fair policies for customers

[Kryptonian]

I am new to breeding and selling so want to do best by the people who purchase my animals. I have gotten through everything so far quite well. Starting with learning to care for snakes then focusing on the ball python and its breeding habits and genetics. I have gotten past the getting babies to eat, sexing them yadda yadda yadda. I finally bred my first clutch and now has come the time to sell some babies. I have built a webpage so customers can view whats available and see pics of the parents etc. I would like to create some policies and post them on this site. I want to be fair and flexable with people but also want to be fair to myself and to the animals.

I am not in a get rich quick scheme so have my animals priced in the middle. Some people sell them high becuase they are big breeders, or they have great lineage, or are just a really great looking animal. Then there are those I see selling animals dirt cheap just to move them out quick. I care where they go but also know I am new so I figure priceing them accordingly so that I am not attracting people looking for cheap snakes but still able to sell them.

I also decided that for things like christmas I will have sales.
So this is what I figure I would like to do as far as policies go. Keep in mind I am in canada as well so pricing differs here as well as shipping animals can be more difficult due to weather.

To start I want to have a payment plan available. I figured if there is interest in an animal I will hold it for 14 days to allow for money transfers, check clearing etc. After 14 days I would require a 20% non refundable deposit. Then I will list the animal as sold and hold it for 60 days. After 60 days I would require another 20% towards the animal. I thought after that I need a payment every 30 days and after 3 months I would add the cost of feeding the animal. I figure for animals that are selling for low prices that after a certain amount of time I would be losing money to feed it.
I thought I would give a buyer 6 months to pay off an animal that is 500 or less and 1 year for animals worth over 500. After this time due to the fact that these animals are worth more when they are getting bigger I would want them paid off. I dont want to raise peoples snakes for them and then having them buy a near breeding size animal for the price of a hatchling.
As far as sale animals go I would omit the 2 weeks to hold them for free, meaning I would require the deposit right away to hold the animal.
I also want to give a health guarantee of 30 days. I however do not want to give a feeding guarantee other than they are established on either live or f/t while in my care. I want this as a policy since some people may not house the animal properly.
I also want my health guarantee void if the animal is not quaratined. Not sure how I would enforce this. How would one know if they quarantine it or not.

Also for now I am having pick up only until I have generated some income to purchase proper shipping supplies. This policy I will change over time to where I will hopefully be able to provide local delivery and canada wide shipping.

anyhow this is what I have though of so far. Any suggestions on anything I should add or remove or change.

[Kryptonian]

Oh I also want to add that anyone under 16 or 18 not sure which is better will require parental permission.
and would it be fair to make sure that the buyer is able to care for the snake by asking some general care questions and if they have an adequate enclosure.

[AMPearce]

I am new to breeding and selling so want to do best by the people who purchase my animals. I have gotten through everything so far quite well. Starting with learning to care for snakes then focusing on the ball python and its breeding habits and genetics. I have gotten past the getting babies to eat, sexing them yadda yadda yadda. I finally bred my first clutch and now has come the time to sell some babies. I have built a webpage so customers can view whats available and see pics of the parents etc. I would like to create some policies and post them on this site. I want to be fair and flexable with people but also want to be fair to myself and to the animals.

I am not in a get rich quick scheme so have my animals priced in the middle. Some people sell them high becuase they are big breeders, or they have great lineage, or are just a really great looking animal. Then there are those I see selling animals dirt cheap just to move them out quick. I care where they go but also know I am new so I figure priceing them accordingly so that I am not attracting people looking for cheap snakes but still able to sell them.

I also decided that for things like christmas I will have sales.
So this is what I figure I would like to do as far as policies go. Keep in mind I am in canada as well so pricing differs here as well as shipping animals can be more difficult due to weather.

To start I want to have a payment plan available. I figured if there is interest in an animal I will hold it for 14 days to allow for money transfers, check clearing etc. After 14 days I would require a 20% non refundable deposit. Then I will list the animal as sold and hold it for 60 days. After 60 days I would require another 20% towards the animal. I thought after that I need a payment every 30 days and after 3 months I would add the cost of feeding the animal. I figure for animals that are selling for low prices that after a certain amount of time I would be losing money to feed it.
I thought I would give a buyer 6 months to pay off an animal that is 500 or less and 1 year for animals worth over 500. After this time due to the fact that these animals are worth more when they are getting bigger I would want them paid off. I dont want to raise peoples snakes for them and then having them buy a near breeding size animal for the price of a hatchling.
As far as sale animals go I would omit the 2 weeks to hold them for free, meaning I would require the deposit right away to hold the animal.
I also want to give a health guarantee of 30 days. I however do not want to give a feeding guarantee other than they are established on either live or f/t while in my care. I want this as a policy since some people may not house the animal properly.
I also want my health guarantee void if the animal is not quaratined. Not sure how I would enforce this. How would one know if they quarantine it or not.

Also for now I am having pick up only until I have generated some income to purchase proper shipping supplies. This policy I will change over time to where I will hopefully be able to provide local delivery and canada wide shipping.

anyhow this is what I have though of so far. Any suggestions on anything I should add or remove or change.

Well I think those terms are very generous and unfortuantely some people may try to take advantage of them. Keep in mind I hve never sold before either but I am going to after this season so I have beenlooking at other peoples TOS a lot. First of all almost everyone I have ever bought from qould require a 20% deposit up front. This is because some people might never come though with actually giving you money. Some people will not keep their word and on top of that you are losing potential customers in that two weeks hold period. Also, if you are just doing local pick-up at first, people could just bring you the money instead of mailing a check. The few people that I have bought from will usually want another 20% every two weeks after that, which I as a buyer have always found reasonble. For cheeper animals they would want it quicker then that. Thinking as a buyer I would not want to be strung along for 6 months, especially for cheeper animals. Of they cannot pay the litle amount of money to pay off the animal then are they going to be able to do things like pay for vet visits? I don't know but it is something to think about. For the health gurantee most sellers I have seen only have a 7 day health gurantee. If you sell them a sick animal they should, under most circumstances, be able to tell within the first week. I have been considering offering a 2 week health gurantee ut not any more. I feel like after that poor husbandry on the buyers part could lead to health issues ie. not quarantining, improper temps and humidity etc. I have thought about adding that I would offer email support for the life of the animal. I have seen a couple of peple offer this and I know that would make me feel better as a buyer especially if there were health concerns. As far as the age of the buyer, I have not really thought about that one but I think a 16 year old would be able to properly care for an animal, it's not like it's rocket science. I hoped that helped and good luck!!

[iCandiBallPythons]

If you are going to do payment plans, I would draw the line at something like 500.00 and up , unless it's a very short payment plan like within a couple to a few weeks. secondly I would never hold an animal without money down upfront, unless it was a friend or someone that has done more than a few transactions with me. Third, this is just me but, I would never charge for feeding their animal while in hold, this is just courtesy to me.

[Freakie_frog]

First Payment plans aren't hard..just sit down and firgure out how long you want it drawn out. for me anything under 500.00 is normally paid off with in 2-3 months. But even that's not set in stone.

As for QT you can't enforce that..but you can only guarantee live delivery and health upon delivery. After that it's in the hands of the keeper (with in reason) the snake dies 24 hours after they get it..Ok that's different. It dies 4 months after they get it..sorry to hear that. Nothing against the customer but that's out side of my control.

Then Golden Rule applies..Treat others as you'd like to be treated its that simple. When figuring things like payment plans and such out, think how you'd like to have a breeder do it for you then rain it in to be both good for business and customer friendly..