The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-01-26
Confessions ST a
Mail Order Man
By Mr.. M. o. x.
Revelations by One Whose Experience in
the Business Covers a Range From
Office Boy to General Manager
HOW WORKED THE CREDIT
SYSTEM.

III the catalogue IN several places
money cheerfully refunded"
If you are dissatisfied, how many
times do you get your money back?
Did you ever get it back promptly
and without a struggle?
Ihls is my game-to pretend that
your money will be returned in case
yea are not pleased with your pur-
chase and then, if you do send in a
good hot kick you will get a letter
pack asking you to select something
Else from the catalogue You will
be tired out with letters and sug-
sestions as to what you should take
instead. of the article you kicked on
until you finally decide to save any
more trouble and take something else,
something you didn't want at all
But | suppose that really the great
est joke of all is played on the peo-
pie in the small towns by my So
called credit" system.
send you a catalogue and in
vite you to buy anything you want
and to take your own time to pay for
it. The literature / send out leads
you to believe that l do not care for
money at all. l try to make you be-
heve that you are great friend of my
concern, that you are entitled to great
consideration, that your wants shall be
supplied with the greatest possible care
and that you are reliable and entitled
to credit
I will not make any inquiries con-
corning your credit" says my litera-
ture.
No questions will be asked of your
neighbors,' says another paragraph.
Your neighbors and friends will
never know that you are dealing with
us on credit" says still another sec
ton of my letter. But I most certainly
do inquire about you. For instance:
had an outside concern-that is a
eoncern running under another name
and with separate address from the
main store. This address was the
home of my credit manager or the of
tee of my collection lawyer"
When you write in for credit this
Is the way / do it. l have you sign,
first of all, paper which is part of
the order blank and is really a legal
contract, giving me power and author
lty to come into your home and take
out, not only the things you have pur-
chased on credit from me but also
everything else. When you sign an or
der for goods on credit you unwilling
ly sign chattel mortgage on your
household property. Then, after this
| paper is in my possession / can swoop
| down on you and drag out every stick
| of furniture you have in the place and
sell it at auction to pay the amount
still due.
Ii bookkeeper makes an error in
| figures, if some clerk steals a remit
| lance from you, sent in to apply on
| your account, you have absolutely no
| chance to object. 1t is the law.
Now, when you send in your order
| and application for credit, you must
| send, also-for such is my rule-an
| order and the amount specified as the
| first payment. You expect to get the
| goods right away but no, there are GER
tain things to be done before | ship
| the goods / have your money, so
| you must wait.
Then my credit man sends a letter,
| written on the fake" letterhead of my
| outside concern, to some of your neigh
| bors, asking them if your character is
| good, if you are in the habit of paying
| your bills, if your morals are good
| how much you earn week, etc. Your
| order is held until answers are re-
| ceived from those of your neighbors
| to whom the letters of inquiry were
sent. Then if the answers have been
| satisfactory, you are sent a contract
| to be signed by you and you must wait
until this has been received by my
credit department.
Then the goods are shipped. And
| the awful prices-goodness gracious
what prices charged for the very
| cheapest and most unreliable class of
goods. My policy is to set price, the
| first payment of which pays for the
| actual cost of the goods Then all the
rest is velvet" All of the future pay
ments are profit to my house. Yoy
| really pay for the goods, the actuM
| value, when you send in the first pay
ment. I won't lose anything if you
| never send in another cent
! But think of it-you must keep
| sending in money to meet the other
payments for perhaps two years-so
much each month. Any time you fail
to meet monthly payment 1 send the
papers to a local lawyer and he can
take possession of your household
| goods and sell them on the street.
Some of the goods 1 send you
| are not worth hauling to the cars. |
| remember one lot of parIor furniture
| that had a lot of damages, one of
which was a broken leg on the divan.
1t never could be fixed. l sent that
set out every time / could substi-
tute it for another on an order and
| it always came back. We had a lot
of joking about that old crippled set
| OF parlor furniture and, well, it had
lot of adventures. l shipped that
set to nearly every state in the Union.
| Whenever a\customer would order a
parlor set, and l could not get it, for
the price, used to ship this crippled
set out instead. OF course it came
back, just as l knew it would, but it
gave me chance to turn round and
kept the money in the business, of