#196
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-C |
#197
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Paranoia? Nope. I just sent a check to Harvey a few days ago and thought nothing of it. You can have all the relationships you want with long time customers, but unless you have something financially and legally in place, there are no guarantees on the security of a customers deposit. Things happen when people become sick, or worse yet pass away. And the last thing on anyone's mind, is cutting checks to customers. Estates don't start writing checks the minute the body is cold. Just the way it works.
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#198
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So, as they say in New Jersey, "You gotta problem wid dat?" Yes, I do. The first is it's not enough money. $500 is nonrefundable because of what it costs me to spend hours talking on the phone with you, exchanging emails, buying and sequestering materials, having you take up a space on my build calendar that makes everyone after you have to accept a later date, etc. This actually is worth more than $500, which is what it was several years ago. This thread has shown me I should raise it. So the first $500 (soon to go up) is to pay me for time and opportunity costs, and possibly cash outlays. Next, let's take a simple example: you order a $10,000 guitar, and abruptly cancel when it is well underway. I need to go ahead and complete a guitar knowing I don't get paid when it's done. Then I have to market your guitar. I need photos. I need to put it up on my website with an explanation that doesn't scare people away because they are worried about why you canceled. Maybe I take it to shows, where it takes up space that one of my own spec builds could have taken. In the end, how much do I need to discount to move it? Keith, how much would you pay for someone else's custom order that got canceled? 30% off? 40% off? I lose a few thousand dollars after spending many unpleasant uncompensated hours dealing with it. The second is I have to have a merchant services account that on top of the 3% charge per transaction has a monthly charge of about $30, and requires me to buy a card machine for about $500. The third is that I end up trusting a relative stranger across the country not to find a month later that his new guitar hasn't made his life wonderful, gotten him dates with hot women, a gig with a new band, etc., who then decides to put a dispute on the charge if I say it's too late to return it. I'm the one with an ongoing business. People come to me to buy something and trust me with their money because of that. It's like when you buy a new refrigerator, pay the store, and wait for them to deliver it. You trust them with the money. If you want to pay when the refrigerator is delivered and you have used it for a few days, good luck finding a store that does that (except I do give a few days return privilege, unlike the appliance store). Most customers begin as total unknowns, and many more or less stay that way. It's up to them how much they want to become my friend. Some I think I know at the end, others not. I'm not giving them the guitar and the power to take back all but $1500 of the money and disappear leaving it to me to find them and sue them and then collect on a judgment. If you have a problem with that, you won't be my customer. Simple. Oh, how do I protect your deposit? I always have enough money or liquid securities to repay everything, and my wife knows how to find my records and has access to my accounts. You gotta problem wid dat?
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"Still a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest." --Paul Simon Last edited by Howard Klepper; 02-27-2012 at 03:53 PM. |
#199
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R We Dun Yet?
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Larry Pattis on Spotify and Pandora LarryPattis.com American Guitar Masters 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists Steel-string guitars by Rebecca Urlacher and Simon Fay Classical guitars by Anders Sterner |
#200
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Oh, and by the way I have settled estates before. That is not "just the way it works". |
#201
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Pausing this thread for a few hours to allow for some cooling off. Let's keep to the issue, shall we, and not get into talking about each other.
EDIT: On further review, I can't see anything good coming from reopening this thread. We've begun talking in circles, re-posting the same things that were said a hundred or more posts ago, only now we're adding more and more heat while shedding less and less light. With all due respect to each of my friends who have posted in this thread, I'm putting this one to bed. cotten Last edited by cotten; 02-27-2012 at 08:49 PM. |