Diary of a Debt Advisor: H for Humour

Wednesday 1st February 2012

All too often I think that we focus on the really serious stuff with regard to debt advice cases. Sometimes, it is nice to look back over some of the more light-hearted aspects of a case and remember that this is a unique job in which we really do meet ‘all sorts’.

One of the funnier appointments I went to occurred when I visited a house in the Stourbridge area. For starters, I couldn’t find the address, so I called the client I was supposed to be meeting who informed me that the house had been converted into two houses (which was why I couldn’t find the entrance) and I would only be able to get in by going through the garden. As I said goodbye, he warned me that I might see a couple of televisions in the garden, but not to worry, I should follow the path up to this. In reality, this path resembled a maze. There were literally 2000 televisions piled up in the garden, stacked two metres high. Once I finally reached the door, my client was a little more unusual than the usual customers I deal with. He had hair down to his shoulders, dreadlocked and painted red, white and blue (very patriotic). He also had at least 25 piercings on his face alone.

Anyway, this chap, who was in his early twenties, invited me through the hall and into the lounge area. Bearing in mind that it was midday during the summer, I was somewhat surprised to see that the lounge was in complete darkness. Even the windows had been blacked out, apart from little painted stars which made it seem as though we were outside looking directly at the sky. Obviously, while this added a certain atmosphere it wasn’t particularly practical considering I needed to go through the client’s income and expenditure with him. He turned on a table light, which was equivalent to about one candle’s worth of light and we began to go through the form.

As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I could see that next to where I was sitting was a sofa piled high with clothes, jackets, jeans etc. I continued explaining exactly what EuroDebt do and how the process works and, as we reached about halfway through the form, out of the corner of my eye I saw the pile of clothes begin to move. It turns out that buried beneath the piles of clothing was a young man who was half asleep. He muttered a greeting and then subsided back into the pile of clothes again. I tried not to let it phase me; we concluded the form and drew up a manageable plan for the client to ensure that he was able to afford the fees. I negotiated my way through the maze of televisions, and, after more than one wrong turn, managed to find my way back to my car.

Although in the end his case was fairly straightforward, and we managed to get him on a DMP with no trouble, it certainly gave me a laugh as I realised that sometimes you meet the strangest characters who have fallen into debt for any number of reasons...