[Maj0rMaj0r]

In your opinion, what is the best way to pay when buying from meier audio?

 

[LTUCCI1924]

pay pal

 

[JMT]

I haven't purchased from Meier Audio....yet. But I believe that payment is required in the form of International Money Order or wire transfer. If you want to pay via PayPal you need to go through Head-Fi member "Odeen." There is a slight surcharge when doing so.

BTW, this belongs in the Member's Lounge. I will move it there.

 

[braillediver]

I just emailed Mr. Odeen the same question. HD600's and a Corda HA-1. If my grin gets any wider the top of my head will fall off.

 

[dougli]

I have purchased from Jan by registered mail using international bank money orders and cash, as well as by using c2it.com via Alax Derevin at odeen@attbi.com. An option I haven't used is bank wire transfer, becasue my bank charges a $30 fee. The cheapest, easiset way is through Alex. He takes Paypay or c2it.

 

[Jim R]

I bought some 600's from Jan and wanted to use a credit card for my own protection. I used his credit card/paypal connection and everything went fine but when I got my credit card bill there was about $25 in fees and interest added to the bill. It turns out that my credit card company considered the paypal payment the same as a cash withdrawal instead of a normal item purchase. According to the credit card company, a cash withdrawal does not have a grace period and so interest and fees start accumulating from the day of the transaction. By the time I got the bill 2-3 weeks later, I had $25 in extra fees and interest and there was nothing I could do but pay it. I really don't know how other credit card companies consider PayPal payments (cash advances vs. standard purchases).

If I bought from Jan again, I would pay without the credit card since I know now that he is very trustworthy.

 

[Jim R]

Correction - the more I think about this, it was a payment to C2it that got me in trouble with the credit card fees and interest (not Paypal). I think I used c2it to try to save the Paypal fees and got burned by my credit card company.

Sorry for the error, it was about a year ago and I forgot the details. These fees and interest had nothing to do with Jan Meier but was strictly with the credit card company. You may want to check with your credit card company and see how they consider a Paypal or C2it payment.

 

[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jim R I bought some 600's from Jan and wanted to use a credit card for my own protection. I used his credit card/paypal connection and everything went fine but when I got my credit card bill there was about $25 in fees and interest added to the bill. It turns out that my credit card company considered the paypal payment the same as a cash withdrawal instead of a normal item purchase. According to the credit card company, a cash withdrawal does not have a grace period and so interest and fees start accumulating from the day of the transaction. By the time I got the bill 2-3 weeks later, I had $25 in extra fees and interest and there was nothing I could do but pay it. I really don't know how other credit card companies consider PayPal payments (cash advances vs. standard purchases).

The reason this happened is because you chose the wrong option when you made the payment. What sucks is that it's easy to do: when you pay, PayPal asks you what type of payment it is (if I remember correctly, the options are cash, auction, service, etc.). Two of the options are considered credit card payments, two are considered cash advances. So you unintentionally (and, it appears, without realizing it) chose one of the types that gets charged as a cash advance.

It would be nice if PayPal made this more obvious when you send money

 

[MacDEF]

LOL! Never mind, after I posted my PayPal info, I saw you had corrected your post -- it was c2it, not PayPal

Oh, well... I'll leave mine up as a warning to other people using PayPal

 

[kelly]

This really highlights what I've said before -- the one problem with buying stuff from Jan is that it's a pain in the ass that his web site doesn't take credit card payments directly.

I think Jan Meier is one of the single coolest people I've talked to online, but I just wanna beat the guy into submission and force him to accept credit cards and use 1/4" jacks.

Ah well.

 

[sunshine]

From what I've read and from my personal experience with C2it you will incur a finance charge when using credit card. However if you use a citibank credit card with c2it you will not incur any such charges.

 

[jodokast]

if Jan become a *cough* premier paypal member, then he can accept credit cards including Master, VISA, etc. etc.

problem is paypal takes like 3% of all your payments......sheesh.
Like I"m not even a retailer, but I"m a premier member.....hehe someone should tell jan to take the hit already.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

AKAIK you just need to click on 'become a premier member' and you ARE are premier member--no extra charges or anything. Strange

 

[jodokast]

um....no. Paypal takes a chunk out of all your payments.

Ex: Some guy beams you over $100. You only receive like $97.
On the plus side though, you do get cool stuff like paypal debit cards.

 

[aos]

Also, Jan is in Germany. There's no reason for him to accept credit card payments from cardholders outside Germany or maybe EU. There are very few US companies that accept credit cards that are issued out of US so that's not unreasonable. If he were trying to prevent fraud he could accept fax orders but then he'd still have to pay 3% fee to VISA and - don't foget it guys that it can take month or two to receive payment from Credit Card company, and the "customer" can always dispute the charge even if not warranted. As a small company or even a part-time business he cannot afford such risks and delayed payment. Otherwise his price would have to go up by a lot. After all, every single computer store in my city charges 3-4% extra if you pay by credit card. You may say that rise in sales due to more convenience, and even taking advantage of credit itself will increase his sales, and that's probably the true in general, but for a very small business funded by personal savings, that's a risk that's not acceptable. Once the company grows, this policy will likely change.

In the end, credit card may be convenient for consumer but it's a big hassle to the seller. That's my guess anyway.