Anyone Else Put Off Small Suppliers Who Don't Sell Online?

[AndrueC]

6 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

It doesn't sound much like it. I'm sorry you've had problems buying stuff from the UK - but it's time to calm this thread down. If a trader doesn't want to sell in a particular way, as has been said on here earlier, that is their choice, and if it loses them sales, their loss.

Absolutely. I'm not being malicious in avoiding those who don't have an online presence. It's just that I have never liked shopping and as soon as the WWW offered an alternative that's where I went. I simply don't know what shops offer because I never go and look.

 

Until recently I've been reluctant to buy from independents because they had a habit of leaking my email address (I use something called DEA so always know who leaked my address). I stuck with Amazon because they've never done that and take steps to avoid it happening (partly out of their own interest of course). But so far I've not had any problems so am tentatively prepared to consider purchases outside of Amazon.

[melmoth]

I remember being at Railwells a few years back and seeing four or five traders dotted about one of the rooms simultaneously raising their card readers towards the ceiling trying to get a decent connection. It looked like a disorganised football team attempting to play the offside trap. Badly.

[chris p bacon]

4 hours ago, Dava said:

All you need is your product price list as a pdf file. You can have it downloadable in a 1 page website, or just start a thread on here with the scale & type of your etches. People can email you with orders and pay via PayPal or bank transfer. 

Dava

I agree, but I've had some that want to pay with a card as they don't trust BACS (probably think I'll do a runner with their £20...)

 

I'm not averse to setting up a website with a simple payment option, but I find it a bit annoying when some with no idea of time or cost, tell you they must be able to order that way as if it is a right. I'm quite happy to share stuff, but my time is very limited.

[KeithMacdonald]

4 hours ago, figworthy said:

Which is fine so long as you're not in a building that acts as a faraday cage.  Brings back memories of having to step outside with traders at Stafford show in order to pay by card.  If only I'd brought enough cash.

 

Good point. I was thinking of country craft shows, out in the open, but with a mobile signal.

[ikcdab]

19 hours ago, john new said:

Ally Pally was true - £75 for a wi-fi connection. Last time we did AP with the SLS we had no wi-fi connection which was annoyin

Why on earth would you want to pay for a WiFi connection at Ally Pally? It's the middle of London, any half decent smart phone will pick up 4G or even 5G there which you could use for your own hotspot at nil cost.

[Roy Langridge]

53 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

Why on earth would you want to pay for a WiFi connection at Ally Pally? It's the middle of London, any half decent smart phone will pick up 4G or even 5G there which you could use for your own hotspot at nil cost.

Mobile phone signal in Ally Pally has long been an issue. Thick walls, the physical characteristics of the roof and actually being under the mobile phone transmitters all contributing. 
 

Roy

[TheQ]

20 hours ago, CWJ said:

 

Haha, this is a bit like that horrible scenario when you drive to a remote car park in the Lake District to go walking, no towns or villages for miles around, and then discover you only have £3.90 in cash for the £4 parking meter.

 

We no longer live in a world where people can reasonably be expected to have an amount of cash on them at all times.

 

Admittedly this isn't a direct analogy because the car park is providing a public service whereas the small model railway supplier is, as others have rightly pointed out, free to balance the customer's ease of making payment with the supplier's ease of taking it.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

Equally annoying is trying to go to a town where you can only park if you've got a smart phone with the right app...

I don't have a smart phone...

[TheQ]

16 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

I agree, but I've had some that want to pay with a card as they don't trust BACS (probably think I'll do a runner with their £20...)

 

I'm not averse to setting up a website with a simple payment option, but I find it a bit annoying when some with no idea of time or cost, tell you they must be able to order that way as if it is a right. I'm quite happy to share stuff, but my time is very limited.

I need to go to a bank to use Bacs, and they closed the local bank. Now it's a 20 mile return journey, and that bank has very limited opening hours.

[CWJ]

30 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Equally annoying is trying to go to a town where you can only park if you've got a smart phone with the right app...

I don't have a smart phone...

 

Oooooooh, don't get me started on that!

(This could turn into a grumpy old man thread...)

 

I once nearly missed a train on the Ffestiniog while ringing up an automated parking payment line which required me to enter my car registration using only 'yes' and 'no' to establish each digit... all because I refuse to 'download an app', i.e. install software on my phone and set up usernames and passwords just to make one transaction.

 

Technology doesn't always mean progress, does it?

 

I'm happy to add that the FR has since made it clear that free parking for their visitors is available at the far end of Porthmadog's main car park.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

Edited April 5, 2023 by CWJ
Correcting the part about the FR.

[john new]

8 hours ago, ikcdab said:

Why on earth would you want to pay for a WiFi connection at Ally Pally? It's the middle of London, any half decent smart phone will pick up 4G or even 5G there which you could use for your own hotspot at nil cost.

What I read recently as a criticism. All I can say from personal experience is that at the last show we did there pre-COVID there was no public wi-fi. 

[Schooner]

A quick direct answer to the title question:

 

No. If I need (okay, want) what they sell and it is only available from them then I'm not deterred by a lack of online payment.

 

But.

 

The other day I was browsing, doing a little research and costing up some options. Of the three vendors I was looking at, only @djparkins gave me enough information up front to make a decision and then made it possible to act on immediately. I may or may not place the larger order with them, but in the meantime they've made a sale and I've made a positive association with the name/brand/service.

 

So no, I'm not put off as such; but it's the only way to make those smaller impulse/trial sales which - for me anyway - do tend to lead to repeat custom.