Security Systems Collections

by Karla
(Anniston, Alabama)

I recently worked for a company that hired a firm out of Louisiana to do collection for our in house accounts.

The company I worked for installed and serviced security and camera systems to commercial and residential sites. Although affiliated with a national company, this company maintained in house accounts for commercial and residential accounts with low beacon scores.

If the customer got 3 months behind I was instructed to send the information to this collection agency to have the amount brought current or the contract bought out.

The business I worked for sent over the emergency contacts for the customer alarms so when the collection agency was tracking the customer that was in default many times they called family and friends of the consumer.

This did not sit well with me as well as the customer who thought their rights were violated by giving out emergency contact numbers. In fact, many were very upset, some even contacted their lawyers and we got threatening letters in the mail.

There was a running joke in the office when a customer was behind to let the dogs loose on them. This collection company was very rabid and abrupt but I guess they were doing their job because many people brought their accounts up to date within 30 days of collections.