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Preferred strategies for collecting payment?
2 points by happyrock on Sept 24, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments
Hi HN. My family is owed a good sum of money from a family friend, a sum which was lent to said friend's business many years ago and still has not been repaid. The debtor has the money, but keeps stonewalling. It is a sensitive situation and it involves extended social networks of friends; both sides agree on the amounts, and both sides agree that it should be paid. What are some ways to, er, "incent" the gentleman in question to pay his debt, preferably not involving escalating hostilities or legal threat? Any trusted techniques for raising the temperature in a firm but civilized way? Thanks.


If I accept the state of the universe as you've written it: Offer a payment plan, appealing to the debtor's better nature to get some of this retired immediately without causing him heartburn due to a large cash shock. Get that payment plan in writing, to keep everybody on the up and up. Collect payments in a timely fashion, embrace warmly when it is repaid.

In the world we're actually living in: the reason that "a firm demand on paper followed by legal proceedings" is the civilized way of raising the temperature is that some people are momos and are perfectly capable of constructing an inner world in which they don't have to pay, absent the external world forcing them to.


tell him its time to pay its been long enough and send him an invoice




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