posted on February 1, 2002 07:38:19 PM new
we all know paypal has flaws, propay, bidpay... so on and so forth. Having dealt in retail for a number of years I have a solution that most people wont like. sign up for merchant accounts to accept charge cards. you get to decide verification process
you live with visa and master cards rules and you pay the merchant fees that all retailers pay. why not try it? be the lord of your castles...... if you dont like the heat in the other kitchens, build your own. it is a pain in the butt is why we don't. so maybe the system sucks but so does the alternative.
posted on February 1, 2002 10:44:10 PM new
signs up for a merchant account??
-if you just sell in cyberspace from your home,say you sell on ebay,you will have many buyers,how many want to let you have their cc data??
how do they know if you dont sell their cc data to some scam artists??
how do they know if you someday do not use their cc data to do something fraudulent?
i am sure you are an honest person,but do they think so?no one knows for sure who is honest and who is not,especially in cyberspace,especially a fleamarket seller.
how do they know if you do not safeguard your records,someone may steal the cc data from you.
-when you decide to process sales thru your own merchant account,you need to make sure the verification process is complete.
what is complete,mr visa and ms master charge??
authorisation code is A,which means the card has enough credit to cover this transaction.
approval code =123456,big deal ,it means the card is not stolen or inactive.
AVS address verification means it checks the numeric portion of the buyer street address,so cardholder lives on 123 pine street and the buyer said it is 123 willow st,it will get a clean bill of health .
it also check for the first 5 digit of zip code.well there are a lot of addresses in one zip code.
Now they are askng a new 3 digit code on the back of the card,not every card has a code like that to show that the buyer actually have this card in possession.
someday this new code will be just like the other three codes above,sold to some scam artists.
so you have an order in your hand,someone enters all that cc data and all these return codes check out okay,well dont start packing the merchandise yet,
-take a look at the ship to addr,is he asking you to ship to a different address than bill to?
if so,you could lose in a chargback if the cardholder told his cc issuer-i never authorise the transaction and i never receive any good.
go back to take a second look at bill to,gee,bill to name is john doe,but is this really the name of the cardholder??
how can i find out?do a reverse lookup with his telehone number ,and see who is the owner and where do they live?
still you dont really know for sure what is the name of the cardholder and where does this cardholder live?
the telephone look up tells you your buyer lives somewhere and this is theirphone number
all we know for sure is the cardholder bill to numeric protion of the street number and zip code check out okay.
okay,lets call the bank which provides you with a merchant account,they will tell you which bank issues the card and their phone number.
you call this bank,say it is wells fargo bank and introduce yourself as a merchant and would like to know more of this cardholder.
may be you will be placed on hold,may be you will have a set of menu or maybe you get to tak to someone,now thse numbers are not toll free,you pay long distance .
finally you reached someone who would tell you if the buyer name agrees with cardholder name.
okay ,so you shipped the item and crossed your fingers as you know darn well,if there is a chargeback,you do not have (1) signed order of receipt because it is done in cyberspace,(2) you may not have a signed itemised receipt on delivery if you ship usps with out forking an extra 1.75 for signature.
(3) if you shipped to a different addr ,then signed delivery means nothing.
(4) you have only a few days to respond to a chargeback and you better have all the paperwrok ready.
(5) if you lose the chargeback,the fee is 1--30 dollars,which could wipe out your profit for that transaction.
i think the only way to fight back as sellers is to ask for check or money order.
posted on February 3, 2002 12:52:25 AM new
1 In most current online payment processing the seller never sees any of the CC info
2 The better processing services tell you how much of the information matches the various security processes you mentioned below based on the resulting code.
3 Going thru all the further processes you recommend is more a waste of time than anything.
Your statement of accepting only checks or Money orders while true in turn only stagnates your business growth.
And even after the fact these 2 methods can be fraudulent as well.
While yes you may be subject to chargebacks not everyone is out to screw you.
The problem with PAYPAL is that things just seem to happen at random & instead of a call or email explaining the situation you get account restrictions & lockdowns.
Once that happens all decisions about the account & information on those decisions all seemed to be kept in utmost secrecy until they feel like telling you.
PAYPAL can be better than any CC service out there. It is unfortunate that they chose more to alienate customers who have problems instead of help them.
Fraud is definitly a problem with online retailers from both buyers & sellers POV.
But a strong or good online reputation goes a long way in what a buyer thinks.
Alot of my buyers are repeat customers so after a few transactions with the same person I am not too worried I am going to be screwed over.
posted on February 3, 2002 07:46:02 AM new
if you process cc transaction thru a merchant account,you do see all the verification return codes and a brief explanation of the charge.
it is only if you use a service such as paypal,billpoint,yahoo direct ,aol direct or amzn one click that they do not pass on the results of verification.
paypal processes more transactions daily than the other services,may be amzn one click is the one who does just as much ,if not more.we dont hear much about fraud and amzn one click but it is a fact that amzn has blocked out certain countries,malaysia is one of them -it does not accept cc purchases from malaysia.
there is less of a risk with money order or cashier check,first there is no chargeback,of course the money order can bounce too,but it is rarer than chargeback.
as for promoting sales,nothing beats credit card acceptance,but a dealer has to weigh the risk,not only is chargeback expensive,the time it takes to go beyond the results of verification is very time consuming.
the merchant account provider is no better than you are to decipher any of that data,they often pass on outdated material to you,also outdated telephone numbers .
if you deal in large ticket items say over 1000,cashier check,money order or wiretransfer is preferred over credit cards.
