Some Credit Grantors Need to Wake Up!

insideARM.com’s headline story yesterday read “AG Kicks Debt Collection Agency Out of State.” We’ve all see this movie before…Attorney General in “fill-in-the-blank” state issues press announcement that his office barred an agency from collecting debts in his state. State rejoices. The end.

I decided to spend three minutes and check out David Faith Corporation. This wannabe “collection agency” does not exist on any of my company’s databases. It also is not a member of ACA International. Going a little further – and still under three minutes’ worth of effort – I found this posting on the website WhoCallsMe.com from March:

“…He says that his name is Cody Tervort and that he works for David Faith and Associates. Here is the information I have on this guy. This guy was a complely rude and unprofessional. I have asked him numerous times to send me paperwork showing that he is the one who has been assigned to collect on the debt and he refuses. He sent me some info through e-mail but won’t send me anything through USPS like he LEGALLY has to. He tells me to drive down and meet him in person and we can settle it then. All the information he has on me you can get through public record. Mine is from a bad check from 8 years ago through VeriCheck (who isn’t even in business anymore). Mine is a judgement but he now wants $671.25 for an $18.23 check. The address to the establishment that my check was written to doesn’t exist nor has it ever at that address. The store exists but in a different location. He has no bank account info. Just the info on public record. I WOULD BE VERY CAUTIOUS IN DEALING WITH THIS GUY!! Cody Jake Tervort investigator for David Faith and Associates : Denver, St. Petersburg, Salt Lake City, Little Rock (801)577-4604 (this is a cell number in Salt Lake) 3773 Cherry Creek North Drive, Suite #575 Denver, CO 80209”

They do have a website, www.lighthousedebt-fund.com, and they take accounts from clients on-line. When you click on their team it states “As our team grows, it becomes harder to list all the names.” They can’t even list one? Who would place accounts with this business?

Am I surprised by what I was able to find in under three minutes? Hardly. Is this yet another wake-up call for the industry? Absolutely.

Here is a question I can’t answer: how did this “collection agency” get hired in the first place?

Credit grantors of all size take note. Stop being enablers. Please do some homework to qualify your vendors. Please spend at least three minutes looking them up. Better yet, check with the Better Business Bureau. Call references. Check criminal records. Ask to meet the owners and visit their operations. Check memberships. You owe it to your employer, your customers, and your industry to do some homework before placing accounts. Credit card issuers, for example, have substantial onboarding processes for new vendors. What’s yours?

Debt collection is not a commodity business that should be judged exclusively on obtaining the lowest possible fee rates. If an agency is willing to take on your accounts for less than another, more qualified operation, it will most likely cost you a lot more in the long run.

I tell my sons that if no one buys dope from a drug dealer there won’t be any drug dealers. The streets would be a lot safer and we could save a lot of tax payer money spent chasing drug dealers. The same is true here. Credit grantors of all sizes and account types — commercial and consumer — need to take back their streets.

Signed, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider Man