Agent charging $3 Extra Charge
tonkery@MINDSPRING.COM 23 Oct 2015 15:06 UTC
Subscription agents have for many years charged a fee to cover the cost of processing publisher orders where there is no discount to the agent. I started this trend when I was running Faxon many years ago and other agents followed. The original extra charge was $5 per title but over the years it has increased to $15.
When I was running Readmore, another subscription agent, we took the additional step and placed a star on each line item that carried an extra fee.
Full disclosure is important.
When you consider that nearly 40% of the publishers do not supply a discount it seems to me that this fee is appropriate. Having said that it is important that this information be communicated to your clients. The amount of the Non discount fee should be fully disclosed prior to the subscription year. The agent should include the charge with the annual invoice. There should never be a time when a library receives the extra charge after the original invoice was charged. If you are receiving an extra charged after your renewal invoice then I would contact my agent and ask for a credit. If for some reason the agent's programming was not in place prior to invoicing the library, then I say your problem not the libraries.
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