Kit Despatch and Payment Methods

Hi All,

We are contemplating sending kits to our customers before they have paid for them and invoicing them with the kit. This invoice will then require paying within 7 days of receiving the kit by Cheque, Bank Transfer, Paypal, Google Checkout or even cash if preferred.

The reason for giving this some serious consideration from our point of view, I will try to explain using the 2" Burrell Kit 16A as an example:

This kit was completed almost 2 weeks ago, of the 40 customers who have so far commited to continue with STW we have only receved payment from around 20 customers. Even then payment has been sporadic, meaning that instead of doing one large despatch (one lot of invoicing, one large collection by the courier, one lot of shipping labels to be printed) we have had to do invoicing/despatching etc every day. I'm sure everyone will realise that this is time consuming for our limited resources. To ensure the success of the business we need to be sure that the amount we manufactur is correct and the cashflow balances accordingly. It's no good thinking you are going to receive funds for 40 kits when in reality you receive funds for only 20! After all it's as much in everyone else's interest to ensure we are succesful as it is our own.

A credit card facility still looks like being a way off yet as the personal liabilities they require us to give are enormous. By invoicing everyone with their kit it not only give customers the confidence that they have recieved their goods prior to parting with their hard earned cash, it also means that a single despatch will be possible for each model and we can then expect payment within the next week, making cashflow easier to manage.

We do realise that customers could then simply chose not to pay for the goods already recieved and should this happen then that particular customer would either revert to the more expensive flexible plan or be required to pay for kits up front in future.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Regards

Dean & Steve

Dean/Steve

That's a very good idea as it will also save us the trouble of pestering Isobel to see when the next kit is ready so that we can BACS you the money, may I suggest you post a "kit dispatched" notice on the forum then we will all know roughly when to expect it.

I don't suppose any do go missing but it just squares the circle, keep up the very good work, oh and by the way I got my kit 12 P&F list and all the outstanding bits this morning.

Dean/Steve,

I think this is an excellent idea and I can see it saving the STW team a huge amount of work. I am sure you will have thought of this already but some builders may not always be able to honour the 7 days payment terms if on holiday etc when a kit is dispatched. I hope occasions like this will not lead to disciplinary actions...................!

Regards,

David.

Dean/Steve

The proposed payment method is an excellent idea but could I suggest that if possible a message is posted on the forum a couple of days before despatch giving if possible the actual date of despatch so that arrangements came be made for someone to be at home to take delivery.
I have found that if there is no reply when the courier calls a card is left and the parcel is taken back to the depot, this then entails a fifty mile round trip to collect it.

Malcolm

THAT IDEA IS GOOD BY US.

REGARDS BRUCE & BRIAN

Yep, I'm up for that sounds good

Alan

I agree sounds like a good idea and I'm up for that

If the collection of payments creates a lot of paperwork for STW before dispatch causing delays then payment after delivery will enable STW to concentrate on getting the goods out of the door and will benefit everyone eager to receive their kits on time. It also demonstrates a bit of faith by STW in their customers. Of course in these credit crunching times it will be especially important for customers to pay up promptly, no taking the michael! We do not want STW getting into a repeat of the Modelworks episode and being dragged down by cash flow problems. Thank you STW for proposing the idea.

The idea of sending the parts with an invoice to be paid within seven days seems fine to me in the absence of being able to take debit/credit cards and I am sure those who want to continue to receive their parts as when they become available will do the honourable thing and pay up on receipt. If they don't then you will have to deal with them in a different way in the future.

We run a mail order business but as we have been in business for a number of years we have the advantage of being able to take debit and credit cards and at a reasonable charge from the bank but we do know wehn we started it was not easy and the charges were high for the first 12 months.
IN our case nothing goes out the door, except trade customers, before we charge the card.

I am certainly in favour of you notifying everyone by use of the forum when the parts will be despatched and the day they should be delivered so that someone is at the address to receive them. We don't have a problem with the receipt of parcels when we are not in because we are a business address. However we do experience problems when we send parcels to 'home addresses' as many carriers will deliver only once and leave a card for the recipient to call them before delivering a second time. We do have more success, however, with Parcelforce as they will normally try again the next day.

Good idea, I am certainly up for it.