The instrument being selected, the lease signed— in some states a mortgage duly recorded is required —and a first payment made, the date for future monthly payments is agreed upon and the piano is delivered at the buyer's house. Two or three days before the next payment date the buyer receives from the piano house a reminder that the next payment is about due. This is done in order that the buyer may not excuse possible tardiness by saying that he had forgotten or overlooked the matter.
If payment is not made on the day following the due date, a collector from the house calls at the buyer's house. He does not usually call in his capacity of collector, however, but merely for the purpose of learning whether the piano was delivered in good con dition and whether the purchasers are entirely pleased with the instrument. Usually the buyer will make some reference to the instalment now due, upon which the collector admits that the bookkeeper, on learning that he (the collector) was going to call upon the new customer, asked him to take along the receipt for the second instalment, in case this had not already been paid by mail or otherwise. Whether or not he re ceives the payment at that time, the collector invari ably obtains information that is of value to the col lection manager in formulating the collection proced ure to be followed in that case.
9. Reaching the turning point.—Until eight or nine payments are received, the collection methods em ployed are altogether deferential and void of all ir ritating insistence, altho during that time the collector is always at hand as soon as a payment is overdue, and no opportunity is afforded the customer to forget his obligation. When this point is reached; however, the collector becomes more insistent upon strict prompt ness. He explains to the customer that the house is obliged to demand regularity of payments in order to carry on its business of selling expensive articles on small monthly instalMents.
This method, tho it may at times appear rather harsh, is, in the majority of instances, fully justified. A man who buys goods on instalments should con sidei in advance whether, barring accidents, he will be able to make the prescribed payments with due regularity. Having contracted to make such pay ments, he should be willing to carry out his agreement to the letter. He can have no just ground for com plaint if the seller, having performed his share of the agreement, insists that the purchaser do likewise.
When actual disability thru illness or unemploy ment occurs', the buyer's account is usually carried un til he is able to resume payments. It is not profitable to the seller to retake the goods if there is a reasonable expectation that the amount owing will eventually be paid. The procedure here described applies in gen
eral to the collection of all instalment accounts.
10. Collecting for service rendered.—In certain classes of collections there is no opportunity to retake the goods purchased. Physicians' and dentists' bills are in this class. So also tuition fees, where these are to be paid in periodical instalments, and claims of other kinds where the goods bought have been consumed, or where at least they are not subject to repossession by the seller.
In such cases, the first thing to be done is to secure the debtor's consent to a certain periodical payment plan. It is usually better to have the debtor agree to pay one dollar a week than to obtain his promise of twenty dollars "in a short time." Regularity of pay ment rather than the amount of each payment is the point sought. Fix upon an amount well within the debtor's ability to pay, and let it be understood that in return for the creditor's concession to accept such smaller payments, the debtor shall under no circum stances fail to make his periodical payments accord ing to that agreement.
Let the debtor "get the habit" of making his pay ments on a certain date of the month or day of the week, and each payment made will serve to strengthen that habit. If there be a break in the continuity of the payments, the collector must immediately be on hand to reunite the broken ends and reestablish the interrupted payment habit.
With the various psychological appeals to human motives of action, such as pride of station, love of gain, ambition, fear, etc., we are not here particularly con cerned. These come within the province of salesman ship by letter, since the same appeals that induce a person to part with money for the purchase of an article will also induce him to part with it for the payment of a debt. Our present discussion of the subject of collections is wholly from the viewpoint of equitable credit policies. It does not regard the pay ment of a just debt as a favor to be sought, but as an obligation to be met. It does not admit that a debtor may ever consult his own convenience in the matter of making such payment, but that on the contrary he must, if he desires to postpone the payment date, first obtain the creditor's consent to such postponement.
This view of the matter is not only sound in prin ciple but also eminently satisfactory in practice. Success in business is not merely a question of selling a certain quantity of goods at a satisfactory price; it is as equally important that payment be received promptly and in full according to previously arranged terms of sale.