[consulting] being a listed consultant

[Andrew Cohill]

On Apr 6, 2007, at 2:15 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:

>
> Wire transfers are OK, but they're slow, expensive, and sometimes
> extremely difficult to set up internationally (mainly on the sender's
> side, depending on the particular country pair -- wires to China  
> can be
> particularly tricky). Not every bank, and relatively few community
> financial institutions (ie, credit unions or sparkassen) are  
> skilled in
> sending international wires. Whichever side needs to do currency
> exchange will usually get an unfavourable rate. Also, in the case  
> that a
> transfer doesn't go through (the sender doesn't have their money  
> anymore
> but the recipient doesn't have it either) -- which happens from  
> time to
> time -- tracing is very time-consuming. While this is all great for  
> the
> recipient, it can offload a lot of inconvenience and cost to the  
> sender,
> which should concern anyone who cares about customer service.

Wire transfers are good for the recipient, but there are real costs  
to the sender, as Evan notes.  I have to pay a $50 USD fee even for a  
small amount of a few hundred dollars.  The thing I hate most about  
wire transfers is the time.  It often takes two or three emails to  
get the correct bank information I need from the recipient  
(consultant), and then I have to make a special trip to the bank--so  
I have a time cost of 30 minutes or more--much longer than paying by  
credit card, check, or Paypal.

The bank I use has to fill out a very long form by hand. It is very  
easy for the bank teller to make a one digit transcription error that  
causes the transaction to fail.

If you want to keep your customers happy, keep in mind that wire  
transfers are a lot of trouble for small transactions (under $1,000  
USD).

Andrew

-------------------------------------------------
Andrew Michael Cohill, Ph.D.
President
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