshell.

demoralised

I take it that Provi do not like us telling the truth, agentssayno has withstood many cyber attacks, and has now been threatened with court action, it seems to be blocked out at the moment, they do not want us telling the truth with the half year figs due shortly, only we can tell the shareholders that it is all a tissue of lies, that it is all done with smoke and mirrors, Cattle springs to mind, how desperate they are now, and who they are now issuing to, never mind the fact that payin is being held back to massage the figs further, where will it all end, only in disaster I am afraid.

demoralised

Well we have a hollow victory, fines stopped as of week 51, let the rebuilding begin, and let's pray it is not to late for CCD. Pots deductions was Provis Ratner moment, never in the history of Provi has one decision been so destructive, and yet Gillespie, the instigator, still was given a massive bonus, what do you have to do at Bradford to fail?

jeanm_2

any agents still keeping track here want to comment on this latest waste of time?
I am contacting my area manager next week to make sure I haven't calculated wrong but I reckon a good agent who always tried their hardest every week from the start of this scheme will be hit from now on getting just 7% and will be lucky to hit the 8% threshold on the odd week.

demoralised

Sorry jeanm but we have been on this system for several weeks and as a previous gold agent I have been paid 11% every week! that does not mean I agree with it, it's wrong that agents will still do not know how much to expect to be paid from week to week, you can't run your life like that, plus my 3 targets are all the same so I only have to miss by 1 and I drop from 11 to 7%, which is over a third of commission due. I have maintained from day one that we all do the same job and should receive the same commission rate. I admit this is better than before, but is still not right, the rate agents are leaving has slowed, but they are still leaving, and will continue to do so until there is a flat rate commission structure, I will be gone if I hit 7% to often! as will several of my workmates. It would have been far better to have had a flat rate of 10% for all and a monthly bonus of an extra 1% if certain targets were reached! that way we could all plan our lives! mortgages etc? and have something extra to strive for, Mark said "you spoke we listened" but not very well as nobody said give us another complicated tiered scheme to pay us, we all said give us 10%.

jeanm_2

I have hit my 10% threshold for the first 8 weeks, then it jumped up by 19. I managed 9% on the 9th week and that was a battle going back out on Tuesday morning to try for some of my fortnightly tuesday evening payers early before paying in so the week after was a shocker. That was purely to make sure I got the extra 1% until the end of September (9 out of 13 weeks).
I fully agree this seems a great start to the new system and I did not expect to get 10%.I would have been happy with 9% ,plus an opportunity to get to 10% and expected the odd decline to 8%. But what bugs me is that an agent can do their best every week and they will be penalised with impossible thresholds in the future. By my understanding of how they will calculate thresholds, my average number of payers so far is 74 out of 120 customers. they then use this average of 74 to set the 7% base threshold. plus 2%,5% and10% for the upper thresholds. So by doing my best and going back over and over until I get results, I got 74 payers. Now I have to get 74 to get 7%.
I have the added uncertainty of taking on 25 customers from a split agency last week. these weren't factored in last week so I hit my 10% target fine but I have no idea just how it will work this week. The info says they are looking into a fair way of calculating that. of those 25 customers, there are a few don't pay regularly and quite a few fortnightly and monthly, mostly in arrears. I doubt I will get more than half of them to pay on a regular basis
if anybody has a different interpretation on the way they calculate, please give me hope. I have made it clear to my manager I wasn't after getting 10% every week but I would only tolerate 7 or 8% for a short time so I hope I win the lottery before the end of September!

Devils_Incarnate

I have been a Provident Self Employed Agent for a number of years now and endured numerous commission schemes. The last one, I was a gold agent that didn't suffer too badly with the "fines" that were put in place.
This new commission scheme seemed OK to start with. It always does. Keep the agent sweet. Unfortunately, things have changed now. I have dropped to 7%. And really don't see it improving. Regular contact with customers and getting them to pay their accounts ( even when they can't afford their weekly payments ) is working against an agent. I thought that was what we should do. Bearing in mind that we are dealing with customers who's situations are subject to change for whatever reason. I enjoy working with my customers and enjoy the challenge of making "good" out of what can sometimes be a difficult situation for genuine customers. I am not proud of Provident. They are not a good company to work for as an agent or otherwise.