As we approach renewal time for the final quarter of the 2012 regular season, we’ve been working on some fine tuning of our on-line sign-up system. The changes should give you more flexibility, while making our lives easier as well.In general, we’re changing the way we think of CSA sign-ups. Instead of signing up for a “session”, you’ll simply sign up to receive CSA boxes and then will choose the frequency of payment. You’ll have more flexibility to put your subscription on hold while you’re on vacation and it won’t be necessary to stay within a 9-week session schedule. You can choose every week or every other week delivery. We have also set up the system to accept automatic payments, so that we can automatically charge your account in 4-week or 9-week increments without having to bother you for renewals. (Many of you have asked about monthly payment to spread out the cost over the season, so this is a way that we can accommodate those requests.)
Here are some of the nitty gritty details:
- When you sign up and pay, you will have a credit balance with the farm. When your balance falls below the price of one share, you will be automatically charged (if you have set yourself up for automatic payments) for the same number of weeks again. For instance, if you set up automatic payment and pay $198 for vegetables only, after you have received nine weeks of vegetables you’ll be charged another $198 for the next 9 weeks. You can cancel future payments at any time and will be notified in advance of each automatic payment. If you choose a one-time payment, you will get reminder notices when your balance gets low that it is time to make another payment.
- We have a flourishing donation program, where we can donate your share to our local soup kitchen Loaves and Fishes anytime you know in advance that you won’t be able to pick up your share. We will continue this program. *Exciting New Feature* — However, we will also give you the option to put your subscription on hold during weeks that you are unable to pick up. Your balance remains the same during these weeks, effectively extending your subscription. This way you don’t need to pay for weeks that you cannot pick up. You can set up to 3 vacation hold periods in advance (this option will be up and running September 19th) . We (and Loaves and Fishes) still very much appreciate donations, which can be arranged as always by a quick e-mail or call to Sarah the week before.
- We will be doing Winter Deliveries this year again! Since the Winter season is limited to every other week delivery to a more limited number of pick-up sites, CSA sign-ups will be separated into Regular Season and Winter Season. *Confusing Detail* — If you have credit left on your account at the end of the Regular Season (November 14/15, 2012) it will be applied to the next delivery of the Regular Season (March 20/21, 2013). You’ll sign up for the Winter Season separately. (We’ll add the Winter option to the sign-up screen once we’ve got the details worked out for the winter pick-up sites.)
- If you prefer paying by check, you may continue to do so. You will receive reminders when your balance gets low.
- This system fixes the “store hours” problem that would not allow subscribers to make payments from noon the day before your pick-up day until the day after your pick-up day. You can now get in at any time to make payments.
- We ask that if you choose the 4 week option, you set up automatic payment. (This saves us from having to chase you down every 4 weeks for renewal payments). Automatic payment is optional for the 9-week or 36-week terms.
- We have added the option for you to choose every other week deliveries. (We hope most of you will stay on an every week schedule, but we understand that for small families every other week pick-ups sometimes work better.) Note that in order to even out our delivery numbers from week to week, there are 2 bi-weekly schedules, biweekly A and biweekly B. When you choose one of these schedules, look at the summary box to the right—it will show you when your first delivery is on that schedule. If you want the other schedule, delete the item by clicking the x to the right of the item info and add the item again with the other schedule.
- With this system you may get produce boxes every week and flowers every other week if you wish.
What you should do now:
- If you have been paying quarterly, please sign in, add your share and pay for the final quarter by making a one-time payment for 9 weeks.
- Or, if you choose the automatic payments every 4 weeks now, you will be charged 3 times this year and will have 3 weeks of credit for the spring session. The automatic payments will continue next year after those first three weeks of credit are used up. You can use the 9-week payment option now and switch to the monthly payment plan next spring if you want.
- You may choose to pay for 36 deliveries, but note that this will take you through the end of next summer (not including the Winter Season; remember Winter is separate).
- *Confusing Detail* — We wanted to set this up now, so that we didn’t have to deal with the “store hours” issue for this last renewal of 2012. And, in general, we want to encourage you to use the automatic payment feature. However, if you set up automatic payment for 9 weeks now, please be aware that you will be automatically charged for the next 9 weeks when your balance goes to zero at the end of the season (November 14/15). You will then have that credit balance for the first 9 weeks of the 2013 Regular season (starting March 20/21). It is great for us to receive payment in advance for next season, so we don’t mind if you do this. But if you don’t want to pay that far in advance, choose a one-time payment now. You can always switch to automatic payment the next time you make a payment.
The final 9-week session of 2012 starts September 19/20. If you’ve been paying quarterly, please help us out by signing up early, as we anticipate that some of you may have questions about the changes. Thank you as always for your support of our farm!
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