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The Opposite of Making a Bill Easy to Pay

By Peter Olson, Esq.

I'm no Warren Buffet but I thought I heard somewhere that in business it's a good idea to try and make it as easy as possible for your customers or clients to pay your bills. I know we're always thinking about this issue with our monthly client statements whether it means accepting credit cards, sending statements via e-mail, allowing Internet bill pay, or just including a self-addressed stamped envelope so all a client has to do is write a check and drop it in the mail. You'd be amazed at what a difference just enclosing an envelope and $.42 stamp did for speed of client payments.

And then there's the Cook County Treasurer's Office...

We represent the Estate of a gentleman who died within the last 6 months or so who owned a home in Cook County. There's upwards of $800,000 in this Estate working it's way through probate court and no surprise the home has yet to sell. And we need to pay the 2007 Second Installment tax bill. But for whatever reason my client, the executor of the Estate, who has had the decedent's mail forwarded to his house hasn't gotten the tax bill.

Well, the Treasurer will not let us pay the bill unless we have an original tax bill coupon included with the check. They don't want our money! A check with a PIN and address and for the specific amount listed as due on the Website isn't enough...they want their coupons!

So I'll be stopping by the Treasurer's Office tomorrow as part of my Daley Center morning and ordering a duplicate tax bill copy at the County Administration Building.

Why is the coupon so important? Isn't it the tax revenue they're after?

Full post as published by Closing Real Estate in Chicago on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).