🚀 go-pugleaf

burgoyne@highlite.uucp (J. Robert Burgoyne) writes:

> When you say you've exhausted your opportunities, does that mean a collection
> company has tried? Some of them are downright effective. They'll do things li
> instantly ruin the credit of the person you're trying to collect from. The
> better ones will even give you a release which absolves you of liability for
> any actions they do.  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for mentioning this -- I hadn't even thought about it.

> 
> The reason I mention it is that usually all an attorney will do for a low pri
> collection agencies are all action oriented and won't charge you unless they
> collect.

Thanks for your feedback, and to all of those who responded via mail and
posts.

The last couple of weeks of research seems to confirm your opinion; I had
strong reservations about a collection agency, but briefly went through the
yellow pages and found Dun & Bradstreet, who were able to tell me a great
deal about the folks who owe me money, and what has been working (and not
working) for *other* people seeking to collect fom them.

The other thing that is selling me on a collection agency is the simplicity
-- XX% of amounts collected, they handle everything, even court, no
ifs/ands/buts. D&B is actually better than a couple of others I checked
out -- 27% of the first $2500, 20% of the rest.

My contact with several lawyers has enlightened me to reality of
winning lawsuits vs. collecting -- no small issue, as it turns out.

I really don't like to do business this way, but I'm being forced to.
My desire to keep things civilized had me leaning towards a lawyer,
but it's starting to look like finding a civilized collection agency
will be a better way to go.

The biggest downside is the apparent inability to sue for lawyer's
fees - using a lawyer would allow me to include the fee in the lawsuit.
An agency will take a chunk, but collection from a judgement now seems to
be half the battle, so it looks like it will be the most practical way.

When it's all said & done, I'll be able to say more, and will post
with learned lessons.

======================================================================
"These...COBOL programmers, not all of them will be able to figure out
object-oriented programming, and I think that's good. If they all took
to it like ducks to water, you'd have a problem, if it was so exciting
that no one would want to maintain the old code. Fortunately, half of
them don't get it." -- Bill Joy >< jim@options.uujobs.com 301/587-2338