Well, as a CUSTOMER who regularly uses a small veterinary clinic for my pets’ care and, a local Dentist I have been visiting for decades, both let me ‘run a tab”. This means that no matter what my financial situation, if I cannot afford to pay the whole bill, I am honor bound to pay part of it. This has built a real foundation of trust between myself and both these wonderful service providers. But I imagine for some vendors or customers such a situation is not an option. Shame, though. Even the Internal Revenue Service must work with taxpayers to put payment plans in place, installments, whatnot. Then too, we read of people who just try and weasel out of paying their bills at all….who will evade any responsibility. Ever. Working with customers whenever possible has been my savior. However both my vet and, dentist were agreeable to it. Right now I am ‘flush’; I can pay my bills in total, once more, without having damaged any relationships in the places where I have done business – and plan to, again in future!