Taking Payment Up-Front - Legal Question

[glockanator]

I always get half up front non refundable, that way if they back out halfway through I don't get burned on the project. Found that out the hard way.

[K-Man]

There is a time limit if you accept credit card payments - based on VISA and Mastercard rules at least. That information should be within the agreement you signed with the credit card processing company.

Edited March 13, 2013 by K-Man

[particle]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I only accept PayPal, though I've not read to see if there are similar time limits noted in the agreement. I ended up just closing down my hand made products temporarily so I can focus on clearing out existing orders. I think in the future I'll just accept X amount of orders at the beginning of the month, and close the store once the limit has been reached and then reopen the following month. That seems to be the trend among some holster makers anyway.

[Bronson]

The guy I was buying my holsters from would accept the order, without payment, and when your order was the next in the queue to be made he would send an email with an updated delivery time and instructions for payment. You could either accept the lead time and pay or cancel the order at that time.

Bronson

[particle]

Bronson - that's what I used to do, until I upgraded my website with a shopping cart system. It simplified the accounting side of my business since we didn't have to manually generate invoices for each order we shipped, then wait for payment before we shipped the order (yes, we didn't collect money till the order was actually ready to ship). Then, we started requesting payment before we started building the order. It seemed increasingly we were getting orders for customers that traveled a lot and were oftentimes overseas and would need to wait till they got back to the US to pay. So, we'd have to move on down the list and email additional people to see if they still wanted the order, then invoice them, then wait for payment, etc. - I just want to cut leather, not fiddle around with invoicing and such. Plus, there was (not very often) people that had no intention of actually buying the holster - they just wanted to waste everyone's time. Thus, I rebuilt my site and incorporated a shopping cart. I just waited too long to incorporate an open/closed order system.

[Ran]

As a part timer, this is why I don't do a website. And currently, I'm glad I did not. I have quit taking money at this point. I've got a list of folks that want a holster. When I can work on theirs I told them I would contact them for payment. I've got one about ready to ship. Three about ready to dye. I might mold another tomorrow. Next week I might start on the waiting list. Being one guy with a limited amount of time outside of my real job, it does not take much to get me more behind than I want to be.

I'm considering raising the price again to slow things down as well. Busy is a good thing. Hopelessly behind is not. lol

This is precisely what I do. No website and don't want one. Having said that, however, I don't make holsters and gunbelts to make a living. Its a hobby that pays for itself and funds a new pistol every now and then. Lately, I've been turning more work down than I except....and I'm ALWAYS busy..

Edited March 16, 2013 by Ran