Hi Andy,
Another vote for option b.
Regards
Rob
Every time there is one of these misunderstandings I explain why
> this happened and ask how they would like it to be changed so that
> it doesn't happen any more, but sadly I have never really received
> any concrete suggestions even from the people it has happened to. I'm
> pretty sick of this happening so I want to do something about it.
>
> So, I shall ask all of you, how would you expect it to work?
>
> a) As soon as a mandate is authorised, just charge all existing
> invoices immediately
>
> Very tempting. Very simple. I fear there will be at least one
> person that will claim they never expected that to happen, and a
> returned Direct Debit has caused them to incur an eleventy
> billion pound penalty charge from their bank, their mortgage
> payment got rejected, and now there are men outside in shiny
> leather jackets.
>
> b) As soon as the mandate is authorised, if the customer has
> existing invoices that are unpaid, there is a very noticeable
> message on the screen like:
>
> You seem to have unpaid invoices:
>
> #41234 £107.88
> #41239 £1.92
>
> Pre-existing invoices won't be automatically submitted for
> payment by Direct Debit. You can <a href="…">pay them now</a>
> by a one-off Direct Debit or any of our other supported
> payment methods.
>
> I like (b).
>
> I am open to other ideas if you have any. I can't really think of
> any.
>
>
