questions for steve regarding group purchases

David Pottage david at electric-spoon.com
Thu May 8 10:44:31 CEST 2008


On Thu, May 8, 2008 7:17 am, Robin Paulson wrote:

> it's not just the trust thing; it's for when things go wrong. there
> are many possible slip-ups between california and my house, and i
> would prefer knowing that if the unpredictable happens, we're all
> covered, and know where we stand.
>
> and US$4000 is a lot of money, for people i don't know; i'm just not
> that trusting. nor do i expect the others in my group to hand over
> that sort of cash with no cast-iron assurances

I think that the worry of things going wrong can be reduced if you form a
local group (or join an existing LUG) and hand over phones and cash in
person.

Personally, I would be quite wary about sending full or part payment for a
phone to someone I had never met in person, but I would be quite happy to
drive for a couple of hours to meet them at their house, give them cash
for a phone, and then come back a week later to collect the phone that had
been ordered, because I would know that they where a real person, and I
would know their street address in case they turned out to be a frudster.

If there was an arrangement to pay half before ordering and half on
collection and the group organizer wanted to take a copy of my photo ID to
protect themselves against me not turning up with the second payment, then
that would also be fine.

Conversely, if I was a group organizer, I would want everyone in the group
to visit me in person at least once to devlever money. If anyone who
wanted to conduct the whole transaction via post and email, I would want
the whole cost of the phone up front, and I would use a fully insured,
signature on delivery courier to deliver the phone, which would cost the
buyer more.

I realize that meeting up in person would not suit everyone, but I think
it is the best solution to resolve trust issues, even if you spend more on
fuel  driving to the meet than you save on postage.

-- 
David Pottage





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