This is our latest (and we hope final) effort to provide a free (no listing/selling fees) space for DG members to organize group purchases. Five rules to keep things as simple and straight-forward as possible.
1. Organizers must meet these guidelines:
* Subscribing members with at least 6 months of active membership
* Non-vendors only
If you want to launch a thread and organize a purchase, use this link:
http://davesgarden.com/helpdesk/buyinbulk/
to reach Melody and me and let us know you'd like to start a new thread as an organizer.
We are here to enforce only the criteria set out here, but we do reserve the right to say yea or nay to any request. We may put restrictions on newer applicants to keep their first attempt short & simple to increase their odds of success.
2. Generally, organizers will set their own terms and conditions (for example, local pick-up only, number of items, maximum number of participants, deadlines for payments, etc.)
3. It should go without saying, but let's keep it legal - obey all federal, and state rules and applicable ag laws when choosing what to offer as a group purchase.
4. Any member or subscriber can join in, but do read the organizer's guidelines before you jump in. If it's a local pick-up and you live five states away, you're out of luck. No hard feelings - find a group of DG members near you and organize your own group buy.
5. Buyer beware. DG is not - in any way, shape, or form - responsible for how well (or badly) a group purchase is handled. Keep things civil, give the benefit of the doubt whenever possible, remember that plants are living things, and they may or may not arrive in the best of shape or survive in your garden. There are no money-back guarantees, so if you're not sure about an organizer's capabilities, a vendor's quality, or your ability to care for a plant, don't participate.
Oh, and one last thing - ALL group buys must go in this forum and follow these rules. If you see one being organized elsewhere, let us know (same contact link as above) and we'll work with the participants to bring it into compliance. And yes, you can announce your group buy in another forum (limit it to one or two max) and let us know if you want us to lock out replies to those announcement threads - you don't want to find yourself with two active purchase threads going at once.
