JP2002189798A - Rental merchandise and its management device program recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a customer to easily extend an initially designated contract rental period and formally decide a rental period only by designating a temporary rental period at the time of renting merchandise even when the initial rental period has expired. SOLUTION: A merchandise management server 1 stores the contract contents of the merchandise indicated by the customer in a database for use condition by customers to be managed at the time when the merchandise rental contact is made and also checks whether unreturned merchandise beyond the contract rental period exists. When there is merchandise beyond its rental period, the server 1 notifies the customer terminal 6 of its user side of a delay notice, and subsequently extends the contract rental period in accordance with application contents in the case of receiving the application for extending the contract rental period from the customer terminal 6 side.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rental merchandise management apparatus for managing the rental and return of rental merchandise, and a program recording medium therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, an automatic rental machine has been installed in a rental shop, and rental and return of rental products such as videos can be performed by an unmanned automatic rental machine. By inserting the member card into the automatic rental machine, the user can be authenticated and the desired product can be borrowed, so that the user can freely use the product at any time without worrying about the clerk. By the way, at the time of a rental contract for a product, the customer indicates the desired rental period, but it is not always possible to return the product within the rental period selected at the time of borrowing, for example, during the rental period initially selected. In the event that a situation that cannot be returned suddenly occurs, and recent multiplex recording media, audio has been dubbed in the original language, close-up parts of the image you want to see, Various viewings, such as watching, are possible, so it is often impossible to view within the scheduled period, and even if a rental period is specified when borrowing a product, it is not always possible to return it by that time limit.

[0003]

In such a case, the rental shop cannot predict the time of return. Therefore, the rental shop is required to additionally charge a large amount of late charge to prevent the delay. However, when a high late charge is charged, the number of users is reduced, and measures have been demanded. By the way, when instructing the rental period, for example, a customer who frequently uses rental for one week,
Like customers who frequently use rentals for three days and two nights, there is a tendency to specify a similar period every time.

[0004] The first object of the present invention is to make it possible to easily extend the rental period as a countermeasure even if the contract rental period originally specified by the customer is delayed, and for the customer to temporarily extend the rental period when borrowing the goods. By simply specifying the rental period, the rental period can be officially determined later, and the lender can predict the return time even if the rental period is extended, so The goal is to provide a merchandise management system that has significant benefits for both borrowers and lenders, while adding only the amount of billing. The subject of the second invention is:
Considering that the customer tends to specify the same period every time when instructing the rental period, if the same rental period is specified, by providing the privilege service to the customer, the same rental period will be actively More tendency to specify
As a result, it is necessary to effectively prevent arrears and to provide a product management mechanism that has great advantages for both borrowers and lenders.

[0005] The means of the present invention are as follows. An invention according to claim 1 (first invention) is a rental product management device for managing rental of a rental product and return of the rental product, wherein a contract content for storing and managing the contract content of the product at the time of the product rental contract. A storage means, a term monitoring means for referring to the contract content for each product stored in the contract content storage means, and determining whether there is an unreturned product beyond the contract rental period; and When it is determined that there is a product whose rental period has expired, a notification unit for giving an overdue notification, and when there is an application for extension of the contract rental period from a lender receiving the overdue notification,
Extension processing means for performing a period extension process for extending the contract rental period in accordance with the contents of the application, and when the contract rental period is extended by the extension processing means, calculate a billing amount corresponding to the extension period. Extension charging means. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium on which a program code for causing a computer to execute each of the above-described functions is recorded. Therefore, according to the invention described in claim 1, even if the contract rental period originally designated by the customer is delayed, the rental period can be easily extended as a measure to cope with the delay, and the customer has a provisional rental period when borrowing the product. By simply specifying the rental period, the rental period can be officially determined later, and the lender can predict the return time even if the rental period is extended, so It is possible to provide a merchandise management system that has a great advantage for both the borrower and the lender by simply adding the charge amount.

The present invention may be as follows. (1) The notifying means sends, via a network, an e-mail to the terminal of the lending destination to the lending destination terminal in accordance with various predetermined extension forms, in accordance with the extension form. Transmitting, said extension processing means,
When an application for extending the contract rental period is made from the rented terminal via a network, the contract rental period is extended in accordance with the contents of the application. (2) The extension processing means adds a predetermined period to the start date of the contract rental period when the application content of the contract rental period indicates a change of the period, thereby adding the previous contract rental period to a new contract rental period. If a period change process for changing to the rental period is executed and the application content indicates additional period, a predetermined period is added to the end of the contract rental period, and a new contract rental period is added to the previous contract rental period. A period adding process for continuously adding a period is executed. In this case, the extension billing means, when the period change processing is executed by the extension processing means, subtracts the amount of use of the previous contract rental period from the changed amount of use of the new contract rental period. It is calculated as a charge amount corresponding to the extension period, and when the period addition process is executed, the usage amount of the continuously added new contract rental period is set as a charge amount corresponding to the extension period. (3) When a purchase of a rental item is requested from a terminal of a lending destination in response to the notification of delinquency, a purchase charge amount calculating means for calculating a purchase amount in consideration of a charged amount from a sale price of the item. Provide. (4) When a rental contract for a product is made using an automatic rental machine, a contract content acquisition means for obtaining the contents of the contract from the automatic rental machine via a network, and the product is returned to the automatic rental machine. When referring to the contract content for each product stored in the contract content storage means,
Notification means is provided for determining whether or not the return is beyond the contract rental period and notifying the automatic rental machine of the determination result.

[0007] The invention according to claim 6 (second invention) is as follows.
A rental product management device for managing rental and return of rental products, a usage history storage means for storing and managing the type of rental period used in the past as a usage history for each lending destination, and the usage history storage Service determining means for referring to the contents of the means and for each rental destination, and determining a privilege service according to the use result for each rental period, and when the new rental is used, the service determining means corresponds to the rental destination. Service guidance means for guiding the privilege service for each rental period determined as described above, and the type of rental period designated in response to the service guidance is registered as a usage history in the usage history storage means, The privilege service determined corresponding to the designated period is provided. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium on which a program code for causing a computer to execute each of the above-described functions is recorded. Therefore, in the invention according to claim 6, in consideration of the fact that the customer tends to designate the same period every time the customer designates the rental period, if the same rental period is designated, the privilege service is provided to the customer. , The tendency to actively specify the same rental period is strengthened, thereby effectively preventing delinquency and providing a product management system that has significant benefits for both borrowers and lenders .

The present invention may be as follows. (1) The service deciding means refers to the contents of the use history storage means, and on condition that the use result for each rental period has reached a predetermined amount, a privilege service corresponding to the rental period. To determine. (2) When a purchase of a rental product is requested, preferential sale of the requested product is performed according to the product purchase results corresponding to the rental destination. (4) when a rental contract for a product is made using an automatic rental machine, a contract content acquisition means for acquiring the contract content of the product specified by the customer via the network from the automatic rental machine, When the product is returned to the machine, it refers to the contract content for each product stored in the contract content storage means, determines whether the return is beyond the contract rental period, and determines the result of the determination. Notification means for notifying the automatic rental machine is provided.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. This embodiment specifically shows the first and second inventions described above. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a rental product management system according to this embodiment. This rental product management system is based on a product management server at the center that centrally manages automatic rental equipment installed in unmanned rental shops in various places, and rentals that manage rental and return of rental products via a network It is a service business, and by developing such a service business on a nationwide scale, a wide-area communication system that can be used by anyone using the Internet is constructed.

In the merchandise management server 1 on the center side,
Each automatic rental device 3 is connected via the network 2, and in conjunction with the automatic rental device 3, the merchandise management server 1 manages the rental and return of rental products. In this case, the customer inserts his / her own credit card (credit card issued for the member) 4 into the card insertion slot of the automatic rental device 3 or a product designation card 5
When a (product code entry card prepared in the rental shop) is inserted, the automatic rental apparatus 3 reads the inserted card information and transmits it to the product management server 1, and the product management server 1 Based on this, user authentication is performed, the presence or absence of stock of the product is confirmed, and the result is notified to the automatic rental device 3 of the transmission source. The network 2 connecting the merchandise management server 1 on the center side and each automatic rental device 3 may be the Internet in addition to the dedicated line network.

The credit card 4 is a credit card issued in advance by the rental shop for members, and can be commonly used in rental shops of member stores nationwide. The product specification card 5 is a product card in which a product code prepared in the rental shop is written, and the product specification card 5 corresponding to the product is inserted into the automatic rental device 3 when the product is borrowed. ing. Here, when the customer operates the automatic rental device 3 to make a rental contract for a product, the product management server 1 takes in the contract content from the automatic rental device 3 and stores and manages the content.

The product management server 1 has a customer terminal 6 for using a rental service via the network 2.
Is connected. Here, the customer terminal 6 may be either a personal computer (customer PC) 6-1 owned by the customer or a portable terminal 6-2 owned by the customer. The network 2 connecting the product management server 1 and the customer terminal 6 is the Internet or a mobile communication network.
The merchandise management server 1 refers to the contract contents of each merchandise, and monitors whether there is any merchandise that has not been returned over the contract rental period. The terminal (customer PC 6-1 or customer portable terminal 6-2) is notified via the network 2 to that effect. In this case, if there is an application for extension of the contract rental period from the customer terminal, the product management server 1 executes the period extension process for extending the contract rental period in accordance with the contents of the application, and executes the normal delay Instead of
The charge amount corresponding to the extension period is calculated. Further, a credit company server 7 is connected to the product management server 1, and the product management server 1 performs a charging request process for the credit company.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the product management server 1. The CPU 101 is a central processing unit that controls the overall operation of the product management server 1 according to an operating system and various application software. The recording medium 102 stores a database and the like in addition to an operating system and various application software, and is configured by a magnetic, optical, semiconductor memory, or the like. The recording medium 102 is a fixed medium such as a hard disk or a portable medium such as a CD-ROM, a floppy desk, a RAM card, and a magnetic card which can be detachably mounted. The programs and data in the recording medium 102 are stored in the recording medium reading unit 10.
3 is loaded into a memory (for example, a static RAM) 104 under the control of the CPU 101, or data in the memory 104 is saved in the recording medium 102.

The recording medium 102 may be provided on an external device such as a server.
1 is a program / program in the recording medium via a transmission medium.
You can also access and use the data directly. Further, the CPU 101 can also take in some or all of the data stored in the recording medium 102 from another device via a transmission medium, and newly register or additionally register the recording medium 102. Further, the program / data may be stored and managed on the external device side such as a server, and the CPU 101 can directly access and use the program / data on the external device side via a transmission medium.

In the memory 104, in addition to the product management processing program 11, a rental fee table 12, a product database 13, a customer-specific discount database 14, and a customer-specific use status database 15, which will be described later, are loaded. As shown, the product database 13 stores, for each rental target product, its “product number”, “product name”, “purchase price”,
It is configured to store a product record including each item of “on / off flag during rental”. On the other hand, CPU1
01 is a transmission control unit 10 as its input / output peripheral device.
5, a display unit 106, an input unit 107, and a clock unit 108 are connected via a bus line, and the CPU 101 controls their operations according to an input / output program.

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing the contents of the rental fee table 12. The rental fee table 12 is configured to store “basic billing amounts” corresponding to a plurality of types of “rental periods” determined in advance.
In this case, each rental period "2 nights 3 days rental", "1
In response to “weekly rental” and “two-week rental”, the basic billing amount is “200 yen”, “450 yen”, “70 yen”.
"0 yen" is set. FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the contents of the customer-specific discount database 14. The customer-specific discount database 14 stores and manages a discount rate corresponding to the type of rental period used by the customer in the past and determined according to the use result (the number of times of use). FIG.
The content of one customer is illustrated. In this case, the data content of one customer is “credit card number” of the customer,
It is composed of "2 night 3 day rental discount (%)", "1 week rental discount (%)", "2 week rental discount (%)", and "rental item purchase discount". In the illustrated example,
For customers who tend to use rentals and purchases for a long period of time, a special discount is given to a large discount service of "20% discount".

FIG. 4 shows a usage status database 15 for each customer.
FIG. The customer-specific use status database 15 stores and manages contract contents and subsequent use statuses corresponding to each product rented for each customer, and FIG. 4 illustrates the content of one customer. . In this case, each record includes the “rental start date”, “product number”, “return date”, “initial designated period”, “billing amount”,
"Extension details 1", "Extension fee 1", "Extension details 2",
It has items of “extended charge amount 2” and “final result”. “Rental start date”, “article number”, “return date”, “initial designated period”, and “billing amount” indicate the contents of the original rental contract.

In this case, in the “return date”, “done”, “buy”, and “pre” are added to the date data.
“Done” means returned, “Buy” means purchase of rental products,
“Pre” indicates a return schedule (not returned). The “charge amount” is the charge amount at the beginning of the rental contract, and the illustrated example is a case where the charge amount is calculated based on the contents of the customer-specific discount database 14 shown in FIG. In other words, the discount rate for “Rental for 2 nights and 3 days” and “Rental for 1 week” is 0%
Therefore, the “charging amount” includes the basic charging amount “200”.
Although "yen" and "450 yen" are set, the discount rate of "two-week rental" is 20%, so the basic charge "700 yen" is reduced by 20% and "560 yen" is set. Have been.

"Extension contents 1", "Extension charges 1", "Extension contents 2", "Extension charges 2" are used when the designated period at the beginning of the rental contract is extended (including purchase). This item is set each time. In this case, there are two types of extension of the period, that is, “change of initial period” and “continuous addition of new period”. That is, as described above, if there is a product whose rental has expired, the product management server 1 notifies the customer terminal of that, but at that time, there was an application for extension of the contract rental period from the customer terminal. In this case, if the content of the application indicates a change in the period, by adding a predetermined period to the start date of the contract rental period, the previous contract rental period is changed to a new contract rental period, and If the content indicates addition of a period, a predetermined period is added to the end date (return date) of the contract rental period, so that a new contract rental period is continuously added to the previous contract rental period. . When the initial contract rental period is extended in this way, instead of the usual high delinquent fee, a billing amount for the extended period is calculated and set as a corresponding item.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the entire configuration of the unmanned automatic rental device 3. The automatic rental device 3 includes a CPU 101, a recording medium 102, and a recording medium reading unit 10 which are the respective components of the product management server 1 shown in FIG.
3, memory 104, transmission control unit 105, display unit 106,
The CPU 301 and the recording medium 30 correspond to the input unit 107.
2. In addition to having a recording medium reading unit 303, a memory 304, a transmission control unit 305, a display unit 306, and an input unit 307,
It has a rental product take-out unit 308, a rental product return unit 309, a rental product storage 310, and a card reading unit 311. Here, the CPU 301 executes the automatic rental device 3 according to the automatic rental processing program in the memory 304.
Controls the overall operation of. Note that the rental product take-out unit 308
Is for taking out the designated product from the rental product storage 310 when the rental target product is designated by the customer, and transporting and discharging the rental product. When the product is put in, the rental product return unit 309 reads the product from the product. In addition to reading the number, the returned product is transported and stored in the rental product storage 310. The card reading unit 311 scans the inserted credit card 4 and product specification card 5 to read card information. The read card information is transferred to the CPU 301.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the customer terminal 6 (customer PC 6-1 and customer portable terminal 6-2). This customer terminal 6 is the product management server 1 shown in FIG.
CPU 101, recording medium 102, recording medium reading unit 103, memory 104, transmission control unit 10
5, the display unit 106, the input unit 107, and the clock unit 108, the CPU 601, the recording medium 602, the recording medium reading unit 603, the memory 604, the transmission control unit 605, and the display unit 60.
6, an input unit 607 and a clock unit 608. Here, the CPU 601 controls a product management process in the customer terminal 6 according to a product management process program in the memory 604. Note that the product management processing program is downloaded from the product management server 1 in advance at the time of the first rental contract and distributed as a user program. The memory 604 also stores the customer data of the principal and the usage status of the principal for each customer.

Next, the operation of the rental product management system in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. Here, the programs for realizing the functions described in these flowcharts are stored in the recording medium 3 in the form of readable program codes, and the CPU 1 sequentially executes the operations according to the program codes. I do. Further, the CPU 1 can also sequentially execute operations according to the above-described program code transmitted via the transmission medium. That is, an operation specific to this embodiment can be executed using a program / data externally supplied via a transmission medium in addition to a recording medium.

FIG. 7 shows that the merchandise management server 1 uses the merchandise management processing program to execute a customer-specific discount database 1
4 is a flowchart showing a customer discount data update process for updating the content of No. 4;
This is a schedule process that is started by an interrupt command every fixed time (for example, every day). First, the merchandise management server 1 initializes a read address i for addressing the contents of the customer-specific usage status database 15 for one customer (step A1). Next, the access status database 15 for each customer is accessed with the read address i,
After specifying the corresponding data area for one customer, "Rental start date" is selected from the records in this specified data area.
With reference to the item contents of the above, each record corresponding to the past three months is acquired as a record to be processed based on the current system date and time (step A2). In other words, each record of the product rented within the past three months is acquired from the customer-specific usage status database 15.

[0024] Of the records thus obtained,
A process of counting the number of records in which the item content of the “initial designated period” corresponds to “Rental for 2 nights and 3 days” (step A3), and calculating and setting the discount rate of “Rental for 2 nights and 3 days” based on this count number (Step A4). The discount rate calculation setting processing will be described later (the same applies hereinafter). Next, the number of records of "one week rental" is counted (step A5), and the process proceeds to a process of calculating and setting a discount rate of "one week rental" (step A6).
The number of records of “two-week rental” is counted (step A7), and the process proceeds to a process of calculating and setting a discount rate of “two-week rental” (step A8). Next, among the records acquired in step A2, the number of records in which “buy” added in the item of “return date” or “buy” in the item of “final result” is determined. After counting (step A9), the process proceeds to the process of calculating and setting the purchase discount rate (step A10).

When the discount rate setting processing corresponding to the type of the rental period and the discount rate setting processing corresponding to the purchase are completed for one customer in this way, the commodity management server 1 proceeds to the discount rate setting processing for the next customer. Therefore, after adding "1" to the read address i and incrementing the value (step A11), it is determined whether the read address i has reached the maximum value, that is, the discount rate setting process for all customers has been completed. Is checked (step A12), the process returns to step A2 until the setting process for all customers is completed, and thereafter, the above-described discount data updating process is repeated for the number of customers (step A2).
A12).

FIG. 8 shows the above-described discount rate setting processing (FIG. 7).
4 is a flowchart detailing steps A4, A6, A8, and A10). First, when the record count counted as described above exceeds “15” (step B1), the product management server 1 sets the discount rate to “30”.
% "(Step B2). If the record count is in the range of" 15 "to" 11 "(step B4)," 20% "is selected as the discount rate (step B2).
5) If it is within the range of "6" to "10" (step B
6) Select “10%” as the discount rate (Step B)
7) If "5" or less (step B6), "0%" is selected as the discount rate (step B8). The discount rate selected in accordance with the record count is set in the customer-specific discount database 14 (step B3).
In this case, the customer-specific discount database 14 is accessed based on the address i, and a data area for one corresponding customer is designated, and then a discount rate corresponding to each record in the designated data area is set. In this example, the number of uses of “2 nights 3 days rental” and “1 week rental” is “5” or less and the discount rate is “0%”. Is used from "15"
It is within the range of “11”, and the discount rate is set to “20%”.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an automatic rental process performed on the automatic rental device 3 side. FIG.
0 and FIG. 11 are flowcharts showing the merchandise management server processing performed on the merchandise management server 1 side in conjunction with the automatic rental device 3. Here, in the unmanned rental shop, the customer selects a desired card from various commodity designation cards 5 prepared in the shop,
When it is put into the automatic rental device 3 or a desired product name is selected and designated by a key operation (step C1),
The automatic rental device 3 reads the content of the inserted product specification card 5 and converts it into product code information, or converts the selected and specified product name into product code information, and issues a stock confirmation request to the product management server 1. Send. Upon receiving the inventory check request from the automatic rental device 3 (step D1 in FIG. 10), the product management server 1 accesses the product database 13 based on the product code and checks whether there is stock (step D2). As a result, when out of stock due to rental or the like, a stock-out notification is transmitted to the request source (step D3).

When the automatic rental device 3 receives a stock-out notification within a certain period of time after making a stock confirmation request (step C2), a message "out of stock" is displayed to notify the user (step C2). C3) If no out-of-stock notification is received, a message of "in stock, insert credit card" is displayed (step C4). As a result, when the credit card 4 is inserted, the contents of the credit card 4 are read and the product management server 1 is read.
(Step C5). The product management server 1 receives the credit card information (step D4),
The user is authenticated (step D5). If the user is an illegal user, the card NG is notified to the requesting source (step D6). The customer-specific discount database 14 is accessed based on the above, the respective discount rates corresponding to the user are acquired, and a notification that the card is a valid card of a regular member is provided,
Each discount rate corresponding to the user is transmitted to the request source (step D7).

The automatic rental device 3 displays a message indicating a card NG when receiving a user's unjust notification (step C6), but displays a card OK message when receiving a valid notification. Along with the message display (step C7), a list of the discount rates corresponding to the user is displayed, and "What is the desired process?" Is displayed (step C8). FIG. 18 shows a discount rate list screen in this case. This list screen is a special discount table specific to the user, and includes “2 night 3 day rental”, “1 week rental”, “2 week rental”, “2 week rental”. Rental goods purchase (purchase) ", the" basic fee "
“Discount rate” and “discount rate” are displayed as guidance.

When the customer selects and specifies a desired processing item from the discount rate list screen (step C9), the selected processing item is transmitted to the product management server 1. “Rental for 2 nights and 3 days”, “rent for 1 week”, “rent for 2 weeks”, and “purchase (purchase) for rental goods” in step C9 indicate selectable processing items. The product management server 1 receives the selected menu item and checks the content of the item (steps D8 and D1 in FIG. 11).
1, D14). In addition, ~ in each step shown below
Indicates the processing item selected and designated in step C9 of FIG.

If the item "purchase" is selected (step D8), the merchandise data is deleted from the merchandise database 13 to be excluded from the rental (step D9), and the customer-specific discount database 14 is stored. See,
Read the discount rate of purchase from the setting area corresponding to the customer,
An amount obtained by discounting the basic charge of the purchase by this discount rate is calculated (step D10). When the item “Rental for 2 nights and 3 days” is selected (step D11),
The product in the product database 13 is set to “rental” (step D12), and a discount rate of 2 nights and 3 days rental is read from the setting area for the customer in the customer-specific discount database 14, and the basic rate is used to calculate An amount discounted by the discount rate is calculated (step D13). Hereinafter, similarly, when the items of “rent for one week” and “rent for two weeks” are selected, the corresponding product in the product database 13 is set to “renting” (steps D15 and D17), and the basic fee is changed from the basic fee. An amount discounted by the discount rate is calculated (steps D16 and D18).

After calculating the discount fee corresponding to the selected processing item in this way, the discount fee is transmitted to the credit company server 7 to perform the charging request process (step D1).
9). Then, after registering the contract details of the current transaction in the customer-specific usage status database 15 (step D20), a registration / billing completion notification is sent to the requesting automatic rental device 3 (step D21). Upon receiving the registration / billing completion notification, the automatic rental device 3 performs a product removal process, a product / card statement issuing process, and a card discharging process (FIG. 9).
Step C10), the rental processing of the current transaction is terminated.

FIG. 12 shows the merchandise management server 1
It is a flowchart which showed the delinquency management processing performed according to the goods management processing program, for example, execution is started for every fixed time. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a transmission / reception process executed on the customer terminal 6 side in accordance with the product management processing program and linked to the delinquency management process on the product management server 1 side. First, the merchandise management server 1 searches the records of the customer-specific usage status database 15 for a record in which “return” indicating “not returned” is added to the “return date”, and even if the return date has passed. It is checked whether there is any unreturned delinquent product (step E1). If there is no delinquent product (step E1)
2), the flow ends. On the other hand, if any of the delinquent products is detected, the customer terminal 6 is requested to extend or purchase the contract rental period for the delinquent products.
In this case, a charge amount calculation process (a charge calculation process for each user selection) for charging the user in the case of extending or purchasing the rental period is performed. Step E3), and notifies the customer terminal 6 of the delinquent mail including the various billing amounts obtained by this calculation process (step E4).

FIG. 19 is a terminal screen showing the received contents of the delayed mail notification displayed on the customer terminal 6 side. In the body text following the header portion, the product number and the product name are displayed together with the product number. A message indicating that the return date has passed is displayed. Further, a message for prompting the extension or purchase of the initial rental period is displayed, and the rental period is changed or extended (re-set) or additionally extended in accordance with the type of extension and each of the selection items for which the purchase is a candidate. In this case, the “new term” and the “billing amount” and the “purchase amount” in the case of purchase are displayed. That is, corresponding to the various processing selection items ~, "reset to rental for one week (expiration date, amount)", "reset to rental for two weeks (new expiration date, (expiration date, amount)",
"Additional 3 days 2 night rental (expiration date, amount)",
"Additional 2 weeks rental (expiration date, amount)", "
"Purchase (amount)" is displayed.

FIGS. 14 and 15 are flowcharts detailing the charge calculation process for each selection of the user. Note that 〜 added in each step of FIG. 14 indicates each processing selection item 延 in the above-mentioned delinquent mail. First, the product management server 1 performs an item data generation process of “reset (change) to one week rental” (step G1).
-G4). That is, the “rental start date” is read from the delinquent record, and 7 days are added thereto, thereby changing the initial rental period to one week rental and obtaining a new rental term “term” (step G1). In this case, even if the rental period is changed to one week, if the period has expired (step G2), the corresponding item data in the delinquent mail is displayed in the display position of the “period” and “amount” as “not selectable”. Is set (step G
3) If within the one week rental period after the change, the charged amount is subtracted from the one week rental basic charge amount to obtain a new "amount" (step G4).

Similarly, an item data generation process of "reset (change) to rental for two weeks" is performed (steps G5 to G).
8). In this case, by adding 14 days to the “rental start date”, the initial rental period is changed to rental for two weeks, and a new rental period “expiration date” is obtained (step G5). Here, even if you change to rental for 2 weeks,
If the time limit has passed (step G6), "not selectable" is set in the display position of the "time limit" and "amount" (step G7). The “charge amount” is obtained by subtracting the charged amount from the rental basic charge amount (step G8).

Next, an item data generation process of "additional two nights and three days rental" is performed (steps G9 to G1 in FIG. 15).
2). That is, the “return date” is read from the delinquent record, and two days are added thereto, so that the two-day, three-day rental is additionally extended during the initial rental period to obtain the “time limit” (step G9). In this case, if the expiration date has passed even after extending the rental for 3 days and 2 nights (step G
10) Set “unselectable” in the display positions of the “expiration date” and “amount” (step G11). If the rental is within the 2 night 3 day rental after the addition, the basic charging amount of the 2 night 3 day rental is set. Is obtained as the "amount" (step G12).

Similarly, item data generation processing of "rental for 2 weeks additionally" is performed (steps G13 to G16).
The “return date” is read from the delinquent record, and 14 days are added thereto, so that the rental is additionally extended for two weeks during the initial rental period to obtain the “time limit” (step G).
13). If the expiration date has passed even after the additional extension of the rental for two weeks (step G14), "cannot be selected" is set in the display positions of the "expiration date" and "amount" (step G15). If it is within the rental for the next two weeks, the basic charge amount of the two-week rental is obtained as "amount" (step G16). Finally, an item data generation process of "purchase" is performed (step G17). That is, by subtracting the charged amount from the purchase price of the product (the selling price of the used product), the preferential selling price “
Amount.

When the charging calculation process is completed (step E3 in FIG. 12), the user is notified by e-mail of "Delayed goods / user's request for guidance / selection of charging amount for each selection" (step E4). That is, a delinquent e-mail having the contents shown in FIG. 19 is created, and a guidance notification is sent to the customer terminal 6 of the user. Then, the customer terminal 6 receives and holds the delinquent mail, and (step F in FIG. 13).
1) When the mail opening is instructed, the contents of the mail are displayed and output on the terminal screen (step F2).
When the user selects and specifies a desired item among the processing selection items 1 to 3 in the mail screen, the selection item
The No. is entered in the last line of the mail screen, and a reply mail is created and returned to the product management server 1 (step F3). FIG. 20 is a diagram showing the contents of the reply mail in this case, and the last line is a user input selection item.
No. is shown.

In the state of waiting for a reply mail (step E5 in FIG. 12), if the reply mail cannot be received after a certain period of time (step E6), the merchandise management server 1 forcibly cancels the reply mail. Then, a period setting process for extending the period to “additional 2 nights 3 days rental” is performed (step E7). When a reply mail is received, the selection item No. of the user input from the last line in the reply mail is performed. Is extracted, and a period setting process for extending the period corresponding to the item is performed (step E8). In this case, it is determined whether or not the selection item No. is "purchase" (step E9). If it is "purchase", the product is deleted from the product database 13 (step E10). Then, after performing a charging request process according to the set extension period to the credit company server 7 (step E11), the contents (“extension contents” and “extended charge amount”) according to the set extension period are classified by customer. A process of registering in the usage status database 15 and updating the "return date" for the extension period is performed (step E12).

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing the return process on the automatic rental device 3 side, and FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing the return process on the product management server 1 linked to the automatic rental device 3. First, the automatic rental device 3 is in a standby state until a product is put into the rental product return unit 309 (step H1). When the rental product return unit 309 detects the input of the rental product,
The product number is read, and the returned product is transported and stored in the rental product storage 310 (step H2).
The product number thus read is transmitted to the product management server 1 together with the return command.

The product management server 1 has an automatic rental device 3
Searches the customer-specific usage database 15 based on the product number sent from the customer and returns the "return date" for that product.
Is read and it is checked whether or not the return date is until the return date (FIG. 17).
Step J1). Here, if the return is up to the return date (step J2), this is notified to the automatic rental device 3 of the transmission source (step J3), but if the return date is exceeded, the normal calculation method is used. Calculate the late charge according to the above, and the automatic rental device 3
(Step J4). Then, the “final result” in the customer-specific usage status database 15 corresponding to the product
Is set to "Return" (step J6).
When the automatic rental device 3 receives the return notice up to the return date (step H3 in FIG. 16), the automatic rental device 3 displays a message to that effect (step H4), but receives the return date excess notification. (Step H3), a message indicating the fact is displayed together with the delinquent fee (step H5).

As described above, in this embodiment, at the time of a rental contract for a product, the product management server 1 stores and manages the contract content of the product specified by the customer in the customer-specific usage status database 15, and It monitors whether there is any unreturned product beyond the rental period, and if there is a product whose rental period has expired, notifies the customer terminal 6 of the user of the delinquency, and then notifies the customer terminal 6 of the contract rental period. When an extension application is received, the contract rental period is extended in accordance with the content of the application,
Even if the contract rental period initially specified by the customer is delayed, the rental period can be easily extended as a countermeasure. Therefore, the customer only needs to specify the temporary rental period at the time of borrowing the product, and the rental period can be officially determined after borrowing, thereby making it easier to use the rental. In this case, the lender does not need to charge an additional late payment fee, because even if the rental period is extended, it is possible to predict when it will be returned,
Try to keep the billing amount only for the extension period,
It becomes possible to manage rental products that have great advantages for both lenders.

In this case, the overdue e-mail notification is for notifying the expiration date and the billing amount after the extension for each extension type corresponding to various predetermined extension types. By notifying the customer terminal 6,
Even if the contract rental period originally designated by the customer is overdue, the response can be easily and promptly taken. Here, if the application for the contract rental period indicates a change in the period,
The previous contract rental period is changed to a new contract rental period by adding a predetermined period to the start date of the contract rental period, and the end of the contract rental period if the application content indicates additional period By adding a predetermined period to the day, a new contract rental period is continuously added to the previous contract rental period, so that an extension form suitable for the customer's convenience can be arbitrarily selected. At that time, if the period is changed, the amount calculated by subtracting the usage amount of the previous contract rental period from the usage amount of the changed new contract rental period is calculated and charged, and if the period is added, continue Since the usage amount for the added new contract rental period is charged, it is sufficient to charge only for the extension period. In addition, when the product management server 1 notifies the customer of an overdue email and requests the customer terminal 6 to purchase a rental product, the product management server 1 sells the product (used price).
Since the purchase price is calculated in consideration of the charged price, the customer can purchase the rental product at a low price for the customer, thereby facilitating the purchase.

On the other hand, the merchandise management server 1 stores and manages the type of rental period used in the past for each customer as a usage history in the customer-specific usage status database 15 and, for each customer, Determine the privilege service according to the usage record, and when the new rental is used, guide the customer to the privilege service according to the rental period determined corresponding to the customer,
In response to the service guidance, when the rental period for this use is designated by the customer, the privilege service determined according to the designated period is provided to the customer, so the same rental period Can be strengthened. In other words, considering that the customer tends to specify the same period every time when instructing the rental period, if the same rental period is specified, by providing the privilege service to the customer, the same rental period is provided. As a result, it is possible to effectively prevent arrears, and to manage rental products that have great advantages for both borrowers and lenders.

In this case, the merchandise management server 1 refers to the contents of the use history, and on the condition that the actual use (the number of times of use) for each rental period has reached a predetermined amount, the condition of each rental period is considered. Determine the discount service of
Since it is stored and managed in the customer-specific discount database 14, a discount service can be received for each rental use. Here, when deciding on a discount service for each rental period, we preferentially prefer longer rental periods or preferential purchases of rental products, so we may urge you to choose long-term rental or purchase from the beginning it can.

Each of the automatic rental devices 3 is connected to the product management server 1 via the network 2, and the customer uses the automatic rental device 3 to make a rental contract for the product. At the time, the user obtains the contract content of the product designated by the user from the automatic rental device 3 via the network, and when the product is returned to the automatic rental device 3, refers to the contract content of the product, Since it is determined whether the return is beyond the contract rental period and the result of the determination is notified to the automatic rental device 3, a series of processes from the lending process of the product to the return process is performed by the unmanned automatic rental device 3. It can be done on the side, and customers can rent without worrying about the surroundings.

In the above-described embodiment, the merchandise management server 1 determines the discount rate according to the past use results and sets
The number of uses for a month is counted, and the discount rate according to the count value is determined. For example, among the number of uses for two nights, three days rental, one week rental, two weeks rental, and purchase, 30%, 20%,
10% and 0% may be determined. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the overdue mail is notified to the customer terminal 6 and displayed on the terminal screen, but the content may be notified by voice call.

In the above-described embodiment, the type of rental period used in the past for each customer is stored and managed in the customer-specific usage status database 15 as its usage history. Although the discount rate is determined according to the number of times of use counted separately, the discount rate may be determined according to the total amount of use for each rental period and the total amount. Further, the present invention is not limited to the service of discounting according to the use result, but may also provide privilege services such as coupon ticket issuance, invitation ticket issuance, and gift giving.

[0050]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, even if the contract rental period originally designated by the customer is delayed, the rental period can be easily extended as a measure to cope with the delay. By simply specifying the temporary rental period, the rental period can be officially determined later, and the lender can extend the rental period and anticipate when it will be returned. It is possible to provide rental merchandise management that has great advantages for both the borrower and the lender, by adding only the charged amount for each minute. According to the second aspect of the invention, when the customer specifies the rental period, he / she tends to specify the same period each time, and if the same rental period is specified, the privilege service is provided to the customer. This increases the tendency to actively specify the same rental period,
It is possible to effectively prevent delinquency and provide rental product management that has great advantages for both borrowers and lenders.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a rental product management system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of a product management server 1.

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing the contents of a rental fee table 12, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the contents of a customer-specific discount database 14;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of a customer-specific usage status database 15;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the entire configuration of the unmanned automatic rental device 3.

FIG. 6 shows a customer terminal 6 (customer PC 6-1, customer mobile terminal 6).
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the entire configuration of -2).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a customer discount data update process in which the product management server 1 updates the contents of the customer-specific discount database 14 according to the product management process program.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart detailing a discount rate setting process shown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an automatic rental process performed on the automatic rental device 3 side.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a merchandise management server process performed on the merchandise management server 1 in conjunction with the automatic rental device 3;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the product management server processing of the product management server 1 subsequent to FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a delinquency management process executed by the product management server 1 in accordance with the product management processing program.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing transmission / reception processing executed on the customer terminal 6 side in accordance with the product management processing program and linked to delinquency management processing on the product management server 1 side.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart detailing a billing calculation process for each selection of a user shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating the billing calculation process following FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a return process on the automatic rental device 3 side.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a return process on the merchandise management server 1 linked to the automatic rental device 3;

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a discount rate list screen.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a terminal screen showing received contents of an overdue mail notification displayed on the customer terminal 6 side.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing the contents of a reply mail to an overdue mail.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Merchandise management server 2 Network network 3 Automatic rental device 4 Credit card 5 Merchandise designation card 6 Customer terminal 6-1 Customer PC 6-2 Customer portable terminal 7 Credit company server 11 Merchandise management processing program 12 Rental fee table 13 Merchandise database 14 Customer Other discount database 15 Customer-specific usage status database 101, 301, 601 CPU 102, 302, 602 Recording medium 105, 305, 605 Electronic transmission control unit 106, 306, 606 Display unit 107 307, 607 Input unit 308 Rental product take-out unit 309 Rental Product return section 311 Card reading section

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A rental product management device for managing rental of a rental product and its return, comprising: a contract content storage means for storing and managing a contract content of the product at the time of a product rental contract; By referring to the stored contract content for each product, it is determined that there is an unreturned product beyond the contract rental period, and the deadline monitoring device determines that there is a product whose rental has expired. Notification means for giving a notice of delinquency, and a term extension for extending the contract rental period in accordance with the contents of the application when the lender receiving the delinquency notice makes an application for extension of the contract rental period. Extension processing means for performing processing, and an extension for calculating a billing amount corresponding to the extension period when the contract rental period is extended by the extension processing means A rental product management device, comprising: a charging unit. 2. The notifying means sends an e-mail, which corresponds to various types of predetermined extension forms, to inform the terminal of the lending destination to the terminal of the lending destination by sending an e-mail for guiding the extension period and the billing amount for each extension form. The extension processing unit transmits the contract rental period in accordance with the application content when an extension application for the contract rental period is made via the network from the rented terminal,
2. The rental merchandise management device according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The contract processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extension processing means adds a predetermined period to a start date of the contract rental period when the application content of the contract rental period indicates a change of the period, thereby adding a new contract rental period. If the application changes to a new contract rental period, and if the application content indicates additional periods, the specified period is added to the end of the contract rental period to add a new period to the previous contract rental period. 2. The rental product management device according to claim 1, wherein a period addition process for continuously adding a contract rental period is performed. 4. An extended billing unit, when a period change process is executed by the extension processing unit, subtracts a usage amount of a previous contract rental period from a changed usage amount of a new contract rental period. The amount is calculated as a charging amount corresponding to the extension period, and when the period addition process is executed, the usage amount of the continuously added new contract rental period is set as a charging amount corresponding to the extension period. The rental product management device according to claim 3, wherein 5. A purchase charge amount for calculating a purchase price in consideration of a charged price from a sale price of the rental product when a request for purchase of the rental product is requested from the terminal of the lending destination in response to the notice of delinquency. 2. The rental merchandise management device according to claim 1, further comprising a calculating unit. 6. A rental product management device for managing rental of rental products and return of the rental products, wherein use history storage means for storing and managing types of rental periods used in the past as use history for each rental destination. , Referring to the contents of the use history storage means, and corresponding to each lending destination,
A service deciding means for deciding a privilege service according to the use result for each rental period, and a service for guiding a privilege service for each rental period decided by the service deciding means corresponding to the rent destination when a new rental is used. Guide means, and registers the type of rental period designated in response to the service guidance as a use history in the use history storage means, and provides a privilege service determined according to the designated period. A rental merchandise management device, characterized in that: 7. The service deciding means refers to the contents of the use history storage means, and responds to the rental period on condition that the usage record for each rental period has reached a predetermined amount. 7. The rental product management device according to claim 6, wherein a privilege service is determined. 8. When a purchase of a rental product is requested,
7. The rental product management device according to claim 6, wherein the requested product is preferentially sold in accordance with the product purchase results corresponding to the rent destination. 9. When a rental contract for a product is made using an automatic rental machine, a contract content acquisition means for acquiring the contract content from the automatic rental machine via a network, and the product is stored in the automatic rental machine. When returned, it refers to the contract contents for each product stored in the contract contents storage means, determines whether the return is beyond the contract rental period, and sends the determination result to the automatic rental machine. 7. A notifying means for notifying, provided.
The rental product management device described. 10. A recording medium having a program code which can be read by a computer, comprising: a function of storing and managing contract contents of a product at the time of a rental contract of the product; A function for determining whether there is an unreturned product beyond the period, a function for notifying the customer who lent the product of delinquency when it is determined that there is a product whose rental has expired, A function to extend the contract rental period in response to the contents of the application when an extension application is made, and, when the contract rental period is extended, A computer-readable recording medium that records a function for calculating a charge corresponding to the extension period and a program for realizing the function. 11. A recording medium having a computer readable program code, wherein a function of storing and managing a type of rental period used in the past as a use history for each customer, and referring to the use history. A function to determine a privilege service corresponding to each customer according to the use result for each rental period, and a privilege for each rental period determined by the service determination means corresponding to the customer at the time of new rental use. A function for guiding a service and a function for registering a type of rental period designated in response to the service guidance as a use history and providing a privilege service determined according to the designated period are realized. Readable recording medium that stores a program for recording.