April 1st changes at my store

Traveling on vacation I see the current trends in how businesses price their services and goods to the consumer and I thought "this seems to be a good way to do it". For some time I have been considering raising my margins on my prices because so many people are using 'Rewards' Credit Cards these days and guess who pays for their rewards = the merchants in the form of added on higher processing fees. But rather than raising prices overall, I've decided to follow the model that the airline and cruise ship and hotel industries use - charge for extra services rather than an overall price bump.

Effective April 1st the following is in place in my store:

* Once you place an order, any changes to that order will incur a $ 30 charge each time a change is made. It takes a lot of time to make changes to an order, those that do will have to pay for the time, those that don't won't have those extra charges.

* All CFA's (Cuttings for Approval) will be $ 15 per CFA ordered. For example, if you have (4) pieces of furniture and they are all in the same leather, you pay (1) $ 15 charge. If the four pieces are each in a different leather and you specify a CFA for each one, then 4 x $ 15 = $ 60. CFA's take time to process and costs to re-mail, then authorize to proceed as well. Therefore those who use CFA's pay the fee, those that don't - won't!

* All order forms must be signed and agreed to on terms before the order is placed with the maker. No exceptions. I recently had a customer chargeback an entire order because of a scratch on a piece from the delivery company. Even though the Special Order form states "Damages are the responsibility of the shipping company" the customer was upset and put it all back on my store. I did not have a signed form from him so the credit card company let the chargeback stand and I had to inventory several thousand dollars of furniture I'd not planned on. The signed form protects my store from such things and makes sure we are all clear on the terms of order.

* I will not assess for credit cards at this time, but may do so in the future if Merchant fees keep rising. American Express in particular is very costly to process so if you would use a Visa/Discover/Mastercard (non-business) it helps me contain costs which keeps the retail price lower to you. We all know there is no such thing as a 'free lunch' ....

Duane,

With the cost associated with credit cards, have you considered any pass thru discount for 100% cash deals? With credit card companies offering 1-2% cash rebates to customers and the protection offered for chargeback if there are unresolvable problems with the merchandise or service, it is understandable that customers prefer using credit cards, even those who have the cash available. I don't know your costs for credit cards but there may be a win-win available by offering incentives
for cash. Just a thought.

I do the discounts for in-store buys and offer 2% for check/cash. Long distance is a little more difficult because most folks don't want to prepay an order in full (who can blame them?) and I don't want to chase them down for a check for the balance once the furniture has shipped. But, I'll extend that 2 % that way as well if the order is pre-paid in full on distance ships.