It seems like my computer is starring in a soap opera. First, my Wee Princess spilled water on my laptop, rendering half the keyboard inoperable. Then I purchased this great wireless keyboard, which had been working great – until last week. I took it back to Staples yesterday, where they put the “that was easy” in the exchange. I brought my new keyboard home, and it worked great – for about three minutes. Then it started doing the same thing.
No way, I figured, for two keyboards to be lemons when the tech said this was the first he’d ever heard of this happening. Then it dawned on me: Perhaps one of the “ctrl” keys on my laptop itself is the problem? You see, the problem is, certain keys are acting like keyboard shortcuts, so I type “n,” and a new window in Firefox opens up. “P” brings up my printer box. I popped both of the keys off, finding nothing that would be holding them down.
My computer geek friend, Ellen, said to go on ebay and buy a new keyboard, then go to YouTube to figure out how to swap it out. OK. Fine. Because, as much as I don’t want to spend any more money, the fact remains that I do most of my business work on my laptop, so not having it perform to meet my needs is frustrating, to say the least.
I found the keyboard that goes with my laptop for a cool $12.79 with free standard shipping out of (I think) New Jersey. Sweet! Eastern seaboard means it could arrive before the expected delivery date of Friday. Then I noticed that this seller has a “Bill me later,” and Paypal is extending a special offer – $10.00 off your first purchase (if you qualify). I could get this keyboard for under $3.00. Woohoo! Sign me up! *click*
But when I got to the page, I just couldn’t do it. Maybe it’s all the Dave Ramsey books and knowledge, but I just could not sign up for a line of credit. The money was there to pay it off quickly, but I just could not bring myself to do it. Mostly, I was afraid I’d get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and forget to pay it. So I backed out of that page and just paid for the keyboard directly from my Paypal account.
So what does that have to do with my business? Since I use Paypal’s services, they send me emails about their offerings, including Bill Me Later. I’ve thought seriously about adding that option to my web store, but something keeps stopping me. Now that I know exactly what all Bill Me Later entails, including the outrageously high interest rate (19.99%!!!), I can be very content with not offering this service. You see, my family is working very hard to get out of debt, and we know first-hand how easy it is to get into debt, and how hard it is to get out of it. As a business owner, I realize that people will use credit cards to buy products. However, as an ethical business owner, I just can’t bring myself to offer my customers a way to get into debt out of convenience. That’s all there is to it. My customers are valuable to me, and I’m going to look after y’all every way I can, not just with awesome soaps and body products.
I am curious, though. Would you be more willing to buy a product (any product) with a line of credit, or would you rather pay for it out-right?
Related articles
