Monday, June 9, 2008

Overheard at Work Today

Just some quick background. I work for a finance company. Most of our customers have credit issues. Some of them have other types of issues which make them unhappy campers and a small few of them are quite nice.

SO without further ado....today a person calls in and wants to talk with someone. When asked if she is a current customer (so we'll know who to direct the call to) she states no, but she is a preferred customer. Now this makes us all giggle since no one should prefer us because of our high interest rate and we don't prefer many of our customers because ...well, see the opening paragraph. Her call is passed to a manager. After a couple of questions the call is finished. He tells us we misunderstood her. She didn't say she was a preferred customer she said her brother (who is our customer) preferred her to us for a loan. Yep, that is our kind of customer!

We once had a customer call to say he was unable to make his payment on time because of financial blockages......what?

Customer's wife calls saying husband tried to make a Money Gram payment through Wal-Mart but was unable to because he is dyslexic.....

Once a woman called in to say she was unable to pay on time because she was a victim of Divinity theft. (it might be criminal to take her money...what do you think?)

For another customer the excuse was that his car was out of fix rendering him unable to make his payment.

One of my favorites was the customer who called in to say that her insurance had collapsed instead of lapsed.

Then there was the customer who called saying he was unable to pay because he had had to funeralize his father that week instead.

I swear I am not making this stuff up, but I do write it all down in my little address book. There are some pages so filled with anecdotes that I can no longer read the addresses and phone numbers.

Good stuff...good stuff.

13 comments:

  1. LOL! You may remember that I was in credit/collections and was repo man for a while during my 10 years at General Motors. I can totally relate! So very funny! I am sitting here alone LAUGHING OUT LOUD! You need to whip out that list and have a laugh next time one of those black days comes along that you have doodled in your daily calendar! Thanks for sharing...nice walk down memory lane for me!

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  2. Laughter is the best medicine. Hope you are keeping cool in the south. Still quite warm here. Humidity gives me a headache and then I am useless.
    denise

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  3. It IS kind of sad isn't it that those people are in the situation they are in? Our societal need for "stuff" has those who could do with a good education, instead extending themselves and finding themselves worse off than where they started. I really think that every high school student should be required to take a class on money management - the basics. I know I sure could have used it.

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  4. Betsy, I had forgotten about your experience in the business...you know exactly what I mean. I work with a couple of former GMAC employees. We do it all in our office, applications, loan approval, cutting checks, collections, etc. I hear it all.

    Yep, Denise it is still hot and humid here. Probably won't change until the fall. Humidity gives me a bad mood. It is so miserable.

    Latin lupe lu, I do feel sorry for those customers who are nice people, but just don't understand finances. I have spent many a long minute trying to explain things to them. Then there are the ones who don't care, don't think they need to pay if they don't want to. I think we do our children a disservice when we don't teach them about handling money. I see a lot of people who don't know better probably because their parents didn't either. That is sad.

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  5. These are hilarious. I love those unintentional play on words.. kind of like Archie Bunker, but for real.

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  6. Thanks for the giggles this morning! My favorite is "funeralize". And next time I lose something, I am going to claim Divinity Theft.

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  7. Funny! Thanks for my laugh of the morning....or the day....let's see how the day goes!

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  8. Oh my...You have me laughing over these....I love the "Divinity Theft" one ..That is truly classic...

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  9. This was so funny, Steviewren! I'm sure I've been guilty of a malapropism, or two, in my lifetime.

    Thanks for the BD wishes and audio book suggestion! I listened to "A Perfect Storm" on audio book a few years ago and it really added to the experience.

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  10. Those are so funny. Love the "funeralize" line!

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  11. My Mom worked in Trust Services (the department that handled all Trust Fund accounts) for 30 years and have I heard Stories...very similiar to yours. LOL. Makes your day go fast huh?

    Thanks.

    c

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I'm glad you stopped by and I look forward to your comments. As Dr. Fraser Crane would say, "Hello, I'm listening."