South Sound Barter Alliance

General Policies, Procedures, And Conditions
  1. SSBA Guidelines for Full and Partial Trade
    1. Definitions of Services and Tangible Items
      1. Services are defined intangible items, such as:
        1. Professional fees (e.g., legal cousel, computer support and repair, bookkeeping, web design)
        2. Physical labor (e.g., handyman services, carpet cleaning, car detailing, painting)
        3. Advertising (e.g., web, print, television, radio)
        4. Electronic services (e.g., web hosting, online data storage, backup services)
      2. Tangible Items are defined as items that can:
        1. Physically be touched or sold in a container
        2. Have a physical counterpart (e.g., computer software, copyrighted computer images, mailing lists)

    2. All Services must be offered at 100% trade.  Partial trade may be accepted only if the barter portion of the transaction exceeds $2,000.  All partial trade of services must be approved by the SSBA staff.

    3. Tangible items related to service (e.g., paint for a painter or lumber for a carpenter) may be paid for either fully in cash or part cash/part trade, at the discretion of the seller.  These items to do not need to be approved by the SSBA on a per transaction basis, but the member must clearly list in their member description on the SSBA website what items must be paid for in cash.

    4. Sales Tax and Shipping may always be collected in cash.  Shipping costs must be based on their "fair market value," as per the SSBA Fair Pricing Practices (below).

    5. Tangible Items may be offered at partial trade.  Sellers who offer partial trade items will:
      1. Clearly list in their SSBA website member description that they offer tangible items at partial trade;
      2. Clearly list in the title and description of the item that it is offered at partial trade, and the actual amount of cash and trade both the title and description of all shopping mall ads.
      3. Any items offered at more than 50% cash/50% trade must be approved by the SSBA staff.
      4. The cash portion of cash/trade transactions must be entered as part of the transaction (i.e., transaction fees are paid on both the cash and trade components of the transaction).
      5. All SSBA members will be informed that partial trade items will not be seen by many exchanges on the Trade Banc network.  SSBA members will be instructed on the value of offering items at 100% trade (even tangible items) from both a trade and marketing value.

  2. SSBA Guidelines on Fair Pricing Practices
    1. All items (Service or Tangible) listed in the online shopping mall or offered directly to customers within the SSBA must be sold at a fair market value.  Fair market value is defined as:
      1. A current retail price (or retail price of a current comparable item or model) or;
      2. The same price for which the item would be offered if it were sold as 100% cash.

    2. If a retail price or suggested price is available, an item listed in the shopping mall must have both its suggested retail price and actual sale price clearly listed.  It is acceptable for both the suggested retail price and actual sale price to be the same amount.

    3. It is the responsibility of SSBA members to report inflated prices to the SSBA staff, in writing by letter or email.

    4. Disciplinary Measures
      1. First-Time Offense.  The first time an SSBA member offers an item at an inflated price, the SSBA will:
        1. Issue a warning to the member;
        2. Ask the member to immediately either correct the item to a fair price or remove from the shopping mall;
        3. Ask the member to refund the difference between the sale price and the fair market price to the buyer if the item has already been purchased by the buyer
      2. Repeat Offenses.  SSBA members who offer items at inflated prices after their first offense will be subject to immediate termination of their SSBA membership.  This will include forfeiture of all available funds in their SSBA barter account, and immediate collection of any negative balance in their SSBA barter account in cash, plus any outstanding cash transaction and monthly accounting fees.

  3. Hotel reservations must be requested using the hotel accommodation form on the SSBA website.  Phone requests will not be accepted. There is no additional charge for this service if the form is submitted 10 days prior to check-in date for local and 14 days for out of town reservations. Reservations are non-cancellable once confirmed.  Please note that interexchange accommodation request may require a booking fee from the seller's barter exchange -- these fees are not assessed by the SSBA, and therefore are the responsibility of the buyer.

  4. Accounts more than 90 days in arrears on fees due will be terminated and all barter dollars in the account will become the property of the SSBA to satisfy cash fees due.

  5. Accounts with fees due more than 45 days will incur a past due fee of $15.00 cash and all purchases will be suspended until fees are current.

  6. Statements are sent out the first day of each month for the previous months activity.  Balance due is collected automatically from your credit for debit card no sooner than one week from issuance of the statement.

  7. A list of current available client services is available on our website at http:/www.ssbarter.com.

  8. Scrip Policies. Any scrip requested by a client will be delivered by email as an attached PDF file.  Scrip that has to be mailed by the SSBA will be mailed 1st class mail with a $1 charge applied to your cash due account. The client is responsible for the scrip once it is mailed. If the member requests mailing by another means, Fedex, Airborne, or any other overnight service the customer must supply their account number for billing purposes. If you request shipping by priority mail or certified mail the cost in cash will be billed to your cash due account.  Scrip certificates have a 6 month expiration date from the day of purchase.

  9. Any account with a negative barter balance will be charged a finance charge equal to 1% of that balance each month, in barter.

  10. Disputes between members will be settled by the SSBA only if members involved agree in writing to the decision of the SSBA being binding on all parties involved.

  11. All information contained on the SSBA website is intended for member use only. Giving access to this information (i.e., giving out your login information) to any third party will subject your account to being immediately terminated.

If you have any questions or need clarifications about these policies, please contact the SSBA office at (360) 539-1842 or info@ssbarter.com.