Payment

[Charlotte]

Right, I'm in a muddle again... just got an email from a customer from my website who would like an item quickly. How long does a cheque take to clear? Is it standard practice to say 'I will send you the items as soon as the cheque has cleared?' I think it all might be too late, but I would appreciate some help! xxx

[agent_44]

Cheques normally take 3 - 5 days, and yeah, you shouldn't send anything out until it has cleared.

[geti-titanium]

Have you got a PayPal account they could send the funds to.

People who rush you to send goods are sometimes fraudsters so you need to be careful - a lot are mostly genuine as well though.

[Charlotte]

OOOh Geti you are a genius!!! Yes, I have a pay pal account, would that be fairly straight forward to do? I've only ever spent money on paypal

I would never send something to a stranger without payment, I just thought it sounded a bit rude in the email, but I guess thats business for you

[Charlotte]

I had a look on paypal, it looks to me like its on the 'Request money' tab, then all I need is the customers email address, I enter the amount and click 'goods'? Is that right? Would they then open their paypal account and the request would be there, and it would all be nice and easy?

[geti-titanium]

Just login to PayPay and you should see the link for requesting money - they don't need to have a PayPal account to do this either, just an email address

[AlexandraBuckle]

I had a look on paypal, it looks to me like its on the 'Request money' tab, then all I need is the customers email address, I enter the amount and click 'goods'? Is that right? Would they then open their paypal account and the request would be there, and it would all be nice and easy?

I think if you request money on paypal it then sends them an email, which they click a link on and it goes to their paypal log in. If they don't have paypal they can just pay by card i think.
So as long as you have their email address it should be fine

[AlexandraBuckle]

yep wot he said

[Petal]

I think I'd be wary of taking a cheque from someone. Cheques 'can' take 10 days to clear, that's how long some building societies/banks give you before you can use the funds. 3-5 is the norm, but they can be a lot slower than that.

Paypal sounds like a much better idea.

Good luck.

[Charlotte]

Thanks everyone, been trying to say thanks for ages but cooksons went all crazy on me. Ended up sending a nice clear email to my potential customer and have started making the cufflinks (if she doesn't want them they are part of my collection anyway and I always need more!).
Glad I have some kind of system now though, I always thought paypal would be good for my website but didn't realize you could could do separate payments so easily!
Thanks again... you guys are awesome