"I wrote this blog in April of 2011 in an old blog I no longer use. My heart tells me it deserves a place on this blog, and a fresh read." Jamey Foshee May 2014
I just spent the last week battling a
very debilitating case of pneumonia. Two phone calls, and one trip to
the doctor, and I'm recovering quite nicely thank you. Easy? No. In
hindsight though, a fairly simple process. Yesterday, I gave the medical
community 80 dollars, pharmacy included, and I'll be on my merry way
quickly. 80 dollars. When I get my Blue Cross Blue shield report I'll
be grateful that I didn't have to pay about 200 to 225 dollars out of
pocket.
I woke up about 5:30
this morning and that 200 dollar number triggered something in me. From
early 2004 until late in 2007, I worked in the Buy Here Pay Here auto
industry. Those are the car lots that "Tote The Note" on the cars they
sell. Certainly we financed cars for people who were very irresponsible,
but the vast majority of our clients were very good folks, who were
just struggling to get by month to month or in many cases week to week.
At the time we had around a 1.2 million dollar portfolio, so I have a
vast range clients on which I base my judgments.
I
primarily oversaw underwriting (deciding who and how we would finance a
car) and collections. One particular client came to my mind this
morning. We will call her Jane for the purposes of privacy. Jane was in
her early 30s, had two young children, and was a single parent. I knew
her financial status and she couldn't afford health insurance.
It
was unusual for Jane to get very behind on her weekly payment. She came
in on Fridays, almost every week, when her payment was due. I knew her
financial situation was precarious, because sometimes she would call me
on Thursday to let me know she couldn't pay that week, and would take
care of two payments the following Friday. I was fine with that and, we
had a procedure in place to do that for people we felt were reliable. We
called them Promise to Pay and Jane had never missed one. One Friday
Jane had a Promise to Pay of two payments and didn't show up or call.
That always raised a "red flag" with me, so on Monday I tried to call
her. Her phone was cut off, which raised another "red flag".
I
went to her home that Monday afternoon and Jane was very ill. She had
missed work and had to pay her doctor, totally out of pocket so she
could get well and go back to work. I agreed to let her float the week
until Friday when she would owe three payments (75 dollars), but I
agreed to accept two payments of 50 and let her catch up after that.
Friday came and went and Jane didn't come. Monday I issued the order to
repo her car. I called the repo man and within a few hours I had Jane's
car and some of her property in the car.
When
we opened Tuesday morning Jane was waiting on me. I invited her in and
we sat down to talk. She was visibly angry (not at me) and scared and
trying not to cry. Here's her story. She had to pay her doctor 200
dollars for treatment, and then not being able to work, she had gotten
even further behind. It was now going to cost her 200 dollars, including
the repo charges, to get her car back. She didn't have the money, and
wouldn't anytime soon. All I could was tell her I was sorry and that my
hands were tied. She had to have that car to get to work. Her words,
"Mr. Jamey! How am I gonna feed my kids?" have resonated with me ever
since. I had to look her in the eye and say, "I don't know.".
Jane
is a good person who did the right things, and stood by her word.
Circumstances beyond her control put her in a situation that didn't
allow her to do the right thing. I've often wondered what happened to
Jane and her kids.
200 dollars.
That figure hit me like a punch in the gut this morning. Four years of those kinds of experiences
changed me profoundly. There are people out there who, through no fault
of their own, just can't make it sometimes, and we as the people of God need to search our hearts and deal with the hard questions that this and other situations cause us to ask. They aren't easy questions, and there will be not easy answers, but because they involve people they deserve answers and action.
No comments:
Post a Comment