[ad_1]
In all consumer protection measures Members of Congress have expanded to include Americans during the pandemic, and getting relief from debt collection is not one of them.Although emergency laws allow people to lay down certain forms of debt, such as Student Loans with Mortgage For forgiveness, those whose debts take other forms (such as credit cards, cars, and payday loans) have no legal protection.Collect debt quietly Buzzing The pandemic has caused mass deaths, illnesses and unemployment.
With the soaring unemployment rate in the United States, not only has the collection company been operating in the past year, but it has also shifted work to the low-cost labor market. BuzzFeed News interviewed people who work in the office of a third-party American collection company in Tijuana, USA. He asked to be protected under a pseudonym to protect his identity. “Rick” is 20 years old this year and is a Mexican citizen. He said that for 10 hours a day, he logged into an automated call system that agitated him through hundreds of back-to-back calls from agents like him. He remembers trying to get money from people who have no money at all, even people who have been treated for coronavirus in hospitals. He said: “It feels bad because I also owe a debt.” Earlier this year, he resigned.
This is Rick’s story, edited for clarity and length.
I lost my job In 2020, because I recently moved to Tijuana. I saw a job advertisement on Facebook. I have some friends who work there. They said it was recruited for customer service and collection. Advertising makes it look like a customer service job because you need to have customer service experience. It was not until I started the training that they said that we would collect money from people who were calling and trying to pay. And, when we have more experience, we will call customers.I do not know
That makes me a little dissatisfied because they didn’t really do it. I used to work in a call center, but in the customer service department, not in collections. So this is a bit scary to me. But I need this job. So I tried my best. We only have two weeks to learn all the content in the training. Since English is not the first language of some of us (my mother tongue is Spanish), we need to learn new words such as “delay” and “balloon payment” and what are borrowers and creditors. Therefore, this is both fun and challenging.
I will go in at 6 in the morning and work 10 hours a day until 4 in the afternoon. Due to COVID, we took two seats apart from each other. We must always wear masks. There are approximately 90 agents in the team.
We have a system that always dials by itself all day long. The account number automatically pops up on the screen, and we will be able to access the account. But the dialing time will not exceed 30 seconds, so we only have a minute or less to see their information and the money they owe. We only need to enter to start a call without having to know too much about the history of the account. Sometimes the system just connects us, and people are already saying: “Hello? Hello?” I am not prepared to spend so little time preparing to take care of such important things. They should definitely improve these things because people are in difficult times.
Usually, the system makes more than 200 calls back to back every day. Most of them did not answer. I have to talk to about 50 people every day. All customers are located in the United States. Mainly personal loans and auto loans. If I need to go to the bathroom or need to rest, I can put myself in the function of stopping answering the phone, even if the supervisor does not like it.
We actually have no control over the number of actual calls to customers. We have no system to know. Sometimes, a person receives 10 calls, and this makes the situation worse. Sometimes we will reconnect with the same person one day, and we have to pretend that we don’t know them or apologize to them.
Once my colleague called someone and she was really angry. She said that she received at least 20 calls that day, and she did not want to pay because she was over. She is actually in the hospital. She said that she actually lost her husband because of COVID, and now she is ill in the hospital due to COVID, taking oxygen. But, in fact, others might try to get in touch with her two hours later and the next day afterwards, because, again, we really can’t do much with these calls.
We need to meet some indicators. But it has nothing to do with how much money we raised. The quality assurance agent scores us in our “Customer Service”. They are trained to evaluate our phone. We have our own scripts, and some scripts need to be spoken verbatim. Therefore, they mainly evaluated the customer service we provide based on this; for example, if you miss only one word, you will get zero. I’m fine.
In our script, first you have to complete the verification process. When a payment is required, consumers will explain the situation, such as their inability to pay due to COVID or due to inability to work. We must try at least two times before we can pay. For example, we can provide some deferred services, or provide payment plans. On a normal day, more than half of the people I talk to cannot pay anything. Zero dollars.
It feels bad because I also owe debts. I also have money to buy. Therefore, it is not easy for me to get them to pay. Even if there is no pandemic, it is difficult to ask for money. But when you know that everyone is experiencing things that affect many people, this will be a bigger challenge. I feel a little bit asking, asking people for money-but at the same time, we have to keep working.We are not involved in trying to help [the consumer]; We are just collecting there, this is what our supervisor reminded us during the whole experience.
My salary is about 3,000 Mexican Pesos [$150] every week. We are really close to San Diego, so the rent here tends to be higher. So, I mean, I can survive. Compared with people who go to college, this is nothing. But, to be honest, I know that since this is an American company, they might pay more.
Work is mainly because you are disturbing them and trying to collect, so people will be angry with you. Since I have been working in a call center since I was 17, I have become accustomed to people yelling at me. But it’s hard at the end of the day. It is difficult for someone to yell at you and tell you nasty things. I quit my job as a debt collector in February. I want to do something else. I think the reason I am still working in a call center is because I am used to it. In fact, because they are American companies, their salaries are better than other jobs. ?
[ad_2]
Source link
