TIME-PAYMENT TRICKERY.

NZ Truth, Issue 181, 5 December 1908, Page 6

TIME-PAYMENT TRICKERY.

Shekel-snariug Sharks and their

Schemes.

The time-payment system is a commercial abortion that ought to be abolished by legislative' enactment for ever more, or placed under . suitable regulation. The case, m Sydney, where a rattle-trap of a sewing-machine, worth its weight as old iron, had earned no less a sum than £350 for its company is well known, and there are other branches of household requisites and luxuries where the articles are seized under the hire system, at a bad season, after blood ./money has been wrung from the victim. ; The piano, being expensive and • the /term lengthy, is a' fruitful source of misery m many indigent households that want to eive the eldest jirl a musical accomplishment. This paper has seen one or two contracts imposed upon the victims by - the instrument mongers, and those agreements ar£ °so uniaitly m favor of the seller that "Truth" repeats its statement that Legislative enactment is necessary to protect the general public. The urifartu^ nate dupe must pay monthly, for- instance, the sum of, say, 15s, m default thereof, a penalty, of, say again, 10 ■* per sent, is imposed, and , if this isn't paid the instrument— is seitt'd, no matter how much has been paid on it./ The piano, or whatever it is, has to remain m one particular house, and cannot be removed without the ex-piess permission, of the monetariiv -insatiable music people. The" form cf agreement is one that shouldn't be allowed by law, and when a smoothtongued canvasser asks the, deluded householder to skn ihe agreement, "merely as a matter of form," the piano-buyer does: n't know the contract 4»e or she is. taking on. These remarks are made m a {icneral sort of way, and are not meant to have ap li.atiln to any individual firm, but "Truth" has received information recently that Milner and Thompson's Christchurch branch endeavored .to get a piano back after the PULL AMOUNT HAD BEEN PAID. The lady, Who is a well-known \ nurse, worked hard to enjoy the luxury' of a" piano, and actually gave Milner and ThompEOi), by instalments, the sum" 'ol £3ti, which was tue amount accept m full satisfaction of all -claims. Recently, however, she received" an intimation that ehe still owed £1 .on the instrument, coupled '■. with, am uncourteous demand for the money, and with a -threat that if it were not paid forthwith the ; piano would be seized. The"; lady went round to the local branch of Milner and Thompson and expostulated. She had receipts m .her poßsesßicn for £36, she said., Thepeople m the establishmJent told her that their hooks showed she had' only paid £35. Fortunately she has the receipts and. is gafe, but m view of the fact that few people keep receipts, extending over a lengthy period (this particular piano was delivered m 1904) instalment-payers are liable to be victimised by ' the carelessness, or negligence, or dishonesty of an employee m some piano t monkery who tails to enter up payments m the firm's books when such paymentfe ■" are made. Tkc lady m question. ,who goes into* many households m h<jc capacity re- ] nurse, has found piari;/i>-instalmerit ■ receipts lying about all <yver the. shop, 'and knows that- in these cases the family »ight easily have b^en,'. victimised. , Although served with noi^ice of seizure, the twrse hasn't seen the bailiffs yet, and she suspects that she will not see them until "she has - :receive(l a "visit from a member of the ivory-tl) umping firm, ghe having • invited him round to inspect her teowtpts of paymeat m full.