nuc contracts

[wglord]

I am comtemplating selling nucs and and am curious if anyone has a bill-of-sale/contract they use when selling nucs? I want to sell the nuc 'as is' with no guarantee or follow-up support supplied. I indend to sell good quality nucs but want to make sure the buyer understands that I am not liable for its success or failure later on and I don't want to get in the free beekeeping advice business. While on the subject, does anyone supply a simple check list of what the buyer should do with the nuc? thanks

[AstroBee]

I don't want to get in the free beekeeping advice business.

Perhaps since you posted this in the commercial section, you don't plan on dealing with local hobbyist beekeepers, but if not, you may need to rethink that plan. I sell queens to a local community of beekeepers, and I will tell you that giving "free advice" is a big part of doing business. I would have a lot of wink-wink "failed" queens if I didn't take time to educate my customers on the proper care and treatment. I suspect that the same would be true in the nuc business.

[bluegrass]

Don't want to give free bee advise, but here wanting some?

I don't think there really is a release from liability.... if you want to sell bees you will have to accept that you are going to have to give advise. May be you should consider selling your nucs in bulk at wholesale to somebody selling retail.

[camero7]

One of the things that has helped my sales of nucs has been my willingness to be available by phone anytime. I have many repeat customers or customers who come to me via word of mouth because of this. Why would you not want your customers to be successful? Your repeat business will be well worth it.

[winevines]

I try to contain my sales to recent students or folks affiliated with beekeeping clubs, many of which have had or currently have some sort of mentor. I found it challenging to become the defacto mentor to all of the nuc customers although like others here have posted, I have spent time with them before, during and after sales. I stopped selling nucs to folks who have not participated in a class or some other form of education. There are 9 counties in our area that teach a beginning Bee School (at a minimum) so this is not an unrealistic expectation. But, that being said, the class does not always = educated beekeeper. At least in our particular County class we spend time educating folks what is a nuc and what to expect from a nuc as well as how to install a nuc which helps.
As for "contract" it is sort of a balancing act. We operate in good faith doing what we can to help folks out with problems while not promising replacement for "failure." which 9.5 times out of 10 is really beekeeper error. We sell a lot of overwintered nucs and the biggest issue is that they are very prone to swarming, but even with swarming, customers tell me that more of my nucs live through the winter compared to the packaged bees the same customer got.

[EastSideBuzz]

Don't want to give free bee advise, but here wanting some?

I don't think there really is a release from liability.... if you want to sell bees you will have to accept that you are going to have to give advise. May be you should consider selling your nucs in bulk at wholesale to somebody selling retail.

Sure hope you give good advice because so far the plan is a looser. I sell packages and queens and gear and have to go out to customers sites sometimes and help. It is all about your service and if you plan to give none you will only get the really newbies and no return customers.

Sometimes you will have to replace or discount a stupid customer 2nd purchase because they did not listen the first time. Nordstroms built that company on CS and you will have to do the same. They took back a set of tires once and they did not carry tires, they sell cloths. All about CS and that includes advice.

While on the subject, does anyone supply a simple check list of what the buyer should do with the nuc? thanks

1.) Place in sunny location.
2.) Feed Feed Feed
3.) Find a Nuc sales guy that is willing to give post sale advice.

[Beetrucker74]

I would say EastSideBuzz hit the nail on the head. I do try to limit the phone time and use email but there are times you need to talk to someone or go to their site to figure out the issue. The trick is to know what your limits are and only take on the orders you can handle but remember good people sometimes take on to much and are overwhelmed.

[Mbeck]

I just started selling a few and find it very time consuming.
I have people show up before dark and insist that they look at the Nucs they are purchasing. I ask them point blank if they are happy with the product. Sometimes people don't want to look at everyone or pull frames, I repeat that I want them to look and judge and be happy with what they choose to buy. I give them a basic overview get them to agree that I sold them a healthy product.
That said I still get calls and have chose to replace queens, offer advise, go look at hives, give brood etc. Stuff that goes above and not nessecarily my responsibility but easy enough for me in my position to do.

If I had to sell as is I would try to shoot for the following.
Sell only to people that I had a long standing developed good relationship with.
Sell an exceptional product at a price shy of market
Sell all my product to one contact ( I don't think you can hang up on someone you sell to,so that limits time spent)
Inspect with contact and possible delivery with re inspection upon delivery. Takes time but you can schedule it and gives you a chance to reinforce as is status.

Can you wholesale them?
Hire someone to sell them for you?
If you know someone that wants to deal with the hassle has extra queens and time maybe you could drop Nucs off at there place and forward calls to them. They maybe able to mark up enough being full service to make it worth it.

I've little experience so take it for what it's worth

[hpm08161947]

I understand why Wg wants a contract... he is a very busy guy. And I can speak from experience that selling nucs can be very time consuming on the "consumer support" - most buyers are new bees and assume that your mentorship is part of the sale. We sold nucs for a couple of years... 95 one year and 200 the next... in the evening it was a full time job to field the phone calls. A contract might help to diminish the onslaught of phone calls.

[Ian]

Sell them as a cash final sale. Guarantee them a certain range of brood,honey and with laying queen.
I have no contract, all you need is final sale on the bill.

But advice and phone calls or emails goes with the territory