Dear BBB,

            The article entitled, “Commercial Investigations, Inc.: Harassing to Help,” attempted to present a fair and balanced view of the collections industry by offering a profile of one company that has received some complaints. As news articles go, it had a light touch. The writer seemed appropriately removed from the collections agency, just like a correspondent in a foreign country is implicitly disengaged from its subject. A travel writer might approach a place with passion and offer an idealized vision of such a place. The subject in this article does not inspire a lot of idealization. The collections industry, in general, is not talked about much, and therefore, most people are not educated about it. It is one of those overlooked and arcane topics, like Maritime Law—the Law of the Sea—a highly complex yet under-researched area warranting more careful analysis than most journalists have time for. Overall, the point of view of the BBB article worked well for the journalist because it seemed to invite a breezy sort of overview.

Had the journalist bothered to scrutinize the subject, the article would have disclosed a few complexities that might have proven tiresome. It was likely written to an audience without more than a passing curiosity about the subject.  A publication specializing in a trade attracts an audience with a vested interest in the material and these readers need in-depth information. The collections industry is not a highly popular news item. Most people do not want to remember a call about a late payment, a financial oversight, or an unpaid account. Who can blame them? Few readers are drawn to the subject. Considering the author’s material, the readability of this article was surprisingly good.

Naturally, the journalist, too, seems dispassionate about the topic. Still, he or she persists in the presentation of a fair and balanced story of a day or an hour in the dross world of collections. Few readers want to read about how to fix a plumbing leak or a flat tire or how to fix a problem with their computer print: these are not events of high magnitude. You have to throw in some controversy just to incite some curiosity.
Now imagine how dispassionate a debtor company who is being reminded by a phone agent about a past-due invoice the company failed to pay. The phrase “Don’t kill the messenger,” comes to mind. It is not the kind of news anyone wants to hear. The reality of our economy is that the collections industry plays a necessary role. No one company should be held accountable for being in an industry overlooked by the media and by the disinterested public. Law firms have a bad reputation when they are regarded as “ambulance chasers” or tax lawyers or collection lawyers. They still have a job to do.

In this article, the journalist professes immediately that it is annoying to have a telemarketer call and a telemarketer marketing a collections service is about as annoying as you can get. During times of prosperity, no altars smoke. NO one wants to hear about it. When a business is owed money or owes money, the topic only then becomes important. It is suddenly important for one of two reasons: either because they want to be paid or they want to remove the worry over something unpaid. A collections company has to operate in a thankless world where people are disgruntled before they even get on the phone. They are either stressed about owing money or stressed about getting money owed to them. Enter the debt collector. Imagine walking in his or her shoes.

The collections industry and telemarketing are aspects of the marketplace with no glamour or intrigue—they are both heavily regulated and fraught with negative associations. The point is that these subjects do not capture the national consciousness the way subjects like “Wall Street” or the stock market tend to capture the audience.

The point is that debt itself is the crux of anxiety in this culture and that those in debt or owed a debt are already in a “complainant” state of mind. Some complain their way out of debt. Few companies can afford to answer disputes and most settle for this reason. The legal system is clogged with frivolous lawsuits. The agencies are clogged with complaints, all of which have two sides. Considering the aura surrounding the industry, the journalist did a good job of not reading too heavily into an area that most do not want to enter. However, we ask that we are given the time and the forum to answer complaints on a case by case basis. Every industry has different needs in terms of information, updates, and knowledge of legal matters. This company works with the whole spectrum of business to business transaction. Not even one department is an expert on another’s day by day challenges. Overseeing all departments working with a heavy volume of cases is difficult.

In spite of all this, there are many satisfied clients who do not report how please they are. The list of successful cases not documented with your office, but it is a long list. Our efforts to improve in all areas continue and we offer package deals that guarantee clients our services on a number of cases, so the figures we charge are not accurately represented in this article. Most of the business we do is with other businesses and does not involve individual consumers. There is always confusion when a consumer complains to your agency because the business they own is in dispute with another business. Few of the clients want to deal with the technical side of the legal process and they are better off letting legal counsel do their job than trying to get involved with the attorney offices. These points are hopefully ones that you take into consideration when assigning grades to collection companies in general.

We appreciate the journalist’s attempt to be fair and balanced. The journalist did represent the material to the best of the journalist’s ability. Under the conditions, it could not be possible to go in-depth with complete accuracy. A little knowledge of the industry is sometimes worse than none at all. The title actually illustrates one of the paradoxes of the industry very well.

Thank you for the opportunity to present our side of these issues. We extend our regards to your office and we are aware you function as an intermediary agent. The referee position taken by your offices is actually very similar to the position collection companies often are forced to take: they hear the debtor’s side of the story and the creditor’s side of the story. We only can follow the legal process and strive to be as helpful as we can to our clients.

Ironically, depending on the case, what one complainant reports, such as the farm equipment store owner quoted in the article, a series of persistent phone calls is what another company hires a collections company for in the first place. Creditors who want their past due accounts paid in full are searching for an agency that will be persistent enough to locate and recover a bad debt.

The atmosphere surrounding these cases is often a highly charge atmosphere and the reason they need a third-party collections company is similar to why they need an intermediary agent to proves their complaints. The resolution process is a major component of the debt collection proves: ultimately, each entity wants to resolve the matter and proceed with their respective trades. One of the examples mentioned in your article highlighted phenomena that is illustrative of how bizarre a case can become. The example mentioned that the creditor and the debtor had an otherwise good relationship. The debt collection agency is sometimes hired during a temporary disagreement between two businesses that may resolve their differences and settle privately, leaving the collections agency in the lurch and the collection agency may never recover the legal fees and other fees incurred in the collection attempt that was abandoned by both parties.

All of the business conducted by CII is over the phone. The importance of follow up and persistence cannot be greater than in the businesses that rely exclusively on telephone deals to operate. Face-to-face sales are still demanding in these areas—follow up and contracts and the ability of the sales agent to close a deal—but they involve personal meetings which is a different style of selling. It is one of the most difficult positions in business and a subject of controversy because it is expensive to chase and recover debts. A phone sale requires precise communication, persistence, and the ability to convince decision makers in a very limited time. Until someone has tried telemarketing, they might not fully appreciate the challenge especially considering the well-known adversity to phone sales among the population. The only thing these sales people have is their voice and the contract. A potential client is made an offer and has the option to hang up the phone at any time. The contract clearly outlines the agreement between the client and the collection company. Furthermore, the company has a dedicated customer service department that responds to complaints.

Insolvency procedures vary from state to state. Each state has its own rate of interest, its own regulations and its own laws. It is difficult to generalize about the problems that can beset the debt collector. Sales and customer service people are at the mercy of the rules and lengths of time insolvency procedures require when negotiating with clients. These points make it a challenge to educate a business trying to collect a debt for the first time. We hope that a business owner will elect the best method for dealing with a debt and try to become as well-informed as time permits.

Sincerely,
CII