aruba
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Cyberspace Communications finances for October 2003
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Nov 3 00:43 UTC 2003 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through October 31st, 2003.
Beginning Balance $3,804.31
Credits $645.00 Member contributions
$32.00 Miscellaneous donations
$12.64 Payment for Paypal fee (see below)
$10.00 Donations to the Silly Hat Fund
$5.12 Proceeds from the 7th Grex auction
$1.57 Interest on our savings account
$1.00 Bank Error (see below)
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$707.33
Debits $80.41 Pumpkin Rent for November
$45.97 Electricity for October
$158.15 Phone Bill
$135.00 DSL September 15 through October 15
$5.42 Paypal fees (income = $150)
$12.64 Paypal fee for chargeback (see below)
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$437.59
Ending Balance $4,074.05
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$3,827.51 General Fund
$163.99 Silly Hat Fund
$60.00 Spare Parts Fund
$22.55 Infrastructure Fund
The money is distributed like this:
$706.90 Checking account
$3,367.15 Savings account earning 0.65% interest annually
We had five new members (barnacle, hjlawre, lkogan, jp2, and slynne)
and one returning member (vlt) in October. We are currently at 83
members, 82 of whom are paid through at least November 15th. (The
other expired recently and is in a grace period.)
Notes:
- It was a good month for Grex!
- We switched from Centrex back to regular POTS lines on October 22nd.
We also dropped the staff line and two public dialin lines, so we now
have 4 lines total, and they're all open to the public. There will be
a correction to the phone bill next month, and thereafter we should
pay about $90.83 per month.
- The deposit I made on 9/30 was for $178.24, according to all my
records and the receipt I was handed at the time. However, the bank
statement we received a few days later said it was for $179.24. So
either I made an error recording someone's check (possible, but that
would mean someone overpaid for something by a dollar), or the bank
made an error somewhere. If anyone notices on their statement that
they were docked an extra dollar, I will be motivated to try to get
a correction; otherwise, I plan to let it be.
- On September 21 we received a Paypal payment of $60 (minus $2.64
fee) from someone who didn't give a Grex login, and whose return
address was bogus. Steve Weiss and I guessed that the login was
"brasil", and I sent mail requesting ID, but never heard back.
On October 11th we received notification from Paypal that the
transaction had been reversed, because the account used to send it had
"reports of fraudulent credit card use". The message went on to say
that "PayPal indemnifies sellers from chargeback liability" if a long
list of conditions are met. We don't meet a number of the conditions
(we didn't ship to the buyer's confirmed address, we can't provide
proof of shipment, etc.). I thought the message was saying that we
could keep the $60 if we had been screwed out of something we had
shipped, so I figured it didn't really apply to us.
The last condition for being indemnified was that I had to click on a
particular address and enter some information. I should have clicked
anyway, but I didn't, because I didn't think I had any information to
provide.
On October 30th we received another mail saying that because I didn't
respond within 3 days, and couldn't provide tracking information, we
were being charged both a $10 fee and the original $2.64 fee that came
with the transaction.
I feel badly about not responding in time, but the more I think about
it the more I think it might not have made any difference. The policy
is written with E-Bay sellers in mind, and since we didn't ship
anything, we really had nothing to offer them to help resolve the
problem. So, we'll have to worry about this happening more in the
future.
A generous anonymous donor gave $12.64 to Grex to cover the fees we
incurred.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in October:
aruba, asmith3, barnacle, dvm, gelinas, gull, hjlawre, jdeigert, jp2,
keesan, micklpkl, mnac, siamiam, slynne, vlt, witling, and one person
who asked to remain anonymous.
If you or your institution would like to become a member of Grex, it
only costs $6/month or $60/year. Send money to:
Cyberspace Communications
P. O. Box 4432
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-4432
If you pay by cash or money order, please include a photocopy of some
form of ID. I can't add you to the rolls without ID. (If you pay
with a personal check that has your name pre-printed on it, we
consider that a good enough ID.) Type !support or see
http://www.cyberspace.org/member.html for more info.
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