Repo in Jackson, TN

OK, for another Repo story:

Setting, Jackson, TN. I was a brand new assistant manager. The manager that had promoted me there got promoted to another branch within 4 days. I was disappointed, because I liked him (his name was Rich). He had been my first manager with Enterprise.

This was June of 2000. It was already hot outside. I had to work Saturday because, well, Rich was going to be at another Branch! On Friday, I decided to look through files to see where all the customers were, financially.

Not a good idea.

There were 7 renters that were behind over $150. I called all of them. One answered, claimed not to know he was behind (I am inclined to this day to believe him, there were no notes in the file of having been called since the rental started), and came in and paid.

Six renters did not have working phones, or did not answer, or could not pay (I advised three renters to bring the cars back that evening to avoid additional charges). None of the three returned the cars. So, I had keys cut on Friday afternoon.

I was actually living in Memphis (Cordova area) and so the drive to Jackson Saturday morning took right at an hour. I arrived in town about 6:00 am. Branch opened at 8:00 am. I had a pocket full of keys.

First house - jackpot. I ganked that car so fast you would have been surprised. I left my car in a nearby grocery store and walked up to the driveway and was gone. But now I realized I had a problem. I was almost eight miles from the branch. So I parked the rental car and use dmy car to scout out the next repo, which was only two blocks away.

Jackpot II. I repeated this process. Now there were two rental cars side by side in the grocery store parking lot.

Fortunately, the third renter was only six blocks away. Same story, same dance, same result.

Now I had to move a bit across town. About two miles away, I found the fourth rental car. It was about 7:00 am by now. Of course, as had been the case with the first three, the fourth car was all alone in the driveway of this renter while he or she slept. I remember this car was damaged. I parked this one in the parking lot of a nearby gas station and moved to the south end of town for the final two.

The last two were a half mile apart, and there was another grocery store near them. I repeated the process and had two more in custody. By now, it was actually 8:00 am. Our area manager was one to call early on Saturday to make sure the branches all were open, so I hustled back to the branch in one of the rentals, leaving my car at that grocery store.

Once I opened the branch, all heck broke loose. Myself and an intern were the only two people there. This intern had only been with the company 30 days or so and could barely write a rental contract. We wound up doing over 20 that day. That's a lot. My best day at the busiest branch I did 23 (it was a regular 11-hour day, not a shortened 4 hour Saturday). And that day flew by.

In between washing cars, answering phones, answering questions on rental basics, I called in three drivers and they began picking up cars. It took them over three hours to get all the cars back to the branch. The last trip was one in the personal vehicle of one of the drivers to get my personal car.

Then I went back to the branch to close out those repo contracts and run daily reports. I was there until 3:00 pm even though the branch closed at 12:30 noon. Michelle was none too happy about my extended day.

I am to this day, still proud of having completed six repos in one day.