The Blue Eyes

This is a bit longer story that shows how we in this business have to make some decisions that other people may think is cruel or something they might not do. I had been doing this for awhile at the time of this story. I will say again in the repo/collection business you will walk that fence and it's not always with legal sometimes it's a moral issue. This is a story of a customer that stayed on my past due list. I was always calling her or going by the house trying to get her to pay on this but she always had an excuse for me. This customer had a small window unit AC it was a 5,000 BTU unit and the weekly rate was pretty low on this small unit but she was always 4 to 8 payments past due. I know what you’re thinking, this doesn't sound like you! Letting someone get this past due, but in this case the lady had a baby girl about 10 years old and she was bed bound. This young girl was only about 3 ft tall and had a feeding tube in her stomach but she was fully awake and had these big blue eyes. We all knew of her and the manager was a lady who was kind of a softie when it came to kids so this woman was given a lot of latitude. This time the customer was to far past due for us to let her go so when I was heading to her house with Buddy I knew I had to have money or merchandise. Whenever we went to her house the mother always had a reason why she didn’t pay, it always went back to the young girl and how she had to have the AC it was midsummer and they had no central air. The mother would make a promise to pay then not show, then I would go out to the house and she would tell me she had to get something for the baby. This made me sick how this lady used this poor child whenever she wanted to get out of something or to keep things on in the house and every time I went out to the house there was guys hanging out not doing a damn thing. This pissed me off every time. We got to the house about 2pm, she had told me the Friday before she was going to pay and as always she didn’t show so we were back again but this time I was going to clear this matter up. I went to the door and knocked the mother came to the door and told me to come in. I asked her what happened to the promise to pay last Friday? The lady told me”as expected” she had to buy meds for the baby. I asked her doesn’t the state have her on Medicare? She said yes but this wasn’t covered it was a new drug. You see what I was dealing with always has an excuse and always sounded good but this time I was done with it. I told the mother that because of the amount of payments past due I would have to get the account current or the AC would have to be returned now. The lady looked really shocked, and then she said please I promise if you give me till 4pm I will have the money. I against my better judgment said ok but I had to have this money by 4pm without fail, she assured me the money would be there waiting on us (I didn't think so but took promise) We returned that day at 3:30 (You never show up on time always early “trick of collections) we went to the door and knocked for about 5 minutes before someone came to the door it was a young girl and she told me as soon as the door was open She isn't home! I told the young lady that she and I had appointment; the girl said she just left and I have no idea when she will be back. We waited till 4:30 just to give her a chance but I knew this would happen. She had done it to me again. The next day "Buddy" and myself came in early and took off for this lady's house when I got 2 houses from her I pulled over and parked so she couldn't see us, then I told buddy to give me 10 minutes then pull into her drive. I got out and went around the houses I went through their back yards to get to my customers back door. I knocked on the door she opened the door and her eyes went wide with surprise! God I loved it. The customer finally said "Oh hey I was just about to call you; I was thinking I bet you were. She said I couldn't come up with the money but if you will just wait till Friday I will have all the payments and late fees. I told her I was sorry but unless the payments are paid while I was here the AC would have to be returned today. The lady looked so surprised it was almost funny, and then she said you are really going to pick the babies AC up? I told her if you pay Friday I will redeliver the AC. She said if you take it you can keep it! I told her, that's a choice you will have to make. The lady went back to the sick child, You’re going to take the only AC this child has with it being 95 outside today. I told her No you’re making me have to pick up the AC by not paying the bill! I was pissed at this point. The customer started getting loud saying you can't take my child's only way to keep cool in this hot weather! I told her again I was sorry but I have given you countless opportunely to pay before it got to this point. I had at this point opened the screen door and started moving forward into the house. The lady was still telling me she would come in Friday and I kept going over that I couldn't wait till Friday, we went over this about ten times. She finally got the point and yelled get you’re "GD" AC and when my daughter dies because we couldn't keep her cool I will see your company in court! I have learned over the years when a customer tells you to get your item GET IT and shut up. I said ok and walked into the house and went to the front door and let Buddy in then turned to the customer and asked what room is it in. The customer pointed to a door on my left and I turned around as I did she kept talking crap like “I’m going to call the newspaper” and “I will be calling the owners of your company” You see what I learned over my years is customers will continue to bait you into fighting with them, so if you’re in the business or thinking about getting into it remember what I said “When a customer tells you to get your merchandise “GET IT and shut up! Don’t apologize again don’t say anything that doesn’t have to do with getting that merchandise out of that house. I opened the door to the Childs bedroom and as I went into the room there was a hospital bed located next to the window that had the AC in it. I looked in the bed the child was laying on her back with the feeding tube coming from her stomach an she was wearing a diaper, she was maybe 3ft long with the bluest eyes I had ever seen. This child looked 3yrs old, it was a sad case. As we entered the room "Mr. Buddy" took one look at this child and said "I can't do this" when he said this he walked out of the house leaving me standing there. You see normally you only need one person to get a 5,000 Btu AC but in this case it was a very old house and the windows had this rope lift system on rollers, which meant the window wouldn't stay up. One person can carry a 5,000 Ac but it takes both hands, so you see my problem I had to find a way to lift the heavy window and hold it up at the same time pulling the AC out of the window and the whole time working around this Childs bed. I went back outside and found my co-worker buddy and asked him can you at least stand outside the window and grab it while I lift the window! The guy said "I can't do this I feel really bad about doing this. I was F**in pissed to say the least, I said you’re damn lucky I don't make you walk home! I went back into the house and stood by the window for a minute then I had a idea, I opened the window while I held the AC with one hand then I stuck my head out the window where the window was on my back then I took the AC out of the window an lowered it to the ground while I was hanging out the window, I almost went with it but managed to hold on with my knees. I got two things when I left that house 1. My AC  2. A clear understanding that Mr. Buddy had to GO! As I have said in other stories that this work isn’t for everyone, you don’t have to be an asshole but you must understand it’s a business not personal. In this story I can see a bit how someone could get a little emotional but I knew that this lady would call the Medicare welfare people and with my tax monies I will get her a new AC.  PS: I got Mr. Buddy Gone! I told him to get a new job breeding cats or maybe open a flower shop somewhere.