Allies from the other side.

This morning proved help can come from an unlikely source if you play your cards right.

In an effort to settle a client’s credit cards I spoke with a young lady from Bank of America more than two months ago.  As is my usual manner I steered the conversation off point often talking about less financial matters and to add a more friendly conversational tone.  I spent a good deal of time discussing the current effect of our economy not only on my clients, but also on her job and how she was personally affected by the strain.  After a good conversation I drove back to my point and outlined the reasons my number made sense and the standard Bank of America was striving to attain was not only not acceptable as a compromise, it was impossible based on his financial situation.  She approved my logic and the paperwork I sent her and brought it to her manager to get an exception made.  Despite overwhelming logic the manager let his ego get in the way of the process and shut us down in an extremely rude manner.  Coming back with answers to all his accusations only inflamed the gentlemen and made him less reasonable so I let the verdict stand and left the conversation.

After waiting for them to call me back and gathering even more information demonstrating financial pain, I spoke to the young lady once more.  She had become so upset over not only the choice, but the way in which the decision was given she had gone around her manager to his supervisor and given him all the facts.  The conversation was clearly uncomfortable for the manager as she brought him into the call and further added his direct supervisor.  The gentlemen was not only forced to accept my original proposal, even with the balance being higher due to fees and interest, he was forced to be polite to a person and company he had disparaged using words such as “snake” and “greasy con artists” to describe this office and me in particular.  I made sure to stay polite and conversational and mentioned the extraordinary effort of the account manager was the only reason the company was not throwing good money onto legal fees that would net them nothing more and most likely less or nothing at all.

The young lady at Bank of America is currently calling a friend she goes out with for drinks in the personal credit card department of Bank of America to help me get the same settlement on another card for the same client.  This second card has a higher balance and she has no direct control, but making an ally will get us two cards where we had none and for lower than a direct confrontation would have yielded.

Revenge in this case was exactly as sweet as it seemed not because the man was clearly humiliated for his outburst and judgmental comments, but in spite of the fact he refused logic and math our client received the results he was due and our process was proven yet again that even if it takes longer than anticipated we succeed because we use reality and presenting our client in thorough detail instead of using a story or smoke and mirrors to distract from the truth.  Making a creditor see a client as a person instead of a number is all it takes.  The tactics a creditor uses are not only inherently ethically wrong, I believe they should be criminal.  No human can do what creditors attempt to do to our clients by harassing and instilling fear if they can look at the situation from the client’s perspective.