Notice Schedule

Overdue Items

Timeline for Overdues

PreDue Notices which does include a "freshly-overdue" notice

Receiving these notices is a patron opt-in choice. It's keyed off of User Cat2, now labeled as PreDue.

Emailed notices are sent during the 7AM hour; Text and Phone are done at noon.

• Three Days before due date: First Pre-due notice
• One Day before due date: Second Pre-due notice
• Two Days Overdue: Overdue notice decommissioned²
• Eight Days Overdue: Overdue notice

Overdue Notices

Overdue notices are sent on Wednesdays; thus the timing of event can vary by as much as 6 days.

While patrons can choose Phone/eMail/Text as notice delivery options, the Third Overdue / Bill for Items Not Returned is always sent via USPS.

• Two Weeks (15-21 days): First Overdue Notice
• Four Weeks (29-35 days): Second Overdue Notice
• Six Weeks (43-49 days): Third Overdue / Bill for Items Not Returned. Patron billed for replacement cost of item. This notice includes mention of future collections action and additional fees if not rectified.
• Eight Weeks (57-63 days): Patron is turned over to UMS if overdue items have a total value of $25 or more. A $15 REFERRAL bill is created, and patron status changes to COLLECTION. There is no MFRL notice sent for this action.

High Balance Notices

In addition to notices for checked out items, MFRL also has a schedule of notices for patrons with large, unpaid balances. These notices are sent on Wednesdays, and always sent via USPS on a crash mailer.

• Two Weeks with High Balance: Notice sent if amount due on bills that were created 15 or more days ago total $25 or more. This notice includes mention of future collections action and additional fees if not rectified. It also states that no additional notices will be sent, online payment is available, and lists a specific date and time by which fines must be paid (just less than three weeks after notice creation; 8PM on the Monday before "three weeks" occurs). This time and day revolves around Paymentus hours, not library hours.
• Five Weeks with High Balance: Patron is turned over to UMS if the balance on bills as described above is $25 or more. Newly created bills are not added in this calculation. A $15 REFERRAL bill is created, and patron status changes to COLLECTION. There is no MFRL notice sent for this action.

INSTITUTE patrons

The only notice listed above that Institutional patrons receive is the Eight Days Overdue: Second Overdue email¹.

Fees

When a patron is turned over to UMS, a collection fee of $15.00 is automatically added to the account. This fee is Non-negotible. This fee defrays the cost that MFRL incurs when sending patrons to UMS.

Patrons in Collections Status

• Once in Collection status, a patron must pay their entire balance due to get out of Collection status.
• If a patron in collections wishes to make scheduled payments to their account, we can "suspend" UMS actions (calls and letters from UMS).
• It is not possible to delay the sending of a patron to UMS.

Example Notices

For examples of text, phone, and email versions of our predue and overdue notices, see the Notices page.

USPS Mailed Notices

1. 1st Overdue Notice - still exists, but used infrequently.
2. 2nd Overdue Notice - still exists, but used infrequently.
3. 3rd Overdue / Bill for Items Not Returned
4. High Balance Notice

References

¹As per 01/31/2017 Management Meeting

²As per 11/14/2017 Management Meeting; PBWorks Event and Configuration Change Log; "Sirsi WF OD eMail Report Fail - 11/03/2017"