In defence of advanced payment
Payment in advance works well for many people, don't take the odd problem as the norm.
I guess it's only natural that the horror stories are the only ones to get written about, which is rather unfair. I had my house re-roofed a couple of years ago, an excellent job, pleased to pay the bill. You'll NEVER get the firm that did it on 'Rogue Traders' on the telly. A 1/2 hour programme about satisfied customers and the companies they employed would be boring, I suppose.
I paid up-front for my original CPL course and made stage payments in advance to PPSC for my correspondence course. No problems at all. More recently I made stage payments in advance for my FI course, again no problems. The school I did it at routinely offer discount to hirers who pay £750 lumps up-front, seems to be popular and works well. Another big school I know sells a wide range of packages in advance, again the uptake is good and I don't know of any issues with it. A big advantage with advance payment in my mind is that at the end of a flight, you should be concerned with the de-brief and completing the tech log etc, not worrying about being chased for payment. People CAN accidentally leave without paying if it's busy, then there's the hassle and embarrassment of having to pay for the previous flight before you can fly again or maybe even be chased for payment if you don't appear for a couple of weeks.
I have one student who pays with £20 notes from his back pocket at the end of every flight, very unusual!
Cheers,
TheOddOne