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Why? You don't have to give all the person's information, just for example "Richard Shine in Detroit with postal code 48220 failed to pay $450 for services". Does the credit card company tell you that they will share the fact that you are late? Not outright, it's buried in a very long service agreement. The company Choicepoint collects whatever kind of data you want. All data recovery services would have to do would be to send them this information, and they would keep it in its own repository like they do everything else. The nice thing there is that you can't get the list itself, but only check whether a name appears on it, add your own entries to it, and remove an entry that you entered. In that case, you would request from them the file on Mr. Shine, just like checking a credit file. If he has no file, or no negativity, conduct business normally. Depending on what's in his file, you might ask for a larger deposit amount, such as $500 credit card hold, with the charge to be posted when complete. He isn't charged the $500, it is only held, so if the charge comes to $50, that alone will post to his card and the hold would then be released on the $450 remaining. You could even just decide not to conduct business with him at all.
This is just a reversed version of one of the services of the Better Business Bureau, this one for business, not customer, protection.
Lots of businesses keep (and share) this kind of information, they just don't broadcast it to the world. Look for "Wall of shame" or similar things. More than a handful of businesses that my company services (IT, POS, etc.) actually puts returned checks up on the wall for all to see (mostly auto parts stores, machine shops, things like that).
If you're going to screw someone in a business deal, do you think that it's wrong for the person to nonmaliciously publicize it? I've dealt with people before who have no problem with a bill until it comes due, then they start questioning billable hours, what we installed ("why do we need a rack or cabinet to install all this into, why can't we stack it on the floor?") prices of equipment we sell as compared to the junk you would buy at Best Buy (why some routers cost $1500 and how they are different from the $39 one at the store). I've had to take these types of places to court on several occasions, sometimes costing me almost as much as the judgement amount (if you try to make it up by adding late charges, say $50 and then 10% per month, it is legal, but the judge will probably reduce them or remove them entirely).
Why should I take up ten hours of my time, as well as several hours of one or more of my technicians' time (which I will have to pay them for), in order to collect a bill? I can't charge the person I'm suing for that time wasted.
The bottom line, as far as I care, is that if someone wants to do business with you, they need to understand that they will have to pay your bill, not what they think is reasonable, not to stop paying on an office installation of 26 machines and two servers because one of their computers got a virus on it (had it happen to me) and you are charging them send someone out to remove it (had it happen to me). You have to protect your interests.
If you send me a piece of equipment for repair, and you don't pay me, I keep it. It's that simple. It's just like a car at a repair shop. Look up Mechanic's Lien if you want to see what I am talking about. Don't pay for a new accessory belt to be installed on your $50000 Mercedes? The shop can legally keep (and after 120 days, sell) your car and not give you a thing. If you take the car from their lot when they are closed, it's actually considered a felony (with the same penalties as theft of the same) in the U.S., since the car is legally considered at that point to be held in escrow, pending payment.
If it's something that has to be billed in segments, like an installation of a restaurant POS system (deposit, then amount upon completion), it's a little different. If they don't pay in their 15-30 days, what then? What then is that it gets expensive for you, as the company who isn't being paid.
Did you know there are actually companies that have an authentication service, where you install a utility onto the computer that will phone home periodically to check if they have been honoring a payment plan? You, as the installer, can update the status on their website. You enter a shutdown date, where the program will disable their computers (and encrypt the contents of the directories of your choice), generally a month or so after the due date on the last bill you sent them. Once the plan's completed, the program removes itself from their machinery. Sure, you can hire someone to come in and remove it, but it will probably cost them so much to do it, that it's easier for them to just pay you the bill. I wonder how many times the person who built that program had to get screwed in order to resort to coming up with that? You would, of course, have to write it into your services agreement as well. You would also have the flexibility to allow them to continue using everything, pending resolution of a money problem on their part. I really don't want to have to implement these sort of things, but I've had cases where I wished I did have this service.
Trust me, I do understand your point of view. I don't want my information shared, either, but if I broke an arrangement in an unfair manner (didn't immediately inform that I couldn't pay on time, or no longer needed the service, until completion), it would be deserved.
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