Yup. Over and over again, in lots of different ways, Prosper has shown that they view their lenders as an unfortunate necessity. They don't hesitate to respond antagonistically to the most innocent inquiries. They berate and scold. They ignore. They fail to implement the most basic business processes to protect us (such as collections).
I've been thinking about this a bit during my experience at Prosper:
One of the things about our culture is this oddball concept that lenders are somehow "bad", and debtors are somehow virtueous. Maybe it's the legend of the "greedy jew" from the middle ages (when no good Christian would ever stoop to charging interest, they were too busy raping and pillaging for that) or the various times that governments of that period would ram a hot poker in the rectum of lenders in order to "save the country from thieves" (cf: Templars, several expulsions of said Jews, etc).
Or maybe it's that damn Christmas Carol which did for lenders what that bastard Robin Hood did for people who dared to have money.
Whatever it is, the concept of a "lender" seems to be tinged with the fact that said people/entities are "greedy", "evil", and "against us" where us is of course those who can profit from default. Lenders do evil things like require people to honor their commitments, pay up, and play fair.
Or is it that we greedily suck the marrow from the bones of poor widows and orphans. Depends on the spin I suppose.
That is an additional headwind every "lender" on Prosper has to deal with, and I wonder if that is part of our problem. Because of this perception, people feel it's ok to default; we're just hurting that greedy lender who is getting 30% anyway. And Prosper can treat us like bread mold because it helps the perception that they're on the side of the "little guy". Which is the one who pays that origination fee by the way.
And by Prosper treating lenders like crud it helps potential debtors feel that they have a friend in Prosper. Lenders? We're slime.
And there you have it, so to speak.
CZ
Poll
