Best Business Practices for Photographers [185]
Here are the (relevant) terms from RMS's form regarding their services, contingent upon collection:
a) Collection services. RMS will make written, telephone, and/or personal demands for payment. Charges contingent upon collection are 30% for the first $501 to $3,000 collected, 27% of the next $3,001 to $10,000 collected, 22% of amounts collected in excess of $10,000 with minimum charges of $150 on collections of $301 to $500, and 50% on collections of $300 or less. On accounts where the oldest invoice is more than one year old, a rate of 33.3% will be charged. If customer withdraws an account, settles directly, or accepted returned merchandise, the customer may be charged these rates.
b) Forwarding service. RMS will forward accounts to attorneys on the customer's behalf and will transmit and conduct the necessary correspondence, in accordance with the customer's instructions. Charges contingent upon collection for services of RMS and attorneys are the same as outlined in section (a) above. Not withstanding the single combined charge to Customer upon collection, RMS and attorneys each have separate and individual fees, and there is no sharing of each others' fees. There may be additional charges by attorneys when suits or other legal proceedings are authorized by the customer, consisting of an administrative charge, suit fee, advance costs, and in some cases, a retainer. RMS also reserves the right to charge an administrative fee for processing and handling of accounts forwarded to attorneys at the customer's request.
All you have to do is fax a form to RMS with the name of the debtor, the address, the city, the state, the zip, the phone number, the amount owed, and the date of their last invoice. You do not need to provide a copy of the invoice (in the beginning) or any documentation that the debt is valid, unless/until the issue escalates or the debtor states that they do not owe any money to you.
This service, previously a part of Dun & Bradstreet, is now a standalone business. You can find more information on their website. As of this writing, the URL is www.rmsna.com.
Further, you also might be able to submit your debt claim online, once you set up an account (free, as I recall) at the RMS site: www.rmsna.com/khome.htm.
From my experience, unless the bill is more than about $2,000, for the amount of time involved in letter writing, phone calls, e-mails, more letter writing, and so on, as well as the mental anguish of being upset that someone to whom I delivered on time and as required services is now ignoring me, I just go with RMS. Typically, I send them $600 to $1,400 past-due invoices, and with rare exceptions, they get results. At that point, it is worth it for me to give them a few hundred dollars, not only for all the hassle they saved me, but for the knowledge that there is now a black mark on the client's credit, and the wrong has been righted on principle. In the end, I'd happily send RMS a $200 past-due bill, let them go through all the hassle of writing letters and so on, and in the end net $100, because it's more than likely $100 more than I'd get from someone who won't return my calls or who objects. When the client gets a collections notice, they pay attention to it.
Having been through small claims (and federal) court, I can say that although they are rewarding, when you have to give up a day (or more than one day if there is a continuance at the last minute) and turn away assignment(s) for that day to be in court, you'd lose the amount you might have won in court from the lost assignments. So, farming out the collections with the muscle of RMS just makes the most sense.
Chapter 22 Letters, Letters, Letters: Writing Like a Professional Can Solve Many Problems
Letters, correspondence, notes, and such are truly the foundations of communication. Battles waged, lives lost, and unintended consequences have all resulted from poor writings. The importance of good and accurate letter writing cannot be underestimated. The misplacement of a comma by Lockheed Martin cost