Hi Amaze,
Apologies for the delay in responding, but thank you for giving your feedback!
Since we use a warehouse/vault which is not close to home, I cannot show you specifically those items. However, if you check the bottom of this linked blog post, you will find a picture of me showcasing some of our products at Bitcoin Center NYC:
http://btcgeek.com/bitcoin-center-nyc-bitcoin-new-york/The next Satoshi Square event is Monday. I will not be bringing trunk loads of bullion, but I will post a picture of me with our showcase items, with your name on a paper.
While its true that our focus has been to be up "running as soon as possible," you are the first to think (at least aloud
) that the site looks hastily put together. Instead of reinventing the wheel on the product descriptions, we thought it made sense to piece together facts of interest for each item. I suppose somebody on Alibaba had the same idea
. We definitely want everything to look professional and sleek though, so I appreciate your candor. If this is your main concern with the "look" of the site, definitely let me know. Otherwise, if its more about the style, can you recommend any changes?
Regarding the Whois guard, I can ask my developer about that, but as I understand it, this is put in place to reduce spam. I am all around the NYC Bitcoin scene, so honestly there shouldn't be too much issue getting in contact with me if that is your concern. We are pretty quick on the info @ coinstax dot com address as well.
The shipping cost is to cover insured shipping which is essential for shipments of this value. We also video tape all packaging to remove doubt when customer orders are not correct. Per your suggestion, I have added the cost to our Policies page.
The 1.5% Bitcoin processing fee is added because we considered adding other forms of payment (cash, credit card, altcoins, cashier's checks, bank wires, etc.), each of which posts to our account at different speeds and carries its own cost. To get an idea of how to account for these different fees, we reviewed the checkout procedures of others in the industry and found that most use a baseline price for the product and then calibrate fee structures on top of this. We found that Bitpay sweeps funds at the end of the day, then sends an ACH payment that takes another few days to post to our account. This delay of funds to our account makes for some other considerations on our end, but all in all Bitpay is still one of the best electronic payment processors out there (go Bitcoin!). A bank wire would post to our account same day, but costs the customer ~$30. Cash or cashier's checks are immediately available in our account, but the customer needs to either mail it or find us in person (and we do not currently have a storefront). Since we are accepting only bitcoins at the moment, it is fair to say we could change all the prices to reflect this, but it would take effort to recalibrate price tiers, and I wonder if it will make us look less competitive to others who still use a baseline cost system. Changing this is definitely worth considering though, so thanks for asking!
While we have shipped many successful orders, with customers receiving their products just fine, I can understand that our minimums might be higher than you are willing to test for a first go around. I will PM you regarding a reduced volume special arrangement offer for the first shipment and we can use a trusted forum escrow if you wish.
Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback Amaze! Really, this is helpful.
