Pricing an Online Request

[Jennifer Bell]

I've had a couple of emails with L-Mail (an online service for sending
regular mail) discussing sending requests with MICR checks. It is
possible, since their Canadian printing affilate already seems to have
the ability, but I don't have numbers for pricing yet -- it will be a
new service for L-Mail. This got me wondering, again, how much above
the $5 for the request itself might be an acceptable surcharge for the
convenience of filing a request online. If it costs too much for the
user end user, the system won't work.

Unfortunately, there is transaction friction:

- payment service transaction fees (paypal* - $0.30 + 2.9%, approx
$0.46)
- cost of MICR check printing / mailing. The cost will be higher
than the basic L-Mail cost of $1.30.

For a total cost (before MICR surcharge) of $6.76.

These compete with the costs for doing the request yourself:

- cost of request: $5.00
- cost of envelope: $0.06 - (per box of 500 at staples)
- cost of stamp: $0.52
- cost of check: $0.17 (approx. -- to verify)
- cost of printing form: $0.02
- hassle: $?
= $5.77 + ?

Does anyone have a feeling what a cap for a request fee would be?
Would $7 for a request be too expensive?

Another option is to use external money to subsidize the added
friction over a certain amount, so that it's, say, $6 regardless.
This is not that appealing.

Any ideas?

Jennifer

* https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_additional-payment-pricing-outside

[Tom Steinberg]

Hello there,

Just checking in from the UK to say it's really exciting to see that
you guys are really working on this. please let us know if there's
anything we can tell you of specific use.

best,

Tom Steinberg (mySociety)

> *https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_additional-payment-pric...

[Jennifer Bell]

Awesome. For those that don't know, Tom Steinberg is the founder of
mySociety, who have been doing path-breaking work on open source sites
for government-citizen interaction in the UK. For example:

www.whatdotheyknow.com
www.theyworkforyou.com
www.fixmystreet.com

Re: transaction fees, I was speaking yesterday with someone who files
500 Access to Information requests per year. His take on the
surcharges was that if the tool provided features that saved time,
such as, for instance, providing notifications when a deadline has
passed, that it would be worth the extra fees. His other point was
that a benifit of the tool for his organization would be that it would
allow the request to reach the government faster -- the way he files
requests, there's a delay of 3 or so days for his finance department
to write the cheque and send it out.

Strangely, I'd never thought of an email notification when a deadline
has passed, even though it's pretty obvious. Can anyone think of
other features that would help offset the pain of the transaction
fees?

Also, I've been talking to a lawyer in Ottawa who specializes in AtoI
requests, to make sure the flow of the process is OK.

Jennifer

[Scott Hennig]

$7 is not unreasonable, especially if explained to the user as done
above. It could also be labled "green" as a value add, as there would
be less paper. This would be especially true if we could get the
government body to respond electronically, particularly for
confirmations and extension notifications.

Scott

> *https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_additional-payment-pric...