How to do pre-orders?

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rocketgeek
 
Posts: 37
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:50 am

How to do pre-orders?

Post by rocketgeek »

I'm working on putting the finishing touches on an Arduino variant with a built-in 802.15.4 radio, via the Atmega128RFA1 chip, the Zigduino (http://www.logos-electro.com/zigduino/). In order to reduce my financial risk, I'd like to be able to take pre-orders.

However, my chosen payment solution, Google Checkout, doesn't let me do pre-orders the way I'd like to do them (i.e. hold an authorization on the card and then charge when it's ready to ship) -- they require charging the card within seven days & shipping within 24 hours of charging.

Anyone have any good suggestions for how to do pre-orders? I'm considering selling a coupon for a fat discount (say $10 for $20 off; list price ~$70), and issuing refunds if something goes wrong and I'm not able to ship on time. Does that sound reasonable?

adafruit
 
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Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: How to do pre-orders?

Post by adafruit »

rocketgeek wrote:I'm working on putting the finishing touches on an Arduino variant with a built-in 802.15.4 radio, via the Atmega128RFA1 chip, the Zigduino (http://www.logos-electro.com/zigduino/). In order to reduce my financial risk, I'd like to be able to take pre-orders. However, my chosen payment solution, Google Checkout, doesn't let me do pre-orders the way I'd like to do them (i.e. hold an authorization on the card and then charge when it's ready to ship) -- they require charging the card within seven days & shipping within 24 hours of charging. Anyone have any good suggestions for how to do pre-orders? I'm considering selling a coupon for a fat discount (say $10 for $20 off; list price ~$70), and issuing refunds if something goes wrong and I'm not able to ship on time. Does that sound reasonable?
there is a a simple solution, do not do pre-orders. credit card companies do not like this, google (as you've seen) does not like this - payment systems do not like when you take money before goods can be delivered because as you said "something goes wrong and [you're] not able to ship on time". there is a reason google checkout does this, think about that before you try to route around it.

here's a better solution - start a mailing list or a simple form on your site so folks can sign up to be notified when you're shipping. do not take people's money unless you can ship the goods.

if you don't want to take the financial risk, why should you customers or the payment companies either.

other opinions welcome and feel free to ignore this advice :) we sell products for a living and have watched many companies try to do pre-orders and it's generally bad for the company and their customers.

cheers,
adafruit

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mitpatterson
 
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:45 pm

Re: How to do pre-orders?

Post by mitpatterson »

I've had a idea on how to do pre-orders, and this would kinda fill both the "risk to customers" and the risk to your self. That would be start eh mailing list idea as adafruit suggested(that fills the risk to your customers) and then once you get your design finalized and know all your parts are available with short lead times, email everyone and ask the people who are still interested to place a order(at that point you would have say a 1-2 week lead time) then you don't have the financial risk that you can't pay for your parts and stuff, and you also are shipping quickly, the list will just help you get an idea for how many you will need to order and stuff

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richms
 
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Re: How to do pre-orders?

Post by richms »

pre-auths just BANNED people off who dont have a credit card, as many banks show it as a debit anyway and then when it finally goes thru reverse that and recharge.

mikeselectricstuff
 
Posts: 164
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:21 pm

Re: How to do pre-orders?

Post by mikeselectricstuff »

According to Kickstarter's website, they use Amazon payments, as this allows for delayed payments.
This seems like it might be a good candidate for a kickstarter project.

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altairlabs
 
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Re: How to do pre-orders?

Post by altairlabs »

Pre-auth can be Bad Newz for buyers. After a 2 week cruise I could not buy gas to drive home since my card was hit TWICE, the "actual" had already cleared but the pre-auth lingered as "pending charge" for 72 hours. The cruise line glibly replied "dont worry it will fix itself" and on Monday the bank was unable to help. I burned an extra 2 days vacation waiting for the pre-auth to go away by itself. Fortunately relatives were near by, otherwise we both would have slept in the truck.

Care to guess how I feel every time that vendors name is mentioned? OK, a kit is not gonna cause a hit that big, but theres nothing to gain and everything to lose in customer hassle vs customer satisfaction.

Moral #2, never be away from home without CASH MONEY.

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