Kinder, Gentler Collections Agencies?

Every so often, like spores from a mushroom the mainstream media puffs out soft little articles calculated to appeal to the counter-intuitive or even contrarian mentality of some readers. This has been especially so since the runaway success of Freakonomics. Once contrarianism goes mainstream, can you still conisder yourself contrarian?

Regardless, there's a puff piece in the NYT about collection agencies trying to be more sensitive:

NYT: Debt Collectors Try to Put on a Friendlier Face

Just in time for a recession, the debt collection industry is working to shed its reputation for remorselessly hounding people.
Oh, the collectors still want the money. But now they would like to be seen as helpful and sympathetic, even a force for good.
They have started calling the indebted “our customers.” They are pushing consumer tips on the ideal way to respond when a collector comes calling (basically: pay up). They note that debt collecting is an old American tradition. (Abraham Lincoln was a debt collector, some histories say.) They point out how, in a time of rising unemployment, they are hiring.

Since a family member spent several years working in collections while going to school, I've had a pretty close-up view of the goings-on in the offices of collection agencies. The phrase "Boiler Room" comes to mind. At one, the pep cheer at the end of every morning meeting was "MONEY MONEY MONEY! CALL CALL CALL! GO METRO!" Thus, I find it hard to swallow the PR story the writer for the NYT laps up. One or two collection agencies might have adopted a model centered on unicorns and candy canes, but I suspect that the dominant paradigm remains focused on getting blood out of a stone.

Hat tip to Dealbreaker's Opening Bell.

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