layaway?Help

[TreasureCoastTrader]

a customer has asked if she can give me a deposit on an item till april...I'll be glad to do that but how does it work?

[Zehland]

You could do it the way I set up deposits for custom orders. Sometimes people prefer to pay a 50% deposit for a custom item rather than the full price up front. What I have done is set up a listing for the 50% with RESERVED FOR... in the title. The customer purchases that listing.

Then when the item is completed and approved, I do another listing for the balance which they purchase before I ship.

You could do something similar.

[TreasureCoastTrader]

How do I get the listing to say reserved?
Do I relist the same item and put the full price or the deposit price?

[LoveAccented]

Hi Carolee,

According to the Etsy terms of use, we are not allowed to make listings for deposits. A lot of a people seem to do them, but they are technically against the rules and run the risk of being pulled down by admin - every listing must be for an whole item that is for sale and does not depend on the buyer purchasing another item from your shop.

The way to take a deposit that does not violate the terms of use is that you:
- Activate "Other" as a payment method
- Have the buyer purchase using "Other"
- Send your buyer invoices from PayPal

You can set due dates for the invoices and break the payments down into as many as you need.

Hope this helps!

- Lisa

References:
https://www.etsy.com/teams/11969/direct-checkout/discuss/10022793/
https://www.etsy.com/help/article/483#listings

[Former_Member]

Hi Carolee,

A "reserved" listing is just like any other listing, except you type the words "RESERVED" at the beginning of the title so everybody knows not to buy it unless you're the person it's reserved for.

I would do two listings:
1st - put it up now, for half the price of the item. Include in the title something along the lines of "50% deposit" and emphasize that the listing is a 50% deposit towards an item.

After the item is ready to go in April, put up the second listing that says something like "remainder of fee for item" and ship the item once the customer buys the item and pays the remaining 50%.

[Former_Member]

Edited to delete, as others contributed with more info :)

[TreasureCoastTrader]

Oy vey! I went to the link that Lisa provided and it seems there's good reason to be confused-why the heck don't they just create a deposit button that sends the money to the seller and doesn't count it as a sale till the full price is paid? I'm sure Etsy must have the best computer genius' that could do this? I'm going to give Lisa idea a shot-I hate to lose this sale
thanks for all the advice

[TreasureCoastTrader]

I'll just tell her I'll reserve item till April
and hope she comes back for it