provident agents [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

cash_loss

stormchild wrote: »

I do not feel sorry for any dm out there as you are the ones who should be shouting loudest right now. It should be up to you lot to tell the powers that be that this is not the proper way to conduct a company of this magnitude. You are going to be collecting books all day and night and go home to your wife who will tell you to get another job as she does'nt need the stress of you grouching all the time. I think the only reason a lot of agents have not walked out so far is that it takes time to set up interviews.

And you think we haven't?

shaftedbyprovi

whataf**kingliberty wrote: »

if the managers done there job in the first place and went out and done the arrears then maybe the customers wouldnt be behind and the agents wouldnt be getting charged!

We all know they are too busy having long lunches, meaningless meetings and being full of their own importance to actually do any work that would help an agent. basically they are toothless as provident will not take anyone to court for their debts as this would be bad publicity. cant really show up in front of a judge and say they charged them 1068%apr and expect them to find in providents favour.

delain

stormchild wrote: »

Hi, I'm 'self employed' as an agent with provident. In the current financial climate there are quite a few customers struggling with their debts but we the 'AGENTS' are essentially subsidising the company. They have brought in a new policy where if a customer falls behind in payments they are penalising us upto £15 depending on the state of their account. As of today I stand to lose £50 this week as I know these customers cannot pay the amounts being asked for. There are lots of people visiting C.A.B and entering Iva's debt management etc which are outwith our control yet they see fit to still go ahead with this draconian measure. Lots of people are unhappy with this and we appear to be helpless and unable to stop this. Does anyone have any advice they could possibly give?

Makes a change from being the ones doing the ripping off I suppose.

teamspirit

cash_loss wrote: »

I am a DM for Provi, trust me this is not right, we are expecting a lot of agents to walk out in the next few weeks. Those that have made this decision have never collected a book. We are going to lose some very good agents. They will lose more money when the books are not collected.

Good for you! there are several DM's out there that agree with the agents but cant be seen to agree with them or are too scared to. Its a shame really because if agents start to leave they are the ones left holding the baby so to speak. Yes there are some lousy managers out there but there are some good ones also. Several losses in our branch this week. How long can this keep going? I have interview this week for rival company, after a long time with provident I'll be sad to leave but I will not be penalised for things out of my control. Three accounts this week lost to CAB will leave me £45 down at some point and im not allowed to knock the door to even talk to them, thats including the other losses i'll pick up along the way.

YOUR_A_JOKE_PROVI

You are spot on with your comments, was thinking exactly the same myself. I know for fact my manager agrees with everything we are saying but cannot be seen to agree. Check out the Daily Mirror comments they are growing, with a bit of luck this will be investigated further and create more bad press for Provident / Greenwoods.

Secret-Agent

Ok yes there are some really bad agents out there, i myself took over a round after a very bad agent pushed ppl into having loans they cant afford because the powers that be are pushing agents for more and more sales. Do i hit my sales targets evey week? NO! the reason? i have NEVER and never will pushed anyone into having anything they cant afford. New customers come to me i dont go looking for them, if a customer asks me how much money they can have my answer is it depends what u can afford. I always go though EVERYTHING with customers and ask them are they sure they wish to go ahead with a loan before they sign. Yes the rates are high but for some ppl they want some extra cash for various reasons and cant go to a bank etc .... for the ppl who want to slate provident or any other loan company maybe u could try walking in someone elses shoes before you slate them. I have good customers i have bad customers. Only yesterday someone asked me for another loan, i know she cant afford more and as a single mother i know shes going to ask me for money at xmas. So rather that push for a sale i could have easily got i asked her to consider long term, she then thanked me for not giving her another loan. Bad agent? no im not, im doing a job and im doing it well ..... the things some ppl are saying its like blaming cadburys for fat ppl .....
As for the orginal topic, its awful the way we as agents are being treated and for any of the "powers that be" that are pretending they are not reading this i openly invite you to come and collect with me tomorrow night ((not the normal friday because theres a wedding and the bank hol makes our life so much harder)) come and see how hard i work and how much i try to reasure and help the customers who have just lost jobs, had money stopped etc etc etc .... no its not the best job in the world but atleast im trying to feed my kids rather that letting the goverment do it for me!!

nexus2011

Interesting article by the mirror on this.

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2011/04/were-not-all-in-it-together-pa-3.html#more

One agent told us: "Customers are finding it very hard at the moment and many are overcommitted.
"If they lose their job or have their benefits cut they will ask to pay less and we're being punished for it. One colleague had £50 taken out of her pay packet last week, leaving her with £200. It's wrong."

crazyguy

All doorstep lenders are just sharks anyway and the intrest on these loans is a complete joke they prey on those in need and desperate and have the nerve to moan that they are not earning commision.

Do us all a favour and go and get a proper job !

teamspirit

Agents do not set the interest rates. And as for sharks, what about credit cards and banks? A typical 2,000 balance, making the minimum payment each month can take upto 20 years to pay off! maybe we should get a proper job and work for a bank which charges for missed payments, a few pence unauthorised overdraft, returned cheques. None of these are charged by provident. Our charges are transparent, what you are charged is what you will pay regardless of what happens during the life of the loan. Apr's are misleading when used to compare small loans over short periods of time with large loans such as mortgages over longer periods. yes the charges may be high but they are never misleading.

Provy-wife

Like most on this thread, I too am an agent with provident and can't believe I am being fined because certain customers can't or won't pay their loan payments.I've been in this job for 10 years and have a genuine like for my customers,infact, some have become good friends and if I had to leave I know they would be as upset as much as I would be.
These so called fines for non payment are at best disgraceful and at worst, surely illegal. If I didn't pay my barclaycard bill, I'm sure barclays wouldn't fine the person who sent me the card so why should we agents have to pay upto 15 pounds for an account that's slipping into arreas.Many agents can't afford the wide swings in commission that these fines will cause and most of us know by looking at the target payment sheet that we have no chance of getting the money in to prevent the fines so over the coming weeks there will be a lot of looking for alternative employment.Sadly because of who we work for and the type of job we do I don't see us getting much sympathy from Joe public which is unfair as we are as hard working as the rest of society and do not want to be unemployed on benefits, all we want is the pay we are due to and not to be fined due to customers falling behind with their payments.Surely someone one out there can help us find a way to stop this daylight robbery.