Question: How does your pricing work?

Answer: There are two kinds of fees involved in the usage of our software -- a "per-skater" fee, which we charge to you, and a "convenience fee" which you can charge to your skaters:

• Per-skater Fee

  The only fee EntryEeze charges for the use of our software is $1.50 per skater.  This per-skater fee is charged to you (the LOC) and applies only when an entry is processed for a new skater entry.  We believe this pricing mechanism is the most fair for our clients, as it allows your total cost to be determined by the number of skaters in your competition.

• Convenience Fee

  When we charge a skater on your behalf, we can include an optional additional line-item called a "convenience fee". This is designed to allow you recover the costs of administering and maintaining your credit card processing account. You may choose not to impose a convenience fee -- in that case, the costs associated with processing credit cards will of course be deducted from each skater's payment when it is completed.
  
  Our software supports several third-party payment credit card processors, each with very reasonable rates.  We recommend Stripe.com, which is VERY easy to sign up for and maintain (5-10 minutes is all you need).  Once ready, it can be used for all your future competitions, and also for our membership site.
  
  Please contact us with any questions you may have.  We will assist you with this process, which we believe is a significant improvement over our prior "escrow" process, especially for the fact that you receive your money directly without having to wait for it to clear our escrow.  

We track all monetary activity for you, and provide screens for you to find payments, retrieve revenue summaries and spreadsheets, and issue refunds when needed.  We provide statements to better assist you in organizing your data, and these are viewable at any time.

We only charge you when a skater completes an entry with payment.  If a skater creates an account for your competition and puts several events into a shopping cart but never actually finalizes the entry, we charge you nothing.

If a skater re-enters his or her account and adds an event or practice-ice to an already existing entry, there is no additional per-skater fee.

There is also no per-skater fee charge when skaters purchase practice-ice sessions online with a credit-card.  And, you can make changes to a skater's entry at any time with no charge at all.

Question: There are no other charges?

Answer:  No -- your initial $125.00 deposit is refundable.  We use it only if it is needed to finalize your last statement (for example, in case we need to charge some per-skater fees based on paper-entry forms).

Configuration Service

We do offer an optional configuration service.  For an additional $50.00, we'll configure your competition for you, saving you the hassle of setting up everything yourself.  While our configuration screens are straightforward, we've found that many of our clients appreciate the option of having it done for them.

Question: Are there any ways for us to reduce our total cost?

Answer: The best way for you to directly recover some of these costs is to sell web advertising. We suggest contacting any existing sponsors you have and offering them some advertising space on your front page for an additional fee. You can display 4-5 picture ads on one panel of the front page, or 12-15 text ads, or you can mix them. There are two panels, thus plenty of room to sell lots of ads. Web ads can be uploaded at any time -- we provide screens to make it quick and easy.

Question: Do our skaters pay any additional fees (other than their entry fees)?

Answer: Only if you wish to have our software add a convenience fee on your behalf (see top of this page).  Otherwise, skaters pay only the fees advertised in your announcement.

Question: When do we get our refundable $125.00 deposit back?

Answer: We finalize your account activity approximately 45 days after the actual date of your competition. If there are any last-minute paper entries, we'll deduct $1.50 for each one. If not, we'll send you the entire $125.00. Either way, we put a check in the mail during the next billing cycle (the first of the month). No matter what, you still pay only us $1.50 per skater.

Question: The system sounds complicated. What if I have trouble using it?

Answer: Our administrator screens (which you'll be using to monitor and manage your competition) employ some of the latest web technology to make your user experience as straightforward as possible. Nearly every page has context-sensitive help available at the click of a button. The system's navigation scheme is very natural and easy to follow, and each page carefully validates your input so you don't accidentally do something wrong.

If you reach a point where you're still unsure how to proceed, even after reading the online help, just call us toll-free and we'll be happy to assist.

Question: How long will our entry data be available after our competition is completed?

Answer: We'll keep your data in our database for at least 60 days after your competition is completed, in case you need access to the information. You'll be able to access various reports and spreadsheet downloads in order to archive your competition data.

We will always contact you before deleting your data.