Finding Your Repo Agents in Craigslist? Really?

A recent article on CU Collector, a website dedicated to the auto-loan collector within America's credit unions reported that a national repossession "forwarding company" was trying to find new repossession agents on Craigslist. 

Don't get me wrong. I use Craigslist all the time to list things for sale (surfboards, guitars, etc) and find handy-man assistance for home work projects. I like Craigslist. Craigslist is and of itself isn't immoral, and really, neither is "forwarding", per se. 

But one has to ask themselves why someone would need to turn to this generic online bulletin board to find professionals in what is very specialized niche service?  Aren't there already good repossessors working already? 

This all seems like a lot of effort made  to bypass 500-600 repossessors that are already licensed, bonded, equipped, certified, and insured, that are on the streets already, and can be easily found in the pages of ARA, TFA. AFA, NFA, or some other reliable source. Why source "qualified newcomers" when experienced professionals exist?  

The answer is price.  

If any forwarder were willing to pay a fair rate for legitimate services rendered.....investigation fees, storage, skip tracing, difficult repossessions....they would find allies in the professional segment of the repossession world. 

Its not forwarders, really, that professional repossessors are pushing back against...its assignments being put out for unrealistically low fees, no close fees, no storage.  And its only the "newcomers" haven't done the math to realize that their business model is not sustainable for the long haul.  

And, are "newcomers" who creditors need out there representing them in the most invasive collection practice allowed in America? Read NCLC's "Repo Madness" if you need an answer to that question. 

Creditors are ultimately responsible for the injuries, deaths, or damages that could occur (and have occurred)  in the repossession process. That's a fact, proven time and time again in the courts. Creditors need to have already qualified, already experienced people in the consumer's driveway at 2:00am, not a newcomer!  And, like it or not, the greatest concentration of experienced repossessors are in the trade groups....and most of them have been in business long enough to know the foolishness of offering unrealistically cheap prices for their valuable services. 

Its too bad.  At the end of the day, its all about price, not experience, or even concern for consumer safety. All this effort to save, what., $100 an account? To safely recover more of the creditors $10,000 vehicles? 

Its not Craigslist that's the problem. Its an unwillingness to use the trained, professional agents that exist already, and that unwillingness is simply driven by price alone. 

That's what is too bad about this.