Renting PAR meter, could use ideas from the community

[cvrle1]

Hello everyone, I have Seneye reef that is PAR meter as well that i was thinking about renting out to local reefing community. I wanted to get some feedback and ideas from everyone, if this is something that there would be interest in, and how to go about deposit and such.

I was thinking about using paypal for deposits, however that may not work as well any more. As of last month PP decided that they will not refund full fee for cancelled/returned items. On a $200 deposit, that would be $6.

I was also thinking about having some sort of contract, just to protect both renter and myself, but again not sure if that would be an over kill.

So as I said, I would love to hear back 1st off if there would be any interest in this sort of a thing, and if there is, how to set it all up to make it fair and as painless as possible.

Thanks

[bauder1986]

I was at my LFS the other week and we were just talking about this. An idea just came to me. Due to the lower demand for par meters a person could just stick to showing up with the par meter and do the par readings for interested parties. It's a quicker process. And instead of rental fee make it a service fee. You don't loan it out. And you do the readings. And if it gets wrecked its you that breaks it. No deposits necessary.

[titus]

Hello

Probably not everyone knows how to use one or to make informed decisions on the results. So offer this as a service with a personal visit?

Titus

[cvrle1]

Thanks for the input both. Thats actually not a bad idea as well. Clearly never thought about it. Only potential issue is that if folks want to play around with lights, change them around, put higher/lower and so on, cant really do that. Having PAR meter for a week would allow you to fine tune as much as you want until you get it dialed in.

But I do like that idea as well. Something to think about for sure.

[Reyphox]

I'd do it as a service. Ask for X money or maybe trade for a frag if they have something you like. You'll meet people and make friends. Con is it will take up you time so if you don't have much of then then you could go rental. Renting anything can be a headache. Might have difficulty asking for $200 as well as a deposit. Not that it's not worth that but you are a guy on some forum and they don't really know you.

[cvrle1]

I'd do it as a service. Ask for X money or maybe trade for a frag if they have something you like. You'll meet people and make friends. Con is it will take up you time so if you don't have much of then then you could go rental. Renting anything can be a headache. Might have difficulty asking for $200 as well as a deposit. Not that it's not worth that but you are a guy on some forum and they don't really know you.

Yeah, that is the conundrum with deposit. I would be a random person offering par meter for rental, but person renting is random person I dont know as well. Thats why I wanted to run this by everyone and get some feedback and ideas. I was also thinking trading for frags and such when time comes, as that would be much more helpful than few $. I guess happy medium for all could be doing it as a service instead of a week or whatever amount of days rental like BRS does.

[titus]

Hello

Only potential issue is that if folks want to play around with lights, change them around, put higher/lower and so on, cant really do that. Having PAR meter for a week would allow you to fine tune as much as you want until you get it dialed in.

But I do like that idea as well. Something to think about for sure.
I guess after the first visit and training on how to use it you can leave it with them after having collected a deposit. Being able to pay a $200 deposit and maybe say a $20 fee to use a meter for a week and get that $200 deposit back is good value from the customer's perspective.

Titus