Some thoughts about payment and administration:
- The
"charged" services like PayPal and NoChex are really intended
for
transferring money to people you don't know or trust. As such,
you're
paying a premium for this.
hmmm not
really the case unless you are using an escrow service, once you have
paid the money via paypal it is gone
-
By
comparison, the simpler expedient of getting the recipient's
bank
details,
and arranging a transfer is cheaper, and works well. (I've used
it to
send
money to Keith, and to get money from Paul G).
True
- Where one person is arranging a
group
order, there are three possible
areas for resentment:
1: The
person
making the order has ordered extra items on behalf of
people who
effectively change their minds once payment has been made by
the
orderer...
This means that the person organising the deal gets
pissed off and is
left
with items in hand.
So money up front should be the norm
2:
The
person making the order is perceived to be making a profit on it
- in my
experience, it's virtually impossible to break even on these
deals if
you
need cash up front - currency fluctuations if nothing else!
This really gets my goat, at these sort of prices it is nearly
impossible to make a paper profit, and even if you do the amount of time
and
hassle more than outweighs that. If a price is given and people agree to it
then that is it. Anyone who doesn't like that should do their own
ordering.
3: The person making the order puts in a lot
of
work, and then finds out
that some people have bought items at £x from
him
as part of the deal,
only to sell them immediately for a large
markup.
This one is tricky as it concerns the right to free
trade but the solution of a 4 week period makes
sense.
I would suggest, therefore, that the
following
is the best set of ground
rules...
1: The organiser tries to work
out a "delivered, duty and VAT paid in
the UK" price, including delivery
to
the organiser's house/office.
Makes sense
2: The organiser adds 10% to
this price as a contingency and publishes
this price as the "if you want
to
send me money now, this is the price
you'll get charged" price.
yup
3: For those wishing/able to collect
direct from the organiser (either
individually or on behalf of a
local-area
group), that is the price that
needs to be paid IN ADVANCE.
Definitely
4: For those wishing that the
organiser should deliver, they arrange
individually a fair sum for this
carriage, which is also paid in
advance. (Or perhaps, in arrears for the
actuals, given the sums are
likely to be relatively small.)
yup
5: The organiser uses the 10%
contingency to over-order volumes by 5% to
cope with damaged-in-transit
items, and keeps the other 5% as a
contingency against currency
fluctuations / "adminsitration costs
imposed by couriers" etc.
makes sense
6: At the end of the
excercise,
if there are spare units, the organiser
has 4 weeks to sell them AT ANY
PRICE, during which all the other
participants commit to NOT selling
their
units on!
4 weeks seems like a good balance
7:
Finally, if the organiser is left with a surplus, then they have
three
options, depending entirely on what they feel is appropriate:
- Keep
it
as a "thank you" from the group
- Put it behind the bar at the next UKHA
get together as a drinks float
- Cut it up, and send small sums back to
the
participants!
Generally I think the organiser should keep any
surplus as it would at least partially compensate them for their hard
work!
For
more information: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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