[78-L] OFF TOPIC: Convenience Fees

[Kurt Nauck]

Hey there Darren

Just a couple of comments regarding your posts. So that others will 
understand what your comments referred to, the "Convenience Fee" is a 
charge we add to a purchase that is paid for by credit card or Paypal 
to cover the fees assessed by the card processor on our end. (We do 
not charge any fee to persons spending under $100.)

In days of old, people would send checks to cover their wins and 
purchases, which we would then deposit into our bank account. Simple, 
straightforward and no charges involved. But as time went by, more 
and more people began paying by cc or pp. For a long time we absorbed 
those charges, but it finally reached a point at which we could no 
longer do so.

Now most companies build these sorts of charges into the price 
structure of their product; however, we sell mainly by auction so 
that is not possible. (Which is why most auction houses also charge 
for payment by these methods.) The only way we could build this in 
would be to add it to the shipping and packing charges, which would 
have been a reasonable solution. However, I didn't wish to penalize 
bidders who preferred to pay by check.

So the fairest method - as it always is - was to give customers a 
choice. Send me cash or check with no fee, or pay the fee to use a cc 
or pp. To me it makes no difference, because the fee is not profit 
generating; it only covers processing costs. (By the way, processing 
foreign transactions such as yours is much more expensive than US 
transactions.)

Like you, I agree that the phrase "Convenience Fee" is annoying. 
However, there is (or was) a legal reason for that terminology. My 
processor wouldn't allow me to simply say something like "add 3-5% to 
your order if paying by cc." These companies fought long and hard to 
prevent businesses from steering customers away from using plastic. 
But if a vendor established a rate schedule (not a percentage) and 
called it a "Convenience Fee," then it was allowed. So that's what I 
had to do to remain in compliance.

This has now changed, and I can use a percentage and call it what I 
like. And perhaps eventually I will, but I have more important things 
to attend to at the moment. Once I've created a process, it is 
difficult (for many different reasons) to change it.

I trust that this sheds more light on our decision-making process. I 
spend many hours and a great deal of thought on how to better serve 
our customers and keep their costs down. Those efforts brought you 
things like a bidding protocol that awards you records at 10% over 
the next highest bidder (or for the MB amount if you are the only 
bidder), and much lower shipping costs for foreign customers. These 
savings more than compensate for a voluntary payment fee.

Thanks for all your past business, and for being such a good and 
loyal customer!

Kurt Nauck
c/o Nauck's Vintage Records & Texas Ready
22004 Sherrod Ln.
Spring, Texas  77389

www.78rpm.com  |  www.TexasReady.net
www.MDADA.org  |  www.NewPledge.org

E-Mail: nauck at 78rpm.com
Phone: (281) 288-7826  |  Fax: (425) 930-6862