On Thu, May 8, 2008 7:17 am, Robin Paulson wrote: > it's not just the trust thing; it's for when things go wrong. there > are many possible slip-ups between california and my house, and i > would prefer knowing that if the unpredictable happens, we're all > covered, and know where we stand. > > and US$4000 is a lot of money, for people i don't know; i'm just not > that trusting. nor do i expect the others in my group to hand over > that sort of cash with no cast-iron assurances
I think that the worry of things going wrong can be reduced if you form a local group (or join an existing LUG) and hand over phones and cash in person. Personally, I would be quite wary about sending full or part payment for a phone to someone I had never met in person, but I would be quite happy to drive for a couple of hours to meet them at their house, give them cash for a phone, and then come back a week later to collect the phone that had been ordered, because I would know that they where a real person, and I would know their street address in case they turned out to be a frudster. If there was an arrangement to pay half before ordering and half on collection and the group organizer wanted to take a copy of my photo ID to protect themselves against me not turning up with the second payment, then that would also be fine. Conversely, if I was a group organizer, I would want everyone in the group to visit me in person at least once to devlever money. If anyone who wanted to conduct the whole transaction via post and email, I would want the whole cost of the phone up front, and I would use a fully insured, signature on delivery courier to deliver the phone, which would cost the buyer more. I realize that meeting up in person would not suit everyone, but I think it is the best solution to resolve trust issues, even if you spend more on fuel driving to the meet than you save on postage. -- David Pottage _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community