uncollected glasses

[ellivron55]

What is a reasonable timespan to keep uncollected glasses before you dismantle them and use the frame again?

[Jedi]

Are they paid for completely or just a deposit?

[chip anderson]

Bill patient, when you give up on collecting, that's the time.

[LENNY]

I did dispense glasses that had 50% deposit and were 2 years old!

[k12311997]

pt glasses are in. call once a week for three weeks. send letter once a month for three months. Third letter certified mail informing pt that if they don't pick up glasses within thirty days the glasses will no longer be available and there will be no refund. Make sure you document when you call and keep copies of the letters and the mail reciept for the certified letter.

[chip anderson]

When you get down to the sending a letter phase: Send a bill, add 1.5% a month with each month. Some of them will come in to avoid acrueing interest. If you still have to eat it, you haven't lost any more. Also note, start the interest acrueing 1 week after the job was ready for pick up.

Chip

[Chris Ryser]

If you deal with credit card companies....................charge the deposit at point of sale and tell customer/patient you will charge the balance the day they are finished on the same card.

You should not have any un-collected un-paid jobs in your drawer waiting for pickup.

[Cindy Hamlin]

If you deal with credit card companies....................charge the deposit at point of sale and tell customer/patient you will charge the balance the day they are finished on the same card.

You should not have any un-collected un-paid jobs in your drawer waiting for pickup.

Chris,
The customer can contest the second charge and the credit card company will remove it as they do not have the customer signature on the slip. We started on the phone orders via credit cards to have them sign at pick-up. They can still contest it and 50% of the time get the money back anyway, but it is harder with the signed slip.

Also, if the card is a debit card you can cause overdraft charges on the customer's account if the money is not available when you charge it. You will have to refund those charges, too as again you don't have a signature on the card. Plus you have an irate customer on your hands.

The key is to get the entire balance paid up front. If it is paid and they don't return mail them to them. A delivery confirmation only costs about $2 and you have confirmation they are delivered.

[Cindy K]

Lady tells me that she ordered a pair of glasses fifteen months ago and has now arrived to pick them up. ($100.00 deposit was left on $300. order; all but $10. of the lenses was paid for.) Do you really really think we are going to keep a frame sitting on a shelf with rx lenses in it for FIFTEEN MONTHS???????????????? NOT!!!!

She actually seemed to expect me to have kept them! Told her I'll be happy to re-order another one of the frames she had chosen, since I had to sell hers as it was not paid for, and I have her lenses sitting safely in her file waiting for her to return.

[DocInChina]

When I was a practioner we normally would only start to process an order once we received payment in full. If the patient had resistance or if they did not have all the money then to pay we would take a deposit but would informed them we would start any work until they remitted the entire amount. If we had a long standing relationship with a person we might consider working on the glasses. I will tell you that we did get burned by long standing patients too who just never came back for the glasses.

The times when we made glasses with partial deposits and the buyer did not come back promptly, we handled it it similar to k12311997 as posted above.

Doc