Late movie process/collections

[wildandwoolly]

Hey,

I also posted this on the Facebook group, so sorry for the duplication.

I was wondering what everyone did for their late movie/collections procedures. I'm working on streamlining ours. Right now we send out reminder postcards on Weds and Sat for people around 5-10 days late. Then we call them. Then after about 2 weeks we send it over to collections. Since we changed our pricing our volume has gone way up and this job has become bigger and bigger.

Thanks for any input,

Todd/Wild and Woolly Video

[IVR]

Todd, just last week I had this discussion with several other video retailers. For many years we've generated a late list for anyone 2-14 days late and then sent letters everyday to people who were 3 days late. It had gotten to the point that we spending too much time and money doing the late list and letters everyday and wanted to streamline the process like you.

Now we generate a late list for items 4-14 days late. This has reduced the list from as high as 150 items to now anywhere from 5-30 items depending on the store. We then make daily phone calls for anyne who is 5 days, 8 days, 11 days and 14 days late. This seems to be only about 5 phone calls per day at the most and we seem to already be getting a better response than the letters ever gave us.

We also streamlined how we clean up the late list to remove items that are over 30 days past due.

I can email you the instruction sheet that the employees use if you want it. It has the specific directions for generating the report in Tempus.

[wildandwoolly]

Thanks for your feedback.

Yes, I'd be into seeing that sheet. My email is todd at wandwvideo.com

What do you do after 30 days? Is the movie still out on their account so if it does get returned it registers as such? Or is it converted to something else.

The last time we sent postcards (Saturday) we sent out 35 postcards for movies that were I think 5-10 days late. There were then 47 phone calls for people who have already been sent cards but still haven't returned the movies (probably roughly 7-20 days depending on what they have out).

There were then 9 people where the above didn't work and are due to be sent to the collection agency.

I think a big part of my problem is that the guy doing it is so deliberate and detailed that he gets bogged down with it. The above pretty much takes him all day to do.

He might get really good results for us, I'm not sure, but I do feel like it could be done  more efficiently.

Thanks
Todd

[IVR]

At 30 days we check the items in and then waive any fees that are above the amount we set for certain items. For example a catalog dvd we waive all but $20, new release dvds we waive all but $30, games $75, Blu Ray $40 and adult $40. After we return the items and waive the excess fees we sell each item for $0.00 and attempt to use the credit card on file to pay the fees.

We also note each account everytime a phone call is made and what the charges on the account are for.

[wildandwoolly]

Thanks.

What happens if they bring them back, say in 40 days. And anonymously drop it? That's usually what happens here. What do you do with the movie then?

And what do you do if the credit card doesn't work?

Thanks
Todd

[IVR]

If they return we call the customer then if they never come get it we add it back into our inventory. We rarely have this happen though. What we're charging them is far less than the fees they would have owed so we don't refund anything if they return it either.

If the credit card doesn't work pretty much nothing happens. Some people have had limited success with collection companies but to me it's never been worth the hassle.