An Unhappy Client’s Story

I was finally able to resolve an an issue with a former client, today.  Although he withdrew from the program extremely unhappy, I am proud to say that I was able address his concerns, offer a solution, and officially end our relationship amicably.

The client had been in the program for about 24 months when he decided to withdraw.  His program was estimated to take 36 months but none of his accounts had yet been settled.  He was understandably upset at the current status and demanded a full refund of all fees he paid to Provanta.

When I first received his withdrawal letter, I was very concerned.  It is highly unusual that we would have not settled any accounts for him in the past two years.  Though Provanta cannot guarantee how long any particular account may take to settle, two years is a long time without any results for a client who has been committed to the program (i.e., he has a perfect settlement savings schedule, followed our advice on how to deal with creditor calls, informed Provanta of all significant changes in his situation, etc).  I was determined to find out happened and whether we could have prevented this situation from occurring.

In my research, I was able to affirm three things:  1) Provanta was dilligent in all efforts to contact his creditors and negotiate possible settlements.  2)  His creditors had offered several settlements to Provanta as a result of our dilligence and hardwork.  3)  The settlement offers made by his creditors were high in our opinon, which is based on our experience with these same credtiors in the past.  The unfortunate conclusion was that his creditors were not ready yet to offer settlements that were uniformly workable for our client.  Instead of just accepting their high settlement offers for the sake of closing an account, Provanta remained determined to settle our client’s portfolio of debt in an equitable and wholly workable way in consideration of all creditors. We believed we would eventually obtain such settlements. However, in spite of signing up for a 36-month estimated program, the client decided to leave early.

In my response to this client, I openly stated that I understood the reasons for his dissatisfaction.  I was just as disappointed as he was at the current status of his accounts and quite frankly, I also would have liked to provide him more results him by this time.  I admitted that his situation was rare because most clients who are on track with their program have at least one, if not more accounts, settled by this time.

Personal feelings aside, however, I had to remind him that Provanta cannot control how long the negotiation process will take on any particular account or for any particular client.  The experiences of our past clients can give us insight as to what other clients may expect but we cannot guarantee that all programs will follow the exact same formula and time frame.  Simply put, we cannot force creditors to settle an account before they are willing to.

This was a difficult situation for me because on the one hand, Provanta had performed all the services according to the client’s Enrollment Agreement.  It is true that we have not settled an account yet, but we cannot produce results for someone who has withdrawn, especially one who has withdrawn before the estimated completion date.  Provanta had fully earned all the fees he had paid.  On the other hand, the client is understandably dissatisfied with his program.  Although he acknowledges that everything I described in the previous paragraph he was still frustrated.  This was not an ideal situation for the client or Provanta.

In the end, I offered a him a small refund of the fees he had paid even though he did not have a valid claim for any refund.  It is not something we do often, and rarely something we do when Provanta has zero obligation to do so, but we did so anyway, simply as a gesture of goodwill.  He agreed with my analysis of the situation and he respectfully accepted the refund.

Technorati Tags: debt settlement, client services