Thread: Responsibilty

I haven't complained about work on here for a while.

Now is the time.

Here are two scenarios I faced recently.

Ring Ring

Cash Converters Prahran, Kath speaking

Hi, I want the loans section please.

Cash loans? Yes that's me. What can I do for you?

I want to know if you took my payment.

Okay, I'll just look up your file. (Looks up file). Okay, well the first payment came out on Monday the 9th of November, and we're due to take the second one out tomorrow on the 23rd.

No you already took it.

No, we didn't.

Well I got paid on Saturday, and the money is gone.

Well, it can't be. Because Centrelink pays you on a Monday according to your statements, but if you can access it on a Saturday, then it's your responsibilty to leave the money in there until Monday night when we can take it.

Why can't you take it out of Centrelink?

Because we can't legally do that. We take it out of your account, and we can't do that on the weekend because the banks are closed. Is there going to be any money in there tomorrow evening for us to take?

No, I spent it all.

Well then the payment will decline, you will receive a dishonour fee from us and probably the bank, and we'll have to reschedule it for the following fortnight and it will be your responsibility to make sure you leave enough in your account until Monday night. Or you could come in once you get your money on Saturday and pay us in cash.

Why can't you take it before I get it.

Because we can't. I explained that. It's up to you to pay back your loan.

Up to ME?! Why should it be my responsibilty.

Umm, because you took a loan, sir, and it's your responsibility to pay back the loan.

No, you bastards lent me the money and if you can't get it back it's your problem.

(This went on for a while and resulted in me hanging up on him while he told me to stick the loan up my ass. Funnily enough the payment went through on Monday. Dopey dickhead.)


Today in person a customer went on a similar thing.

You take the payments on Wednesday night?

Yes

Why can't you take it in the morning when I get it?

Because all our payments come out at night. You'll just have to leave seventy dollars in there until Thursday morning, then we'll get it and you won't incur any fees.

But I will be tempted to spend it.

Well, don't.

Are you sure you can't take it in the morning.

Are you sure you can't exercise a little self control and show some fucking skerrick of responsibility in your life you absolute waste of perfectly good oxygen?!?!?!



Okay. I'm done. Seriously. People are obscene.

Yeah my apologies. I normally save this ranting for Instant messenger friends, but they're all on holidays from work this week.

My rage-o-meter was getting out of hand.

I'm not sure how to spell skerrick. I'd never written it before, it's probably Aussie slang. I dunno, ask Ox.

heh, fox your story reminds me of when i did phone support in college. typical scenario :

"What can I help you with?"
"The payment won't go through!"
"Ok, what does it say on the screen?"
"I don't know, it's gone and I have a big line of customers out the door! Make this thing work!"
"Sir, please calm down and walk me through what you did"
** explains the process **
"Ok now what does it say?"
"Connection Failed"
"Did you plug in the network cable?"
"Of course!"
"Can you please check?"
** Grumbles ** .... * silence *...
"Oh I've fixed it, thanks anyway." *click*
** face palm **

How does Aussie law deal with people who don't pay their debts? Can anything severe happen to them, or do you just have to pretend it's a big deal? If I were you, I'd just tell them I didn't give a fuck whether they paid or not.

well these dont seem to be loans from the government, in which case itd be the companies problem in dealing with debt collection. legally they can ask a cop to come with them to collect the debt but beyond that, the company is at a loss if they just let the people default on their loans. at least that's how it is in the US, i assume it's similar in AU

is this one of those 'paycheck advance' places? where you give them a loan at some ridiculous interest rate with the promise that they give you the paycheck later that month? i imagine there are already some pretty shady people going there for loans, there isn't a whole lot fox could do i don't think.

A common method of collecting money from defaulting debtors was by a Court-sanctioned order, called a garnishee, against a person’s wages or bank account, which the employer/bank was legally bound to comply with or they footed the bill instead.

yeah there are a number of similar options in the US as well. Small Claims Court is probably the most common route. At the end the judge can order the defendant to pay the plaintiff a sum of money, then it officially becomes a legal situation, you can then ask the police to accompany you to collect the money. Of course if they don't have the money there really isn't much you can do, I mean you can keep hounding them but it'd be a waste of time.

The other thing is instead of asking a court to demand a sum of money, you can put a lien against the defendant's property for the amount owed. In case you guys don't use the term lien, it's basically like a debt against property. For example, if I put a lien against someone's house, if they try to sell it without first paying off their debt (thereby removing the lien) then the person who holds the lien will get their fair share from the selling price. There is some order of who gets what when a house is sold, I think lien-holders are pretty close to the top of the list. Of course if the person never sells their house or sells it for less than the amount that is owed, then you're out of luck again.

The real problem is that in situations like what I think Fox's employers encounter, is that it is often not worth the cost of pursuing a defaulted debt.

Another option is just to sell off the debt to a debt collection agency. For example, a collection agency might essentially pay off the debt for a fraction of the owed amount and then try to go collect it on their own.

My experience with this sort of thing is almost exclusively with very low income shop owners who barely speak english (if at all) and are often illegal immigrants. So getting them to show up to court is not such an easy thing to do.

although you really do get to meet some real dead beats, just makes me shake my head sometimes... They get loaned money, and then go spend it on a nice car and when it's time to pay the loan back they just plead poverty.

Ox - Glad I speld it right. You're wrong about Direct Debits though. As far as I know. I've never ever had a debit come out on a weekend from my account. And even if I'm transferring funds between my accounts, if I do it over a weekend it won't process until it's been one full working day. And I absolutely can't set the ones at Cashies to come out on weekends or on banking holidays. Thing is everyday they process all the installments that are due to be paid that night, they get sent through a system with the bank, and then hit accounts at about midnight. If the bank's not open, it doesn't happen. What info do you have about direct debiting on the weekend??


Sigg - Haha I love that. I get coworkers calling me "Kat, the scanner no working. What do I do?" "Umm, turn it off then turn it on again?"

Usually works.

Malone - It's not severe if these guys don't pay us back. These are mostly people on Welfare. They can't afford big amounts, and Sigg said it, it's absolutely not worth chasing someone up for $67. We do sell our debts to debt collectors. But all they do is call them and send letters and bug relatives. As for pretending to care, I do actually care if they don't pay back. Mostly because it creates more work for me. It means 3 months of calling and debt collecting myself first, and it also affects my gross profit margin, which i never used to care about until it started affecting my bonuses. We also have managers meetings and stuff and if my store is going poorly, I cop the guilt trip. In front of all the managers. I don't reeaaly care. But if I can avoid that shit I do.