Box Scraper Is this SOP in the industry?

[Diggin It]

In those cases a partial payment would cover EA. And I don't think anyone would complain about a partial payment.

Different item ... different industry ....

I ordered a $500 item from the Blue Box Store using their in house CC. Their policy is to run the authorization to ensure funds are available, but not apply the charge until the item ships. That puts a hold on the funds and reduces your available credit limit. The item was backordered and took several weeks to ship. True to their policy, the authorization appeared within a day of placing the order but the charge did not appear, there was no statement issued and no payment due until after the item shipped. I've had the item for about 3 weeks now and the first payment due date is next week.

 

[Richard]

Tons of wishy-washy people in the world... "Oh, I found something cheaper", or "different". Or my neighbor's ex dog groomer had an old one they weren't using, etc, etc.

This brought back a memory to me and has me laughing.....

Decades ago.... I was working in retail. A man of foreign origin walked in.... he was carrying/dragging some kind of doll house that he had bought a year prior.

He said he wanted to return it....when asked why/what was wrong with it???

"My daughter is no longer deriving satisfaction from it"


Really?

 

[Doug62]

I compassionately hear what you are saying.

In the design of a custom made product I agree.
In the design of a cookie cutter BB that can easily be sold to the next customer, not.

I agree that for a fully customized item that is acceptable. These are not customized and that's a completely different scenario.

 

[ctgoldwing]

This is just SOP for any online sale or transaction that is shipped. When is the last time you've purchased anything online that wasn't charged immediately whether it be from Amazon, Home Depot, Tractor Supply or some other smaller company? Regardless if the item is shipped that day or backordered for weeks, your card is still charged immediately.

I happen to own a online based business that makes custom products and we will absolutely not make anything without full payment up front. I don't care if you're an average joe or the biggest casino in Vegas. You're ordering something that we are making for you and only you.

I couldn't disagree with you more on standard off the shelf stuff Bobctat2025. . . I work for a $100mm distributor (plumbing, heating, AC) and one of my projects 10 years ago was getting us on Amazon as a reseller. They will only bang your credit card when they or the third party vendor actually ships. I placed several orders on Amazon today. Nothing has hit my credit card. When they indicate it shipped they will charge it.
In our showrooms we also do very custom 1 offs. There its a completely different story, pretty much te same as you handle specials. You pay up front. We only offer a refund equal to what the manufacturer will give (usually nothing). Any other sale we do from our own website is charged only when it ships.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

This brought back a memory to me and has me laughing.....

Decades ago.... I was working in retail. A man of foreign origin walked in.... he was carrying/dragging some kind of doll house that he had bought a year prior.

He said he wanted to return it....when asked why/what was wrong with it???

"My daughter is no longer deriving satisfaction from it"


Really?

I merely offered up a different point of view.

In my opinion, certain "folks" lamenting that if EA (or anyone else) is charging for orders when the order is taken, and not waiting until it ships, "must therefore be hurting for money and about to go under (blah, blah, blah) that is a reckless accusation based on nothing.

Also, certain "folks" insinuating that the practice of charging when the order is taken is somehow fraudulent, is bordering on a despicable lie.

I'm sure no one on TBN would ever back out on their WORD when ordering something. But there are folks out there in the world that do so all the time.

And a long lead time on certain attachments can be easily explained by ordering something that isn't already in the scheduled build cycle.

As a former machinist for a different (but recognizable name) company that made (and still makes) equipment, tractors and attachments, I can tell you with certainty that production schedules are usually mapped out for months in advance, and much of it is "seasonal". If you hit the right part of the schedule, you may have your order already in the pipeline. If you don't, you may wait for months for it to come around again. I assure you they will not stop in the middle of a production run of "other implements" to run your single order for (in this case) one box blade. Sorry, it just won't happen.

So in "our" case, if you called up and ordered a snow blower, in October? Guess what? We got a bunch in the pipeline right now, you'll probably have it in a week. If you order a brush hog in November? Yeah, you aren't going to see that until March. Try a regional supplier, or call another dealer to work a trade on existing stock.

The machines are always running, the welders are always welding, painters are always painting. But guess what? They may not be in the middle of building the One Single Thing that you are currently looking for at that moment in time.

All I'm saying.

 

[Doug62]

I merely offered up a different point of view.

In my opinion, certain "folks" lamenting that if EA (or anyone else) is charging for orders when the order is taken, and not waiting until it ships, "must therefore be hurting for money and about to go under (blah, blah, blah) that is a reckless accusation based on nothing.

Also, certain "folks" insinuating that the practice of charging when the order is taken is somehow fraudulent, is bordering on a despicable lie.

All I'm saying.

Come on "Slowpoke". I'm guessing with that name, "catch up" is something you are used to hearing so CATCH UP!

There always has to be someone who has to be an *****. So you must have heard you were missing and showed up. What took you so long? As far as I can tell, the only person acting despicably is in your mirror.

No one "insinuated" what you are claiming. Learn to read for comprehension.

 

[K5lwq]

Well, put me with Slim on this one. I have bought several things from EA and had no issues whatsoever with any part of the transaction.

I bought 3 cylinders from FitRite, paid when ordered and waited 3 or 4 months for them to arrive. Very happy with my purchase and will do it again.

I have a $100,000 piece of equipment that we ordered for a customer that backed out of the deal. It has been sitting for about 3 years now. I fully understand the need to collect up front!

 

[Bobctat2035]

I couldn't disagree with you more on standard off the shelf stuff Bobctat2025. . . I work for a $100mm distributor (plumbing, heating, AC) and one of my projects 10 years ago was getting us on Amazon as a reseller. They will only bang your credit card when they or the third party vendor actually ships. I placed several orders on Amazon today. Nothing has hit my credit card. When they indicate it shipped they will charge it.
In our showrooms we also do very custom 1 offs. There its a completely different story, pretty much te same as you handle specials. You pay up front. We only offer a refund equal to what the manufacturer will give (usually nothing). Any other sale we do from our own website is charged only when it ships.

Well, there is a big difference between a 100m distributor (who is presumably primarily B2B), Amazon and small businesses like ours and EA (who are B2B and B2C). We also sell on buy and sell on Amazon and they will 'Authorize' the funds, essentially putting a hold on the money, and won't 'Capture' the transaction until it ships. It's a two step automated process for them but that isn't quite as simple when dealing with extended lead times because Authorizations can expire in as little as 8 days. It's actually more confusing and frustrating for both the customer and my employees to do it this way because if that Authorization falls off their account and they spend that money, their card will be declined when it is ready to ship.

I've been doing this a long time and no one has ever complained about it before. The only complaint will come from big corporations, primarily casinos, hotels and large liquor/beer brands who are used to NET terms which won't do even for them. They piss and moan but they always end up paying up front in the end because they can't get the products we make anywhere else. :wink:

Are you still selling on Amazon? I actually removed our products about 6 months ago because of how Amazon treats third party sellers and how much more frustrating/stupid Amazon customers are. It's been much more peaceful around here ever since.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I don't think this is good business practice but if people put up with it then buyer beware. Generally when someone bills your card that far in advance, there are underlying factors to the business cash flow that necessitate it. To me its a red flag. My biggest concern would be with that kind of advance billing, you could get stuck with the charge if it didn't get delivered in time. I build custom cars as a hobby. I have seen this happen in a several similarly sized businesses that sold motors and other high end accessories for custom cars. Both times, the companies were around a number of years and had zero problems. They did a lot of business and provided high quality merchandise. Then for one reason or another, they got into a cash flow situation they couldn't get out of. They started using current sales money to pay for orders they had already taken becuase they were behind in their cash flow. In just a matter of weeks, a lot of people lost a lot of money becuase all of the sudden quit shipping anything, even though they continued to take orders. Basically overnight, they suddenly closed up and declared bankruptcy.

The one thing that made me think of it was that was that we had several Internet car forums that were larger than TractorbyNet.com and when it first started happening everyone was defending the vendors because there had been no serious issues in the past. I'd say for a good month or two, people were still defending them on the forum because the vendors were well liked. In fact, one of the vendors was a big financial supporter of the both Forums. They advertised heavily which helped pay the cost of operating both forums for a long time. Anyway, in both cases, the next thing we knew the businesses had shut down and quit returning calls and correspondence. Losses ranged from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands.

The Fair Credit Billing Act allows you to file a dispute with your credit card company for undelivered merchandise, so long as you inform the credit card company within 60 days of the first bill that has the disputed charge on it.


So if the order drags on a couple of extra weeks you can find yourself in a situation where your time to dispute the charge has past and you are out of luck. No matter how great you think a company is doing, you really don't know. If they are charging you 30 days or more before they even ship, then you are taking all the financial risk for them and essentially financing the equipment build or acquisition for them. The one taking a risk in that situation is the consumer. If they decide one day to close up shop suddenly, you can lose your money. Been there, done that, have the T-Shirt.

If it were me, I'd dispute the charge on day 45 if it hasn't arrived and let the credit card company pull the money back until it was ready to ship. That way you have some protection. I imagine the business will fuss saying they have never ever missed a delivery which may or may not be true. You really don't know. And as I mentioned before, even if it is true, when the music suddenly stops in a financial deal like that, the last customers get left holding the bag. They may be great people but it's a risky practice for a consumer to pay that far in advance.

Ok, I get it. Someone "hacked" your account, right?

This *wasn't* you?

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

As I mentioned earlier, it's great for the business, not so much for the customer. The customer is taking on all the business risk by paying 100 percent in advance for a company to build or acquire a product to send to them. It might be the "my way or the highway" business owner doesn't care because he has all the business he can stand. Good for him if that's the case. That doesn't make it smart for a customer to deal with them though.

Normally, this sort of requirement is because the business doesn't have sufficient cash flow and needs the customer to help finance acquiring the wholesale merchandise to transfer to the customer.

Also, wasn't you, right?

My reading comprehension is quite fine. Look in your own mirror.