No more paypal??

Emmie Fisher · **Posted:** Tue Nov 15, 2005 10:28 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

I'm not a programmer, but

...

...

...

Too bad you aren't a programmer or you'd have been tapped a long time ago to "create this small database". It's been on the docket for, oh, about 5 years now. Various folks get together and talk about it ... and then talk about it ... and then talk about it and then...

It's like a lot of other things ... if only THSCC could be the "day job".

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:49 am

Emmie Fisher wrote:

It's like a lot of other things ... if only THSCC could be the "day job".

What? Free autox entries for the year isnt enough to quit your job? :lol:

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 8:54 am

Who's getting free autoX entries? I thought it was only the event chair(s) and bus driver getting them now...

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 9:23 am

Carl Fisher wrote:

Who's getting free autoX entries? I thought it was only the event chair(s) and bus driver getting them now...

If you quit your job to do this, its the least we could do :twisted:

Chris Brown · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 9:56 am

Aaron Buckley wrote:

If paypal is a pain in the arse, a 5 event pass will be just as tough to monitor.

The way I look at it is like this:

- eliminate refunds
- raise the cost in order to cover the fees
- have a season pass for those who want that option

- AB

i'm with aaron on these three policies.

again, i don't think the issue is with paypal (except the fees)...we would have the same problems with any type of preregistration...the only reason the season pass works is because it has been clearly stated that there are no refunds and no exchnages.

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:15 am

I do not think it is fair to raise the cost to cover the small fee. People using paypal actually help the club with the registration process and make the registars job a lot easier.

Why penalize people who pay in advance and shorten the registration line by a conservative estimate of 30%? You are proposing giving free events to people with the season pass for the very same benefit.

We have had paypal going for 3+ years now. It is the one thing that has really helped the club with registration. As a club, we would be going into uncharted waters with a free for all registration with 120 plus participants.

When we implemented it we were really scrambling trying to find a solution to speed up registration. That is the same time when we really saw a spike in participation. We were projecting participation to climb to 200 or more....like the DC region has. There is simply no way to register 120 people in a 60-90 minute window. If there is, I would like to know.

Yes, it can use some fine tuning.

- no refunds
- only pay for the event that is open
- it is the participants responsibilty to show they paid in advance.

Emmie Fisher · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:28 am

On the "raise fees to cover" item, that was addressed last year by having mems who *didn't* prepay before the event, pay an extra $5 "inconvenience fee" at the event ($20 if you prepay; $25 if you pay at the site). The idea previously had been to *promote* prepaying so as to try to reduce time & hassle for the Registrars *at* the event. As you can see, with a PayPal fee of only $.88 per $20, one "inconvenience fee" covers 5+ PayPal fees. I don't have any figures to know how that idea worked out, but I might *guess* it worked out OK.

Stacy King · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:03 pm

Have you guys thought about using the same system we use for the track events?

www.motorsportreg.com ? INFO, PRICING

Sure... it's actually a little more expensive (@ $2.13 for a $25 entry) but I would think the added convenience and flexibility would be worth it. It doesn't do anything to solve any refund issues you have, but it allows people to pay with a credit card OR e-check.

Another added benefit... Driver's info would be there and ready to go for us when someone decideds to enter a track event (many already have an account there.) You can set up the events so that entrants don't have to pay online either... thus no fees. Payments are made to the club every two weeks via check OR direct deposit.

Next time I'm in town, I'd be glad to go through the admin side of the site to whomever usually runs registration. Show how we do it on the HPDE side, see if it would work for the AutoX program.

There's also www.myautoevents.com ... geared more specifically towards autocross, but not nearly as flexible. NCRSCCA Cape Fear region uses that one.

-Stacy

Emmie Fisher · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 12:42 pm

Stacy,

With Carl's prereg app & PayPal, I think what we have now already does what you've mentioned, though it doesn't currently mark the prereg page to indicate whether or not you've paid as that sys might (useful info that we *believe* can be added in some fashion). And PayPal does allow credit cards, e-Check, & now you don't even have to open a PayPal account to use PayPal with a credit card. It's also easy to make refunds via PayPal; it's keeping up with who needs one that's the headache. That and people paying after the prereg file is closed & downloaded & not bringing their payment receipt to the event. & I think we're using the direct deposit feature that PayPal has, too.

So, though at least *I* would still be interested in seeing a demo of what y'all are using on the track side, at first sight, anyway, it appears that, when used with our homegrown prereg sys, PayPal's $1.03 for $25 vs. $2.13 for $25 would probably still be a better deal/setup for autoX & rallyX.

George Bright · **Posted:** Wed Nov 16, 2005 7:54 pm

I see my biggest gripe with paypal has been fixed.

Emmie Fisher wrote:

And PayPal does allow credit cards, e-Check, & now you don't even have to open a PayPal account to use PayPal with a credit card.

I did not use my account enough to remember my id and password. I als did not like some of the Iron fisted rules they had about freezing your account for any reason they saw fit.

I was going to suggest the club looked into some form of credit card processing. As Emily Latella said "Nevermind" :wink:

Brad Mackey · **Posted:** Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:44 am

For me, a Season Pass isn't an option. Even though I attended nearly all THSCC events in 2005, and used Paypal for all but one of those, trying to predict 6 months into the future is very difficult at my age

. However, I like the option for those who choose to use it. Reward them with rake-off deal!

I have always been AGAINST a Paypal-only option in order to get in an event for $20 instead of $25. We should not penalize pre-registered entrants who choose to pay with cash on the day of an event.

For those who choose not to do a Season-Pass, why not do Paypal (or MotorsportsReg) at $21.00 or $22.00 per event, to cover the transaction costs, no refunds. If a cancellation occurs within the acceptable time frame, then the credit can be carried forward to a future event. NO refunds. The Club keeps the money in "escrow".

I suggest the Registrars and VP's identify what the specific problems are regarding Paypal, and just establish rules to make them disappear! If it's really just the $500 we're worried about, then entry fee increase handles that, right?

The convenience of on-line registration and payment is the result of some pretty nifty work by Carl and Emmie Fisher. Let's not just S___T-CAN their efforts because of a few problems caused by entrants who raise hell over $20 vs. $25 at the event, claiming they are pre-registered or pre-paid.

Hell, just put 'em in the event and get the Paypal receipt later. If somebody wants to screw us out of $20 or $25 because they "think" they pre-payed, fine. We can live with that if they can.

We have enough very bright folks in the club who could make the whole system bullet-proof (I think it already is...). I, unfortunately, am not one of those folks who are wise in the ways of the Black Box... It's all PFM to me

.... So I can sit back and offer my grossly uninformed opinions without any clue as to the real solution...

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:48 pm

Adam Ligon wrote:

DanDurusky wrote:

doesnt paypal only charge if you have a premier account which enables you to receive credit card payments?

what if you jsut get a standard account and only accept checking account payments?

If you have abase acct, you can only get upto $500 per month in payments, before it either refuses payment or forces you to upgrade

My experience is much different. I have a base PayPal account and have accepted well over $1000 in payments during any given month for items I've sold. The only issue I've run into is a $1000 cap on individual payments, but that's easy to work around. For instance, I sold a set of wheels & tires a couple months ago for over $1000; due to PayPal's $1000 'per payment' cap, I asked the buyer to send me two PayPal payments, one for $999, the other for the balance. That worked perfectly fine, and I received other payments for other items via my PayPal base account during the same timeframe. The 'big' problem with a base account is it won't allow you to accept credit card payments.[/code]

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