Information for Consignment Shops Old and New

On the Internet you aren't afforded face-to-face contact that allows you to observe body language or whether a person looks you in the eye when he or she speaks to you. You don't get the feel of a handshake. Some of your keenest senses that you've developed over your lifetime are 'disabled' and you're left dependent upon and vulnerable to website owners' manipulations.

Website Slights of Hand

As a general rule, the higher the cost of purchasing a product or service - the harder it is to find complete and full disclosure of said cost. Shysters know all of the tricks. You might be aware of one or two. Here are some things to look out for as you peruse the Inet with your shopping list.

Information: Miss Perception Lives on the Home Page

The 'home page' typically is the first page a website visitor sees. Those trying to manipulate you for your money are aware of that first and of the importance of 'first impression', so for them, it doesn't hurt to 'lie a little' to get you to stick around for the sell sell sell.

Quiet often that price you see splashed across the front page isn't the whole truth and slogans like "We won't be undersold!" and "Lowest price!" are part of the con job. If you dig deeper, you might run into a vein of fees, but chances are you won't find all of them disclosed in one obvious top-level page shouting them out as loudly as "Won't be undersold!".

The really big surprises lay in wait until well after the money-back period. You're busy with many things. Con men know that and they know that most entrepreneurs caught up in business licenses, advertising, hiring, stocking - aren't thinking ahead to when they might need more software features, so one trick is to strip significant features out of a software program, drop the price to lure buyers in, then inform them after they're locked in that there is (Sorry, did I forget to mention?) fee upon fee for adding those features back.

Here are some real-life true-today examples:

Most vendors provide a second copy of their software for free (or at a reasonable cost) to be used on a second computer. One vendor charges $300 more.

Other features like QuickBooks compatibility and credit-card processing cost $200 or so each to add back to the program.

Progressive vendors don't charge ongoing fees for mostly nonexistent 'customer support' after the first year. The greedy vendors charge up to $153/MONTH.

There are separate fees (in addition to annual service fees) for things like data conversion ($200) printer support, 'antivirus' support $75, barcode support $75, Windows support $100, data recovery $120/HOUR.

Some vendors seize the opportunity to charge their captive audience 100% more for hardware. (If you need hardware, search Google for the model number and manufacturer. You'll see what we mean.)

Software developers who treat their users fairly don't set price traps. Every developer is aware that some stores will thrive and will require more computers in the future - maybe one just for entering inventory - one for administration (accessed only by store management) - and several on the sales floor. The manipulators charge $300 to add their software to each computer!

Fair vendors grant ownership of the software to you and allow you to resell it at a later date. The manipulative vendors are only selling a right (a software license) to use their software. You don't own it. You can't resell it. The software expires worthless.

Dishonest vendors set up plans ahead of time to get you one way or another. If you think you will avoid ongoing service fees by buying the software and using it 'on your own', you'll be hung out to dry when the day comes when the software needs fixing (and it will need fixing). Gotcha. Now you can pay $100 per incident.

Information: "Easy to Learn"

And lastly, yet another dodge from the home page: "Easy to Learn!" "Easy to Use!" Sub web page: "Pay me $2,500 and I'll fly to your place of business and teach you how to use it!"

The Culprits

You can quickly determine who the scam artists are by asking one question: "Do you have services fees after I purchase your software?" For every software provider who answers "Yes", you will undoubtedly find some of the deceptions exposed herein being practiced by "him".

Reference to 'Him' brings up one more important point: The 'consignment software industry' is very small in comparison to other types of software, leaving it without competition from large software developers which in turn leaves the door open for any 'programmer' with a mouse and an answering machine to slap together a consignment software program in the evening hours after work and attempt to sell it on the Internet. At last count there have been around 10 such attempts which didn't fail for the programmer - he was paid by all those who bought his software. Those attempts failed for the people who bought 'his' software who were left to buy and learn another software program to replace 'his'.

Information: Best Consignment Shop Software

With BCSS there are no pricing traps for you to fall into later. There are No Ongoing Service Fees. You own the software and you can resell it. BCSS is not 'programmer dependent'. BCSS in an independently-owned software company with strong financial backing. If you want to take the risk out of choosing consignment software, buy Best Consignment Shop Software.