Hi,
I hope this has not been discussed before.
It would be nice to be able to receive payment of markup in the form of Shapeways credit. There are a number of people that basically use the money coming in from sales to fund the printing of items for them selves, and with this there is a loss of potentially increased revenues for Shapeways occurring.
Credit would increase impulse purchases, where the current system of having to wait up to a month before funds go from Shapeways to Paypal to come back again massively reduces the likelihood of it actually coming back.
With credit the moneys for mark-up paid by the purchaser received by Shapeways can be placed in a bank account and gain interest for the time any credit stands unused. Basically better that Shapeways gets the interest rather that Paypal.
The way I would like to see this operate is:
That it is opt in rather than opt out.
No minimum and credit is created on shipping rather than at a later date.
No processing fee.
The option to convert at any time some or all credit built up to a paypal payment which is processed in the next monthly paypal run, where at that point the payment processing fee is deducted.
A credit unit expires 24 months after it is created, if Shapeways if feeing nice they might want to think about donating the money the credit represented to charity if not they can just pocket it. I can see this point being contentious with some people, the aim of it is to deal with accounts that are abandoned or orphaned by the creator and the models are still being sold. With the current system Shapeways responsibility for the moneys held for markup primary ends when the money is paid to the paypal account, where as with credit it remains the responsibility of Shapeways as long as that credit exists. Which can get messy if credit has been building up for years.
Any interest or comments?
Thanks,
David