[Collection Specialist]

The below is a post for a job some unknown debt settlement company is looking to fill. The epidemic is not our industry but the ridiculous and overt act of interference these companies exude on a daily basis. Can we blame the merchants for buying in when these companies promise a financial panacea? IMO the problem is that the pioneers of this debacle were never sued as they should have been for tortious interference and now everyone is opening up shops left and right. I deal with these "negotiators" daily. What was once an annoyance is becoming a huge issue.


We are a company that settles Merchant Cash Advances for business owners who are struggling to pay down their debts. Merchant Cash advance debt is an epidemic and merchants often get approved for more then they can handle. We help merchants who can no longer afford to make payments and have fallen behind. We restructure or settle their debt for pennies on the dollar and best of all, lower their monthly payments. We are the alternative to bankruptcy and help 100's of people with their debt every month.

We are willing to train new reps on the product and give sales training. Biz to Biz sales experience is a plus. We hire on work ethic and are looking for ambitious reps looking to begin a career in sales. This is a product that will be growing aggressively in the upcoming years and a great opportunity to make good money.

[MonthlyFunder]

where did you find such a thing? it is a law firm with sales reps?

[adam998]

http://businessdebtadjusters.com

[jotucker1983]

I'm trying to figure out exactly how these companies are operating because, the entire scope of their operations appears to be fraud.

With an MCA, the merchant signed a damn contract for the funder to purchase "Y" amount of receivables in exchange for "X" amount in an advance upfront. If the merchant deliberately starts screwing around with holdback procedures in order to screw the funder out of what they are legally "due", that's pure and utter fraud. Now if the merchant's business is legitimately taking a downturn, that's a different story.

Furthermore, these companies who are "helping" the merchant commit fraud in this case, are they getting a portion of the "savings" as such how the cost recovery/cost reduction firms get a contingency fee? For example, if they "save" the merchant $20,000 does the company gets 15% of that or $3,000?

I'm willing to bet many of these companies are nothing but failed broker shops, who are desperately trying to find a way to generate some side revenue in attempt to "breakeven" on the wasted money they spent on bad MCA marketing strategies.

[mezumin]

..

[Sean Cash]

Welcome to the new layer cost of the industry must endure. Want to know where these companies get their leads from? ISOs sell their declines and over-stacked merchants to them as leads. Can you blame the ISOs? Acquisition costs are high and they need all the revenue they can get.

Enlist outside counsel to come up with a strategy to deal with these companies if they are affecting you. They're not going to go away on their own.

[Karen37a]

If you go on You tube and pull up almost any Legitimate Stock Brokerage firms name, you will find a lawyer with an ad up saying

"Did you get taken advantage of by ABCXyz123 Stock Brokerage Firm, have you lost money, you could potentially get money back under Fina arbitration rules, Class action law suits can stop these , and my firm Dewey Cheatum and Howe represent people like you every day. We never win. We just put up cheap You tube ads because they are free"

This is where the term " Ambulance chasers " come from.

There are always going to be unethical people on all ends of the spectrum. And is it unethical to advertise to find clients, depending on the method or product? ( It can be) Who is the judge?Bankruptcy Lawyers advertise, that doesn't mean they are coaching people into fraud before the Bankruptcy . Can their be unethical debt collectors and Attys? Yes. Honest ones? Yes.

This is the nature of the beast.

This is why I have said that rate, pricing, risk tolerance etc isn't as clear cut as people make it out to be. Their is a default ratio associated with different grades of paper A paper - D etc and the factor rate "legitimately goes up accordingly or down.There are brokers who stack( advise) their merchants , there are merchants who go right behind the brokers and lenders back and stack themselves, then blame the broker.

How can you tell who is who? You cant.

When **** hits the fan the Broker/lender is always going to be blamed. ( some rightfully so). Hence my argument and stance against the big R word.

People do not take the human element into the decision making process when they see things from a Math only, Quantitative and Qualitative analysis standpoint.

The merchant might just want to choose not to Renew with a certain company because they treated them badly on the phone or billed incorrectly and did nothing to help fix it. They might just want to switch to a broker they get along with better. Who knows.

The question, is at what cost?

Ive told clients to wait 2 weeks to get better pricing and they have told me point blank...If you cant get me money by Friday I am going with the other 100 brokers that are calling me daily/hourly ( this is common to most of us)

Anyway. I do not think the people trying to make a living off of negotiating the MCA debt is part of a grand conspiracy from the ISO's or brokers in it.(though some might do it).

Why would we want the Lenders that we do business with to get saddled with defaults? You do not bite the hand that feeds you. Also Lenders monitor contract to close ratios and default ratios on a iso to iso , broker to broker basis.They will eventually not accept your applications , if you are a trail of bad debt ,non closed applications , non production and defaults.And if you participate in syndication will really never do it.

I think its just capitalism and people looking to find or take advantage of a niche that eventually wont work out in the end.

[Karen37a]

PS I would like to be a fly on the wall and see these people attempt to negotiate. ( take it back not really )

[anydealfunded]

Just get COJ's and refuse to negotiate.

[Karen37a]

I agree anydeal .

Also Stacked or unhappy merchants wouldn't be hard to find on your own without colluding with MCA brokers.

Maybe Sean is right and its a failed broker shop . Maybe they got backdoored on a big deal and are now targeting certain companies.Or maybe they got backdoored and it still stings and they came across someone who fits that criteria randomly from the company that stung them and they passed the name along for free while they are still in the MCA business, just for revenge.Who knows too many variables.

This is also why that Big R word is dangerous because it opens the door for anyone to have valid reason to walk away from existing contracts, even when the Lender entered into the agreement in good faith.. ( i deleted the legal term for this defence )

All existing Merchant Contracts/renewals will have to be recalibrated? ( for lack of a better term) Kind of like the commission being lowered on existing Isos renewals or book of business because it says it can be in the iso agreement.

When people are losing money and their business or livelihood is going under ( the merchants or brokers) 90% of people are going to cut anyone's throat including their Grandmother to save themselves, or make an attempt to do it . And they lie and blame everyone around them (This is my personal observations over the years )

You never know what's going to happen when the ship starts sinking, who's going to knock who down for the life preserver or who is going to snatch one out of your hands. Sometimes people surprise you for good and for bad.

(This is why some ISOs/Brokers defend our prefered Lenders, and don't participate in this " Happy Horse****" as my Investment Banker/hedge fund friends call it)

[mcaguru]

Whats the problem ?

[soscap]

"Why would we want the Lenders that we do business with to get saddled with defaults" That's the issue with many ISO's... They don't think long term, they are just trying to make as much money as they can today. I funded 7 deal with an ISO and 5 went to a debt restructuring co.

[NoBigDeal]

"Why would we want the Lenders that we do business with to get saddled with defaults" That's the issue with many ISO's... They don't think long term, they are just trying to make as much money as they can today. I funded 7 deal with an ISO and 5 went to a debt restructuring co.

just curious, do you blacklist ISO's with a deal performance like that?

[soscap]

It would be stupid of me not to...

[JPendergast]

Unfortunately, many MCA companies are creating sister companies to do just that in order to steal merchants business and thus screw the current MCA in place. Basic response, do not negotiate and call their bluff.

[cmarks]

Old news, this has been going on since beginning of year if not earlier