Asset Acceptance to Close Debt Collection Office in Arizona; Expand Legal Channel
Debt buyer Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. (NASDAQ: AACC) announced late Monday that it is closing a debt collection call center in Tempe, Ariz., shifting the work being done there to a call center in India, and expanding its legal collections operations in Florida.
The Warren, Mich.-based ARM company said that it will incur about $900,000 in restructuring charges by shutting down the office in Tempe, mostly employee termination benefits and costs related to the office’s lease. But Asset Acceptance expects the move to add some $4 million to earnings each year.
“Office closures are never easy,” said Rion Needs, President and CEO. “However, these actions reflect our continued efforts to improve our operating efficiencies and competitive positioning, as well as increase shareholder value.”
The company said it will expand its India collection channel and reallocate the inventory from the Tempe collections office to that channel. The company did not note how many jobs would be eliminated in the Arizona office closing.
In addition, Asset Acceptance said it will be fully transitioning its Riverview, Fla. call center collections staff to the legal collections channel, also located in Riverview. The company’s noted its continued investment in the legal collections channel and recent launch of Recovery Services, a fee for service legal collections business.
I worked at Asset Acceptance Tempe branch for almost a year.I can see why they are closing their doors.
It’s sad that Asset Acceptance is working hard to create jobs in India rather than here in the United States.
Many consumers I spoke with while at Asset were irritated with the India branch due to their lack of ability
to speak english and their lack of efficiancy while working accounts. Tempe has an office of so many dedicated
employees who worked their for a very long time. Now Rion Needs hacks their jobs and gives them to people who
can’t string two english words together let alone an entire sentence in India. I think it’s a desperate attempt
to generate any kind of profitabillity out of the company thats been spiraling downwards anyways. as dedicated as
its employees have been year after year this is shameful. The severance benifit package is next to nothing. Glad I
got out of there! Good Luck Asset Tempe Employees.