Field service inspectors can easily find Guardian Portfolio Services (GPS) as they advertise with SOFI and they are listed in the National Field Service Directory.
Their competition struggles to find field inspectors by posting help wanted ads on Craig’s List and several Yahoo Groups. Why do you think that GPS continues to grow and smother the competition? Okay … smarty pants … you got it right … growing your business works best when you advertise with the largest networking organization in the field services industry. Posting a help wanted ad on Craig’s List is often a last-ditch effort to find an inspector to perform an already late inspection.
SOFIBlog.com ... 352-324-6042 Florida 
I worked for guardian for over two years,they did not have much work in my market,and they wanted me to drive 50 miles one way for $25.I told them to give my work to one of their other Insp.maby it would be worth wile for one of them they had at least 4 insp.I new of.john spence
John I am sorry to hear you did not receive much work from us and that you are no longer part of the GPS Team. I would like to address your concerns you posted regarding Guardian Portfolio Services, Inc. (GPS).
First I would like to acknowledge we require all sub-contractors to have a minimum coverage area of 50 miles and you’re are correct in stating we pay $25.00 per single address assignment in a covered area. The required radius and fee paid are industry standard although some of our competitors pay less.
I looked into why you were not getting much work from us and noted that we had 4 sub-contractors and yourself in the same area. Our policy is to limit the number of sub-contractors for a particular area to allow GPS to build a profitable and meaningful relationship. Once we have staffed an area to meet volume demands we then set the contractor status’s. There are 3 contractor positions, Primary, Secondary, or Back-up, and these positions are based on their performance for contacts, turn around time, seniority, and best fee schedule. Most of the volume in an area would go to the Primary, then Secondary and lastly the Back-up. In some areas it is possible to have more than 1 of each position based on volume, but the order in which assignments are given to a sub-contractor remains the same. In your case we had too many sub-contractors and you were not the Primary’s for this area. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
I to worked for Guardian, they were a good company to work for but like you said they expected me to drive 50 miles for one inspection then when I did not make contact they wanted me to go back out without getting paid that is when I left.
Jason, Thank you for your kind comments we are happy to hear that you found GPS to be a good company to work with, we value our relationships with our clients and sub-contractors greatly. I’am however disappointed in finding out you are no longer part of the GPS Team and would like the opportunity to address your comment regarding unpaid re-chases.
Re-chases surfaced in our industry a few years back as a result of competitors trying to get new or additional business. We heard word on the street that one or more of our competitors were beginning to offer free re-chases to our clients and prospective clients. As a reaction to this news we contacted our sub-contractors, especially those working for one particular competitor who we knew to be the creator of this marketing ploy to see if this was discussed with them prior to it being offered to the clients since sub-contractors would feel the impact of this type of negotiating. Most sub-contractors we contacted said they had not heard or discussed re-chases with this competitor and said they would not do re-chases for free. GPS as a result of our sub-contractors responses decided not to offer this service, and lost contract bids and business because of our stance in support of the sub-contractors. We additionally cautioned our sub-contractors and circulated memos and even had discussions with Richard Law of Sofi expressing our concerns. Well, shortly after the dust cleared we found out sub-contractors were now doing free re-chases and the rest became history. We understand the sub-contractors faced hard choices, do it or lose the work, but we had nothing to do with this becoming a required service. We too were contacted by mutual clients who said our competitor (name intentionally not mentioned) came to them and offered free re-chases in an attempt to gain more business. GPS was asked to match this competitors offer or possibly lose their business. Since the sub-contractors were doing it for one or more of our competitors at this point we were forced to agree to re-chases as a value added service. We did however work with our clients in reaching terms that minimize the number of re-chase requests. The over all number of re-chases a sub-contractor gets from GPS as a result of our negotiating is a very small percentage of their work and usually can be fit in with other work in the area so special trips are not required which help in reducing contractor loses. In addition we are continuously encouraging our sub-contractors to modify their schedules in an effort to make Direct Contact since re-chases are reserved for non-contact results.
It is our understanding that the same competitor who brought you free re-chases, the 3 for 1, while touting the slogan “we want to help you build your business”, are now requiring sub-contractors to accept less, we hear as much as 1/2 the fee they used to be paid because they chose to outsource their quality assurance duties to a so called Super Rep. while they are maintaining the same profit amount for doing nothing more than forwarding the assignment to a super rep who then sends the assignment to you. The only one making less is you the sub-contractor. GPS has not followed suit and find this request by our competitor to be shameful and damaging to our industry. JUST SAY “NO” or you may find that you helped set another industry standard.
PS… The going rate for Delinquency Interviews is $25.00, contact or no contact, a 50 mile radius, with 3 day turn around time.