Thank you all for your thoughts on customer payment policy. After readings your thoughtful comments, I think it best to stay the course with the 50% deposit. You have convinced me that this makes a customer feel more secure.
Thanks again everybody. p.s. On a different subject. I noticed yesterday that mapblast.com and mapquest.com no longer will give you the latitude and longitude of a street address or zipcode!!!! (mapquest.com will give you a map if you enter lat & long data however, but that is useless if you are trying to find the lat &long.) But I found several other sites that will give coordinates by doing a search on lat & long.) John John L. Carmichael Jr. Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson Arizona 85718 USA Tel: 520-696-1709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: <http://www.sundialsculptures.com> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Carmichael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Sundial List" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 9:34 AM Subject: 50% or 100% Payment? > Hello Sundial Sellers and Buyers: > > I was reading about Jim Tallman's wonderful desk top Spectra Dial on his new > website and was reading that his payment policy requires a customer to pay > 100% in advance because of "the custom nature of the product". > > I used to be afraid to ask my clients for 100% thinking that it might scare > them off from purchasing. So, I only collect a 50% deposit from my customers > when they order. This worked fine until my last order when my customer got > fired from his job as an American Airlines pilot and then couldn't afford to > pay the remainder (a thousand dollars) after I finished his dial. So here > it sits, unclaimed. (It's for Bixby Oklahoma, so I'll never be able to sell > it to someone else). This is the first time after 76 dials that someone has > reneged on an order after paying the 50 % deposit. > > Do you think I should change my policy to 100% like Jim does? What do you > do Tony or any of you other sellers? Do you think that it makes a > difference if the sundial is very expensive (Jim's sundials cost about one > tenth what mine do). Do you think the shaky economy means that 100% is > advisable? > > I'm really stuck on this and don't know what to do. > > Any comments? > > John > > p.s I had another customer die on me last summer during the design phase > before his sundial got built. His name was Paul Ecke Jr. (a very famous > poinsettia grower and my former boss) and he was going to fund a monumental > sundial to be built at California State University in San Marcos. He didn't > provide for it in his will, so it's unfunded and probably won't get built. > > John L. Carmichael Jr. > Sundial Sculptures > 925 E. Foothills Dr. > Tucson Arizona 85718 > USA > > Tel: 520-696-1709 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Website: <http://www.sundialsculptures.com> > > > - > -
