I've sold a physical course to a niche market for the last 10 years. The courses range from $400-700. I offer a 2 payment program which is they charge 1/2 on credit card, I send course and 30 days later they are charged automatically.
About 2/3 of my customers just pay full price and 1/3 use the payment program.
This has worked well until recently. In fact over the last 10 years I've never had problems getting the 2nd payment, until now. If there was a problem, I would call them get a new credit card from them or something else to complete the 2nd payment.
However since last month, I have 2 customers who have 2nd payments that haven't gone through and I can't reach by phone, won't return calls, etc. Today a 3rd customer's 2nd payment has been declined. Although I last customer said he is adding money to his account so I should be able to rebill him tomorrow, it's time to weigh my options about deciding to take another step in collecting the money from the non-payers.
Although I've found I've had very few disputes over the years, I've found that the credit card companies usually side with the customers, so I don't want push too hard or the non pay customers might just send the course back, tell their credit card company the course was junk and start the chargeback process.
Does anyone have experience with this?
Thanks,
Ron
