Working on something interesting...
Okay...
You pre-
buy milliliters... minimum 60, maximum 1020 in 60ml increments.
The pricing is set so that there's an immediate discount. Not much, but it's there. You'll get 60ml at 0.41/ml, ranging up to 0.29/ml at the 960ml level. Normally, it's 0.415/ml at the 60ml level... 0.30/ml at the 960ml level.
You can use rewards points, and the purchase will earn rewards points.
Once that pre-
buy order hits (and I see it), I switch your account to "Pre-buyer".
Once you're a pre-buyer, your orders are "paid for" by making withdrawals from your pre-
buy. No size restrictions... the only thing that may NOT be obvious is that if you use one of the add-ons (high-speed or glass) the upcharge for those will be deducted from your Pre-Buy Balance. It depends on the level of your pre-buy as to how many mL will be deducted for the upcharges.
You'll be required to pay for postage, BUT you can use your Rewards Points to offset that.
Placing an order: No difference. You'll see the regular pricing and such, but fear not... during the checkout process you'll see that your order sub-total is offset by an order credit. The only balance due will be postage, and like I said you can use your Rewards Points to offset that.
This is all going to be a manual process on my end, but I don't think the impact is going to be very big. You WILL have to wait for a confirmation email that your Pre-Buy balance is set and ready before trying to use it, and you WILL have to email me to let me know if you want to add to your Pre-Buy. That's because I have to set you back to a "normal" customer for that transaction.
You can keep track of your Pre-Buy balance by sending an email to me, or by looking on your Shipping Notice emails... I'll add the information there.
Cons:
(1) Discount codes become meaningless if you're a Pre-Buyer. You're pre-buying a set number of milliliters and you withdraw milliliters. The milliliters you buy are basically set aside for your future use.
(2) Because of the way the Rewards Points system works, if you use RP to offset postage, the "Earned" points will be based on the order subtotal less the points used for postage. Let's say you redeem 30ml... the system will say that it costs $14.40, and automatically issue a credit for $14.40. If you want it shipped Priority, and used 515 points to pay for that, the system will apply that 515 against the $14.40. You'll only earn 93 points for that order instead of 1440. That can be a bit confusing... reread this paragraph a few times until you get it.
Pros:
(1) You will earn Rewards Points for the initial Pre-Buy at the normal rate.
(2) You will earn Rewards Points for each subsequent Pre-Bought order at the normal rate UNLESS you use Points to offset Shipping (see Con #2) If you don't use RPs for shipping, you'll effectively earn double Rewards Points.
(3) Rewards Points CAN be used to "refill" your Pre-Buy balance.
Okay... that was a bit wordy, but I wanted to get all my thinking out.
Now accepting comments/questions/complaints