provident agents [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

jeanm_2

I know some of our agents,including myself, have been asked to go into the office for two\ three hours and phone from a list. This list is customers past and present of any agent in our branch. They offered £5 hour. As pointed out, this means we have no control over our own customers. I got a message from oyr office saying a certain customer wanted me to go to issue a £300 loan. I was puzzled as she would just drop me a text for one. I was due to go that day so i got the forms together, setvoff 15 minutes early with extra cash and knocked. She said she couldnt get rid of the woman who phoned.she told her if she wanted a loan,she would just contact me direct. This woman said she would let me know then. My customer was adamant she didnt want one but she logged it as an issue required.
I'm sure all agencies are the same her,but how many absolute rubbish paying customers have you managed to get paid up through sheer perseverence,getting £1 or 2,until after 398 long weeks,that final £1 comes off and they're gone. Then, the following week, you see on your CLIP, a SEL message saying Max rate £28 week! And some of these customers wouldn't refuse it when offered!

demoralised

jeanm wrote: »

I know some of our agents,including myself, have been asked to go into the office for two\ three hours and phone from a list. This list is customers past and present of any agent in our branch. They offered £5 hour. As pointed out, this means we have no control over our own customers. I got a message from oyr office saying a certain customer wanted me to go to issue a £300 loan. I was puzzled as she would just drop me a text for one. I was due to go that day so i got the forms together, setvoff 15 minutes early with extra cash and knocked. She said she couldnt get rid of the woman who phoned.she told her if she wanted a loan,she would just contact me direct. This woman said she would let me know then. My customer was adamant she didnt want one but she logged it as an issue required.
I'm sure all agencies are the same her,but how many absolute rubbish paying customers have you managed to get paid up through sheer perseverence,getting £1 or 2,until after 398 long weeks,that final £1 comes off and they're gone. Then, the following week, you see on your CLIP, a SEL message saying Max rate £28 week! And some of these customers wouldn't refuse it when offered!

They paid you, we don't get paid plus they expect us to do 50 mile round trip to office to make the calls using our own phones!!!!!! Ditto re the complete waste of time referrals are, mine all said the same as yours, they didn't want it but couldn't get the pushy so and so's off the phone, what a complete waste of time and petrol. Good luck with your "work to rule" , all they seem to do is keep demotivating us, WHY!!!! Re new customers we are out if 1 not put on in 8 week period, regardless if loads went on previous 8 weeks, the only effect that has is to make you stop looking for them when you have one, untill 8 weeks nearly up. So in the end they will end up with less, better to take the flak for 7 weeks than risk finding to many one period and unable to get any the next. Thought things would get better, and the powers that be would wake up and smell the coffee, but doesn't look like it. They need to see that all their meddling is damaging Home Credit, it's problems only started when they started messing agents around.

jeanm_2

We had a meeting this week. Manager said he wouldn't be sacking any agent who didn't put a ND on in 8 weeks as long as they could say they tried- declined SVC or just saying you asked customers if they have friend\ relatives to ask is enough. One agent said a few months ago, she felt motivated, now it feels like intimidation. Somebody brought up the abolition of smaller agencies. This was denied.they said a good small agency agent who was willing to put new customers on to replace those paid up\ written off or signs them up and passes them to another agent would not be penalised.
These bully tactics are nothing new but maybe I am just getting too old to give a damn any more. . I still have a letter sent to all agents in 2002 saying any agent who falls short of collection or sales targets at their payin meeting will be sent back out and not allowed to pay in.
Until recently,I considered myself a good agent-i now say I am an agent. I will do the job,nothing more

Devils_Incarnate

Tell them to get stuffed and keep your pride.
I was told that they want professional agents who will treat it as a full time job. Gone are the days of going out for £80 commission for 2 days work. A good agent earns a lot more than that but of course that's not what they want. They want an agent to earn 7%. They want an agency to be full of customers that don't pay regularly so that they can achieve that 7% pay-out. They want to bully/ threaten everyone who works there, in whatever capacity, to make that happen. The best way is to discourage customers from having any further loans. To encourage them to use their Credit Unions and save. Or if they need to use companies like this, look around at the competition. Most customers have loans because they like their agent. They trust their agent. If you're a customer reading this, believe me, an agent hasn't done you any favours. An agent has kept you in debt because the company never wants you to pay up. They want you to increase your payments by using a loan to pay off another. That way you can be kept in debt a little longer. Much wants more.

Russell_lover

A few years ago there was a solicitor on the agents say no site, this solicitor wanted information from self employed agents of provident looking to try and support agents and fight for better rights, does anyone here have their contact details? Or can tell me where this site now is?

no_issue

Unfortunately the agentssayno site no longer exists. Think most agents thought things had improved once they stopped taking our own hard earned back in the form of fines and brought in the new commission scheme. Also at that time we were lectured non stop about responsible lending. How things have changed ... no responsible lending now, just issue to bad debtors, previous write offs and go out canvassing in order to take on as much dodgy customers as you can find.
Most of my contemporaries in our local office have been sacked (or had their contract terminated) these are agents who have been with the company for many years but who do not fit the 'super agent' profile which the company now seem to be pursuing, young kids really who can work five days a week, collecting and canvassing and whose agencies are poor quality but then again that suits the company as they only have to pay 7%.
Those of us who are let are just totally demoralised, we go into out weekly interviews knowing that its all going to be about how many new doors have we got for this week, interestingly the managers' bonus is linked to new doors so that is why they are pushing it so much. The managers attitudes to agents has also changed, what was once a fairly amicable relationship is now quite frosty as managers have been ordered to get tough with agents.
So another week passes and I'm still here - looking desperately for another job, been offered a job with Morses but their credit control is very stringent and wouldn't suit most of my customers as it would be like starting all over again and having to slowly build up their credit rating and even then they would get nowhere near the credit limit which Provident allow.
One thing which I've noticed and which should be worth doing is to use the 'Whistleblower' option on the FCA website.
If a lot of us were to use this and tell how we're being bullied into issuing to people who would never achieve the affordability criteria which we are now supposed to use, or how we're being forced to canvass (some of our agents were handed a big bunch of envelopes which we're supposed to go out and do a 'drop' and then go back to the house the following week and knock on the door and ask if the person got the literature and if so can we be of any help). This form of canvassing is obviously designed to try and get around the current canvassing regulations and is very dubious even for such a bunch as Provident.
Be interested in other agents views so please let your mates know about this forum because its one of the few weapons we have, agentsayno was successful because so many of us used it and we were able to stick together. I think there is a facebook page for agents but not sure how safe it is to post there as managers are probably quite active on it.

TheLoanMan

The truth is that home collected is a ageing, outdated mature business. the company knows this and i personally dont see it lasting beyond another 10 years.

The credit card has more customers makes more profit and once satsuma gains traction home collected will get smaller and smaller and eventually sold off.

This will take time though which is why there desperately trying to stem the customer loss having seen a year on year decrease of nearly 30% last year.

The internet has brought about more competition and greater awareness of the choices out there.
Further cost cutting and manager redundancys in the offing as i understand.

As an agent i really dont see things improving, all just my personal opinion of course.

makeyourdaddyproud

TheLoanMan wrote: »

The truth is that home collected is a ageing, outdated mature business. the company knows this and i personally dont see it lasting beyond another 10 years.

The credit card has more customers makes more profit and once satsuma gains traction home collected will get smaller and smaller and eventually sold off.

This will take time though which is why there desperately trying to stem the customer loss having seen a year on year decrease of nearly 30% last year.

The internet has brought about more competition and greater awareness of the choices out there.
Further cost cutting and manager redundancys in the offing as i understand.

As an agent i really dont see things improving, all just my personal opinion of course.

I'm sorry but I think that is codswallop.

At the end of the day, if a customer has a debt, it needs to be recuperated somehow, and the first point of contact would always be a home visit.

How else are you going to get a debtor to pay?

As long as firms like BH are doing good business, there will always be a debt crystallising somewhere, and one that will inevitably be passed on.

This will materialise as an unscheduled visit.

TheLoanMan

As someone with an impressive number of posts it's surprising that you don't really understand my post.

Provident personal credit are a loan company who collect the repayments via home visit, as any agent will tell you they are not debt collectors.

My post is specific to provident, off course there will always be debt collectors or bailiffs, that's not providents business and not what I was commenting on.

makeyourdaddyproud

TheLoanMan wrote: »

Provident personal credit are a loan company who collect the repayments via home visit, as any agent will tell you they are not debt collectors.

Oh really....

What are you smokin'?