As announced, a meeting was held on October 2 to discuss what constitutes a legitimate business, what you should look out for yourself, and how to recognize unscrupulous offers. I’m writing down here what I believe is most important for founders, and I look forward to your feedback:
Working professionally: In my experience, our founders have a keen sense of how to conduct themselves professionally: Trust is essential. So they make offers that take customers’ concerns seriously and address them. A professional website, an email address that uses the same domain whenever possible (i.e., ideally not ending in .te-online.de or gmx.de), and good accessibility are a must. The latter can be easily resolved in cooperation with the TFU.
It’s only when it comes to pricing that our opinions sometimes differ. We’ll discuss this further later, but for now, just this much: a reputable offer does NOT necessarily mean a particularly low price! As much as a customer might seem pleased at first glance, a certain degree of suspicion remains if the price is actually too low. So: Take the plunge and charge a fair price. While you can (in part) pass on the benefits of lower procurement costs or more efficient structures, remember that you hopefully won’t have these structures forever.
By the way, renegotiating prices after the order has already been placed is only possible in very rare cases—and may cost you a lot of trust. Therefore: Think carefully, and in situations that are still manageable, it’s better to keep your word than to earn a few more euros.
Of course, it is standard business practice to notify customers in a timely manner if any changes to the terms and conditions (as specified in the contract) are necessary.
