fair enough...
as with everything else, its a cost to benefit thing, if we mailed everyone the day their books went overdue, it would cost us a lot (both in terms of time and actual money, especially with postage nowadays). So, what is the optimum timespan so that you are neither sending too many letters out, nor letting people run up too much of a debt to the service?
The key fact to remember here however, is that this policy has been in place for
an awfully long time
It was decided that two weeks was the best balance between cost and benefit.
however, as this policy was created when our charges were a lot LOT cheaper, theoretically, in 2 weeks, you can run up (if you have your card maxed out, which is.... 12 books, 6 CD's, 6 DVD's (hehehe) and a veritable plethora of other items that i shall be ignoring for this) anyway, you could run up £62.40 in two weeks on the items i have stated. However, to do this, you would have to be retarded, or stealing the items anyway.
once this point has been reached, we wait another 2 weeks, then send you another letter asking for the items back or payment for the items if you have lost them, so at this point you would own £104.80 (wow, even i didnt realise it could go that high that quickly
)
if this doesnt work thet your account would be suspended, the maximum fine on books and CD's is £9 a piece, and on DVD's its... 4 weeks rental (iirc).
This is where it can get heavy, once you are suspended the cost of replacing all of the items you have out is attached to your account, SO, (worst case scenario here goes) say the 12 books were all hardbacks, they go for £18.99 now (ARP), the CD's we will call £12.99 and the DVD's 15.99
SO: theoretical total cost if you are a total numpty:
18 x £9 (books and CD's) =£162
6 x £10 (DVD's) =£60
total overdue costs: £222
total replacement costs:
12 x £18.99 (books) =£227.88
6 x £12.99 (CD's) =£77.94
6 x £15.99 (DVD's) =£95.94
total replacement costs = £401.76
total cost = £623.76
for which we would take you to court (much good it would do us, as you would probably be a thieving bastard who the court would rule had to give us £5 a month until the debt was paid)
anything under £100 we dont go to court for.