Selling things A rant

[da prez]

   I sell a lot and also give a lot of items away. I posted a while ago (I think March) about fabricating trailer hitches for the Valk. I had 15 or 16 people interested. I fronted all the money , but only had 10 made. I contacted the interested parties and many backed out for whatever reason. I sold nine. I have one in my stock and it is spoken for. I did not take any money on it .
  Well , I posted another trailer hitch for sale and got nine responses. I asked for front money of a hundred dollars to help with build costs. So far , I have one that responded . I believe in the ad I said I would want front money. I know things change very fast. Money is tight. But plan ahead , we do.
 Even then , the unforeseen happens. I will have the hitches made for those who want them.

                                                        da prez

[Hook#3287]

Absolute nothing wrong about getting a deposit for custom builds.

[Hooter]

That's just good business!

[Robert]

Many in the repair industry found the same thing you found and now require all special orders to be paid for up front when ordering. Many have been stuck with special order parts that was money out of pocket

[MarkT]

Our terms are 50/50 on exhaust systems - half down and the balance when about to ship.  I call it "sharing the trust". Most everybody uses paypal or credit/debit cards so they aren't necessarily out the cash and they also have buyer protection. Also I sell some things (not custom builds) on ebay which increases volume and protection both ways but adds a middleman which means more cost.  Exhausts are made to order with many options.  I stock all parts except the stacks - I let my supplier on them be my inventory since they can get them to me quickly - "just in time" inventory.  Some of the parts are custom made for me by different custom shops.  Other products - stock type items like peg lower kits and installed lift adapters - I just do batch runs here so they are usually ready to ship.  Then it's pay and they ship right away.

[Rams]

Learned this lesson early on while transporting.

A few of my first transports, I agreed to payment upon delivery.   After getting a couple of hot checks or promise of payment being put in the mail that never arrived, I now will only transport with half payment prior to loading and the rest in cash before I'll unload the cargo.    

Has only happened once but, I was pulling out of a driveway with the load due to non-payment of the second half and all of a sudden the customer remembered where he had the rest of his cash.    

I'm up front with everyone I deal with and expect the same from them.

Don't blame you a bit for asking for the $100 whether that's in the form of a check, pay pal or some other payment.    

[The emperor has no clothes]

Learned this lesson early on while transporting.

A few of my first transports, I agreed to payment upon delivery.   After getting a couple of hot checks or promise of payment being put in the mail that never arrived, I now will only transport with half payment prior to loading and the rest in cash before I'll unload the cargo.    

Has only happened once but, I was pulling out of a driveway with the load due to non-payment of the second half and all of a sudden the customer remembered where he had the rest of his cash.    

Man, that is so sleazy. I assume you make them sign a contract ?

[old2soon]

Learned this lesson early on while transporting.

A few of my first transports, I agreed to payment upon delivery.   After getting a couple of hot checks or promise of payment being put in the mail that never arrived, I now will only transport with half payment prior to loading and the rest in cash before I'll unload the cargo.    

Has only happened once but, I was pulling out of a driveway with the load due to non-payment of the second half and all of a sudden the customer remembered where he had the rest of his cash.    

Man, that is so sleazy. I assume you make them sign a contract ?

                 When I was doing household furniture years back put a Lot of loads on that were C O D-collect on delivery. That meant ONLY cash or a bank draft and I either dropped the trailer or the customer drove me to the bank to cash the draft. Not one piece came off the trailer til I had my/the companies money. You put me off too long I put it in staorage and you deal now with the warehouse-again after I/we got our money. Warehouse would NOT deliver unless ALL charges paid up front. Lotsa folks squealed BUT we got our money. RIDE SAFE.