At Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles, we pretty much just repair or replace indefinitely within the 30 day repair-or-replace warranty period. We never refund money, justification being that for the time being we run on such a shoestring budget that we basically don't have available money for refunds; money often gets assigned to essential functions or spent on same as soon as we get it.
If we ever get a more robust financial base we might do refunds in addition to repair/replace.
Also, repair versus replace is conditional based upon the buyer's preference (they actually often request to repair it themselves, with our help, in our shop) or in some cases simply determined by feasibility, since of course some things can't be repaired.
Cyclista Co-Director, Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles
On 2017-06-12 15:07, jonathan martins wrote:
Hi Todd,
Used to be a member of a cycle repair local grassroot organisation in France - membership based type of stuff. Similarly to yours, you pay a membership fee and you get access to parts at a reduced price (new at a reduced cost - second hand for free as it was the result of donations by members and anyone else who wanted to get rid of bicycle parts). The use of the facilities and tools was restricted to paying members.
As far as I remember, some sort of refund policy was in place for new parts. As second hand stuff were mostly for free (ie I could pick up stuff from big boxes full of brakes, nuts and bolts etc.), one cannot really expect a refund policy to be in place should something be faulty.
I suppose you should treat members and non members differently (don't know if non members can access your shop). It could be that as a refund, you get the next bike servicing for free or any other part of similar value etc.
At the end of the day, my view is that you re a non profit and for that reason, members should not act in a purely commercial way (I considered myself as a member of a co-op, not a customer...). Something like "we try our best to make sure our used parts are reliable. But you know... we're a non profit, acting for the greater good... so.." if you see what I mean. Explain that to your clients/members, I am sure they can understand (hopefully...).
Jonathan
On 12 June 2017 at 15:33, Nozomi Ikuta nozomi@affordablebikesrecyclery.com wrote:
Instead of "renting" bikes, we charge full price and then refund on a percentage basis based on the time elapsed since purchase. This has worked out for us better than renting a certain amount per week as it is easier to refund the money than chase down the rent once the renter is in possession of the bike.
On Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 8:49 AM, Abby Easterly aeasterly@onoffsite.com wrote:
At QC Bike Collective we allow trade ups on a bike we sold. Other than that we don’t buy bikes and we probably would think that refund is almost buying. I don’t think we have been asked about refunding, but we certainly are asked about buying and/or trading. We encourage the donation per below and explain our trade up policy. So far, so good.
*From:* Thethinktank [mailto:thethinktank-bounces@l ists.bikecollectives.org] *On Behalf Of *Josh Bisker *Sent:* Sunday, June 11, 2017 11:52 PM *To:* The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org *Subject:* Re: [TheThinkTank] Refund Policy
"You're welcome to donate any parts you don't want anymore"
On Sun, Jun 11, 2017 at 10:49 PM Todd Spinner tspinner@gmail.com wrote:
We have been recently challenged about our refund policy/lack of a refund policy. Our Co-op sells used parts and a select amount of new parts, mostly consumables and commuter level wheels, etc.
Does anyone have a refund policy that they would like to share? Does your policy differ between new and used parts?
Thanks,
--
Todd Spinner
Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign (IL)
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Josh Bisker
914-500-9890 <(914)%20500-9890>
New York Mechanical Gardens Bike Co-op http://bikecoop.nyc/
596 Acres http://596acres.org/
Bindlestiff Family Cirkus http://bindlestiff.org/
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