Primeritus threatens to withhold fees, with a smiley face!

EDITORIAL

Last Wednesday, the real repossession industry was dealing with the tragic loss of Gustavo Macedo and raising funds for his funeral. RDN/Clearplan, DRN, MVtrac, agency owners and agents gave to help Gustavo’s family reach their goal, even Location Services showed the respect that anyone in this industry knows is due to one of our fallen. But not Primeritus, they were busy launching a new level of punitive fines upon their repo agent network. But hey, at least this time they added a smiley face to the memo!

Almost 5 years ago, Consolidated Asset Recovery Systems threatened their entire agent base with punitive actions for failure to meet their service level agreements. And since they were acquired by Primeritus in 2019, I suppose it should come with little surprise that these nasty little policies have reared their ugly little heads once again. Afterall, you can’t easily lower the fees any further and there are no more ancillary fees, so where else can they go?

As if Primeritus had no idea just how poorly their agent network felt about them before our recent poll, which, in timing and results is completely coincidental to this, on Wednesday, they sent a memo to their repossession network advising of the financial stakes for failing to meet their service level agreements (SLA’s) on their Toyota assignments. Below is that email memo, word for word.

Good afternoon Primeritus Agent Network,

I have a few reminders that involve Toyota.

1st This client needs agents to upload the Impound receipts within 24 hours of the recovery in order to meet client SLA on NOI processing. This is very important for us to stay within compliance.

2nd This client charges us a Service Level Credit when certain requirements are not completed on an account, if the agent is at fault PFS will recoup from the agent:

We are contracted to pay Service Level Credits for 3 different type of infractions for this client:

Repo Opportunity (Wrongful) $1,000 to PFS, $500 charged to agent along with no fees billable to agent (If agent is deemed in the wrong)

Window Markings Unit arrival at auction, $100 to PFS and same amount deducted from agent if no picture is provided showing window was marked with TFS/PFS upon arrival

Personal Property not removed from vehicle prior to auction, $200 to PFS and charged to agent

I definitely want to avoid this if at all possible. Jesse Williamson and myself would love to provide any tips or training for your teams. 😊 Please take pictures of the markings on the windshield for proof it was added. Please double check that property was removed. I know we already try to avoid Wrongful Repos.

I am here if you have any questions.

Brittany Birnley

Vendor Relations, Operations Manager

Primeritus Family of Companies

Yes. The memo I read was all in this pinkish purple. I don’t know if that’s the email setting of the sender or receiver, but the smiley face emoji certainly points in the direction of the sender. Made my eyes hurt just to read it!

I originally wrote a very long-winded rant on this entire memo, but I thought I would point out that the messenger, poor Brittany Birnley, who I am sure is a wonderful person, was tasked with the inauspicious duty of putting lipstick on this pig and did her best. Regardless, simply inserting a “happy face” emoji on a bad message does not in any way make it come across any better, or does it?

Oh what the hell, I’ll give it a shot and see if emojis make some of what I write any easier to swallow. Hell, I’ll see your smiley emojis and even throw in a few hearts!

All Stick and No Carrot

Wow! Talk about a tone-deaf memo. Talk about poor timing. Primeritus appears to be either ignorant of or ambivalent to the current strife the repossession industry is going through. Where do I start?

Well, let’s start with the Personal Property Removal fee. Ever since Nissan Motor Acceptance was fined by the CFPB in 2020 for their personal property practices, the practice of agencies being able to charge borrowers for removing their nasty debris and personal effects went out the window. So, it adds a lot of insult to injury that Primeritus would have the audacity to threaten a $200 fee credit fine should there be any cockroach ridden debris or used syringes left in the vehicle that agency chose not to pollute their storage facility or offices with.

Repossession fees are stagnant. The pandemic closed at least 10-20% of the repossession industry and who are left, are for the most part, struggling to keep up with the ever increasing cost of business and the never ending deflation of a dollar. With profitability at rock bottom, Primeritus has grabbed a shovel to bury the rest of their agent network. I mean seriously, who would agree to these SLA’s? Obviously Primeritus made these agreements with Toyota, but did it cross their minds that they had already strangled the proverbial Golden Goose and that this might further exasperate their already tenuous relationship with the real repossession industry?

Did it dawn on them that in light of Gustavo’s murder, that perhaps the timing of this was poor? Do they care? I guess not, otherwise this memo might have waited for another week.

Honestly, I don’t know why I even write about this kind of stuff anymore. It shouldn’t surprise me. They’ve been doing it for years and they’ll keep doing it as long as they can find some knuckle draggers who will put up with it.

Perhaps I’ve come across a little hard here, but hey, it did have smiley faces and hearts, so it can’t be all bad now, can it?

Kevin Armstrong

Editor