Droid Engineer Archive
Thread: How much up front on large orders?
Afterhaving been stiffed recently on a large order (300 components), I wanted to get opinions on what others ask for up front on large orders. Also, how oftencan one request payment before it becomes "griefing"?
(and before someone else mentions it, I didn't take this large order with nothing up front from a stranger - it was someone I had done a decent bit of business with in the past and never had any problems)
I haven't yet asked for anything up front, but the largest order I ever had was for 80K. If the order were such that I didn't think Icould sell it on my vendor, should the customer back-out, I would ask for a down payment equal to the cost of the resources used in the components that I didn't think I could sell. So if I had a 100,000 order of worthless widgets, and I thought I could only use 50,000 credits of those widgets, then for the remaining 50,000 credits worth of widgets, I would price their resource cost and use that as a down payment. So at the very least, then, I'm not taking a material loss -- only the loss of my time.
atomicdeath1979 wrote:
1 miiiiilion dollars....mwa ha ha....er....1....billion...dollars?
Well, thank you very much Mr./Ms. Helpful for your insight.
I have a simple rule
Given them a schematic and the resources and take hard cash.
I have had several large orders and only a couple of times has the person renegged on the deal. One offered to purchase the order even though they no longer needed it, but I declined and sold it all within two days anyway with no problem. The other ended up not having the money to purchase the full order and ended up taking only half. This second one was also no problem to me as I was able to sell the remaining half within a few days at a higher price (because I had given a nice discount for the bulk order opposed to the price I would have charged for individual orders). There were no hard feelings on either account, sometimes things just come up that are unforseeable.
The one time where this would be a really difficult problem would be if someone ordered something that you normally don't sell, a droid with unusual module choices, or customized chassis for BLL or other droids you don't normally get sales from. In this case, it would be best to get 50% up front. I don't normally ask for up front money myself, though I have had customers who made large orders pay me up front in full (via /tip) much to my surprise.
I am assuming that you still have the components you had crafted? If the buyer refuses to pay and doesn't offer a good explaination, particularly if the components are not something you can easily sell to others, then you are well within your rights to refuse service to this person in the future, and to warn other crafters/suppliers about this individual.
Panatlee Thillik'arzk
Master Droid Engineer/Sniper/Master Artisan
Lowca, Naboo -- South of Theed at -4283, 3379
Home of the Tribute to Master Bounty Hunters
deltabob00 wrote:
Unfortunately, my partner is more trusting than I am and delivered the order pending payment. I wasn't too worried about it at the time, because I had done business with this person before with no problem. Ah well, once bitten...
Ouchies!
Panatlee Thillik'arzk
Master Droid Engineer/Sniper/Master Artisan
Lowca, Naboo -- South of Theed at -4283, 3379
Home of the Tribute to Master Bounty Hunters
deltabob00 wrote:
Unfortunately, my partner is more trusting than I am and delivered the order pending payment. I wasn't too worried about it at the time, because I had done business with this person before with no problem. Ah well, once bitten...
Now you just got to bite your partner HARD 
-K
I have not ever asked for an upfront charge, I have been lucky so far with filling big orders and having people come through. Most of theorders I do are adv driod chasis so I dont have to worry to much if a order doesnt pan out. Im sure my day will come though.