Working for Total Credit Recovery...?

[DeimosBeros]

I went to an interview today at Total Credit Recovery here in toronto at the victoria park and shepperdlocation. It went well to say the least, the interviewer asked very simple questions like, "Are you ok with people shouting and swearing at you on the phone?" Nothing remotely difficult, which worried me about the integrity of the place.
Schedules are decent, 8:30 am to varying hours of the afternoon, mon-friday and one saturday a month. It's salary, around $1800.00 a month plus commisions on top if you manage to meet monthly quota's. They also wanted me to sign some background checks to see if I was bondable and some Sunlife Insurance papers which I did not sign since the interviewer up and left without explaining half the stuff on the papers.
Since it was lunch, I got to see the type of people that work there in the departments and they didn't seem very professional in their attitudes, hell some of them looked 18 and talked like they were 12.
I don't know, I'm going to play on the side of cauthion and keep looking for something decent and try to reject their offer before march.
Google only seems to turn up past news of this collection agency being unprofessional and aggressive in their tactics to get people to pay their outstanding debts, not much from an employee perspective.

[jp06]

Do you have a "collector's license" (if such thing exist)? I saw their job posting before but then i saw that under their requirements, so i didn't bother looking any further.

[DeimosBeros]

Do you have a "collector's license" (if such thing exist)? I saw their job posting before but then i saw that under their requirements, so i didn't bother looking any further.

Supposedly, they need you to go through training for a collector's license since you'll be looking at credit history and other personal information. It's $190 fee that gets subracted from your first pay check.
I'm backing out of this job.

[aturk99]

I would recommand staying away from these there is a few other ones. Cvp, and Collections corp. If you want to work collections try to get something at Loans till payday or Money Mart head office its a good start. Or go for something at the Big Banks. As I had one from a loans company, and the banks all liked that on my resume.

[tebore]

Didn't know they were hiring.

I'm at a law office that does a lot of dealings with them.

Some of the guys on the phone are jerks and we're working for them I'd hate to be the guy they are trying to get money from.

[1yellowdog]

Supposedly, they need you to go through training for a collector's license since you'll be looking at credit history and other personal information. It's $190 fee that gets subracted from your first pay check.
I'm backing out of this job.

WHAT?!?! They want you to pay for the license? That's ridiculous. No wonder there were so many unprofessional types there. They encourage it.

I actually received a call from someone there a couple of years ago. I moved and the bank didn't update my new address so I failed to receive the final statement for a payment that I owed them, it was around $500 and I honestly thought I had paid it all off and that's why I didn't receive any more statements from them. I was still getting statements for my bank account though. So about 2 years later I start getting calls from this collection agency and the person that called, a middle aged woman I guessed by her voice, told me I owed $5,000 and when was I going to pay it back, yada, yada, yada. I told her it was obviously a mistake and I would call the bank but she told me I could no longer deal with the bank, I had to deal with her now. I'm sure they get told it was just a mistake all the time but she wasn't going to let up but neither was I. I called the bank and they were quite apologetic about it and quickly admitted it was their mistake for not updating my change of address everywhere in their system. I confirmed the amount I owed and they just charged me the original amount that was owed and knocked off all the interest that should have been payable. I told them the amount the collections agency person said I owed and they were totally appalled. I guess they will try and extort as much as they can, give the amount owing to the bank and keep the rest for themselves. The bank said they would advise the collections agency of the mistake so I shouldn't receive any more phone calls but of course I did. This women left me the absolute worst phone messages, it was awful to listen to it even when I knew everything was ok with the bank. I just ignored her and didn't call her back as she was rather insistant on not believing me when I tried to explain what had happened. Doing that kind of job will give you cancer one day I'm sure of it, there's got to be something else you can do for that kind of low pay. Selling major appliances at Future Shop has to pay better than that.

[jp06]

i wonder if these collections agencies ever get sued for harassment? From the above post, it sounds like they're very ignorant and persistent, but also not up-to-date with the banks or whoever that is owed money.

[1yellowdog]

I can tell you the person who kept calling me was fit to be tied when she found out I had called the bank when she told me not to. She was practically screaming her message on my answering machine demanding I return her call but I had already paid the bank what I owed them at that point. I called the bank back to tell them the "nasty lady was still calling me" and the supervisor I had originally spoken to about all this was audibly surprised as he assured me he had notified them right after I spoke with him. I believed him. I think she was "dissappointed" about not getting her big pay off. She called back again a few days later and left a more apologetic toned message to call her back but I had no reason to speak to her.
It would bother me though to know someone like this was calling up senior citizens and others who might be in a situation like mine. Or someone who truly believed they couldn't speak to anyone at the bank and had to deal with only her and pay her what she requested. She was nothing more than a crook. If she had not been so greedy from the start and requested the amount owing plus interest I might even have agreed to pay that but she just asked for the moon instead.
I made the bank fully aware of the types of messages I had received and her tone of voice and the incorrect amount she told me I owed. I figured it would be up to the bank to make her employer aware since her employer was working on behalf of the bank. I did try to find her phone number so I might leave her equally disturbing messages on her home answering machine but I had no luck, I suspect she uses a fake name for obvious reasons.

[liban_libre]

what a shady organization, they screwed me when i was about 18 years old over a $200 visa bill that CIBC immediately sent to collections because they found out my brother was under 18 and our accounts were linked to the same address.

i am tempted to ask you where they are located so I could pay those shady criminals a visit. what a terrible, terrible company, if you want to call it that.

i would be embarassed to work for such a malicious company.

[DeimosBeros]

Some of the responses here confirmed what I already thought about this type of job. For the love of god! I just wish websites for employment ads like canada services job bank could filter out garbage jobs. First primerica, then vector marketing, and now this collection agency business( I stayed away from all of them btw).
Are there any jobs out there that don't need university degrees and let you keep your dignity? Might as well work at star bucks or construction or PAY my way into something decent.

[tomincanada]

Are there any jobs out there that don't need university degrees and let you keep your dignity? Might as well work at star bucks or construction or PAY my way into something decent.

Places like the LCBO, Factories, Hospitals, City Workers.. good places with good pay for those without a university degree. You can make a lot more than 1800 a month at those places and nobody will scream at you (hopefully).

[aturk99]

From what i here lcbo is good some of the grocery stores are alrite. Someone told me TTC does not pay that bad dont know the education. You would need for a job like that.

[DeimosBeros]

Places like the LCBO, Factories, Hospitals, City Workers.. good places with good pay for those without a university degree. You can make a lot more than 1800 a month at those places and nobody will scream at you (hopefully).

LOL. I'm not worried about people screaming at me, I've worked with immigrants in construction fields that dish out things worse than most.
I'm not sure how to approach some of your suggestions (hospitals, city jobs) though seeing as I do my job hunting through online ads and fax numbers and I never see anything from them.

[1yellowdog]

You just apply every 6 months. Those kinds of places don't advertise because they get a steady stream of resumes to go through. Canada Post would be another good bet. You might have to wait a while but it could be worth it.

[bubble.tea]

...... aggressive in their tactics to get people to pay their outstanding debts, ..........

Some people FIGHT to avoid paying their debts...does anyone really think asking nicely will get the job done LOL.

......She was practically screaming her message on my answering machine demanding I return her call but I had already paid the bank what I owed them at that point. I called the bank ......the supervisor.... was audibly surprised as he assured me he had notified them right after I spoke with him. I believed him. ....

astounding!