Currently viart has some sort of recurring billing as i understand it.
 
What i would love to request is something that will add value to the buyer and enable them to buy higher ticket items and monitor recurring billing layby in their account.
 
I understand for recurring billing you muct be able to process credit cards thru a merchant account, rather than say with paymate or somethign similar.
 
So okay, you have a merchant account and can process credit cards and want to offer layby. You can apparently set up recurring billing. But you can't currently monitor or set up layby facility and rules / actions and timelines.
 
For example minimum deposit require for first payment to secure the goods initially, would be x% of item, a flat rate etc..
 
Then you can have a maximum length of time a layby can be held for.
 
Then customer can set up custom payment plan in checkout, according to the frequency of their pay day,e tc. for example they get paid monthly or fortnightly? they can select that frequency for the payment schedule.
Do they get paid on the Friday of that particular fortnight? So the payment is scheduled to be directly deducted off their card for fortnightly payments, on the friday of each fortnight. And there will be a calculator or some sort of visual chart which will show the entire schedule perhaps they can print this out. But this schedule will be accessible thru their customer account at any time so they can see how they are progressing and how much longer they have till it is completed.
 
Could they add products to the layby in that timeframe? this would be good. but it would calculate the repayments to include this new item/s and keep the original due / end date. possibly add the option to make installments manually by bank deposit (australia wide only) or credit card, automatically - this will be the default and they can select the bank deposit manual method only if they want to bypass the credit card option. (layby will be monitored and updated by seller manually in this instance)
 
This schedule must also enable a the past payments and remainder / balance to be viewed so customer can clearly see what is going on at all times thru their account.
 
With the billing side you can set how many times you will attempt to take the payment if it first gets rejected, ie if they dont have sufficient funds, if it was a public holiday and their pay was delayed by a business day or 3... so you can say 5 attempts, over 5 days, or soemthing like that. before it finally stops attempting to deduct the payment.
 
in that scenario, a notice will be sent to buyer informing them of the situation and allowing them to manually make a payment to rectify the situation and restore their layby (and can complete the remainder of payments by setting up recurring billing again or continuing to make manual payments) or if they fail to get onto the situation the layby will be cancelled after a set amount of days, and deposit or payments forfeited, customer informed, and possibly banned from store. also points or credits not awarded.
 
On completion they can have points or cerdits awarded to their account - only on completion but.
 
Finally, they must be able to tick a checkbox to say they have agreed to the terms and conditions of the layby (giving them a link or text to read before agreeing) and that they also agree to the automatic debiting of their credit card on those dates for the amount scheduled.
 
if they add to a layby in time, they must re-select another tickbox saying they have amended their original layby and now agree to these new terms / amounts to be debited fro tehir card until such and such a time when the layby is due for completion.
 
This is critical for success to offer buyers who cannot afford items, to be able to do this over installments.
 
Look forward to seeing viart implement this facility to add to what is currently available.

Not sure that I want people paying little by little for my products. This is definitely a customization. I'm sure if you contact ViArt via their support link, they will give you a custom quote

This is the features request topic is it not?
i thought i might try a feature i know i would *definitely* use, before I go the customisation route Todco - especially as my current customers DO use this facility, in real life. i am probably not asking on your behalf if you wouldnt imagine yourself using this type of feature, but lots of people do appreciate this type of facility for real,,, so maybe i am asking for others who would use it. For the customers, yeh? Mine do.
Considering viart are halfway there with layby it would be nice to see it finished and automated as most of your daily duties should be when you run an ecommerce store
No harm in asking, is there Todco.

Again, angry much?

Perhaps you are reading into things a tad much or you are looking for some kind of a reaction... if you cannot understand what i have written and "imagine" anger wherever you want to, re-read everything i have written.
 
And then, for good measure, re-read again.
 
Obviously too much time on your hands todco. I have a business to run, ta ta.

Can Viart look at integration with eLayaway?
 
http://www.elayaway.com/

This will be integrated into Virtecart's new module system, coming early 2012.
 
For more information, please visit VirteCart.com
 
**Virtecart is a module system based on ViArt's 4.08 platform.

Hi there, from my understanding elayaway, although probably the best option out there (ie - has no other competition basically is pretty much the ONLY real option out there), only forwards payment to the seller on completion of the layby - which is whenever the buyer chooses...
the buyer can choose how long this layby goes for, it can be up to a year! How are you expected to hold stock such as dropshipped items that long? some of the stuff i deal with sells within weeks / months, and if i am waiting on a layby to complete before i can order the item it will be sold out.
 
it sounds great but it needs a time line / limit for how long a layby can go for, and payments really shouldn't be held until complete. For these reasons i am hesitant to utilise elayaway. Also i forgot - you have to pay a fee to use the service and you are under someone else's terms and conditions for a layby at your store! this is a bit hard to swallow. You might as well be on ebay with no control over anything.

PayPal offers an Installment Plan option. For PayPal Standard, it is US$ 19.95 per month to add. This can also have a 12 month time frame, but from what I read, it is adjustable to have a set plan shorter with a smaller time frame, but I do not know how it works.
 
Also, eLayaway does not have PayPal integration, so if you use PayPal as the primary business bank account, forget it.
 
TOCDCO: I have tried to access your site, but each time I do, it shows it is offline. When are the online hours?