Credit card authorizations.

Re: Credit card authorizations.

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Matt Simerson wrote:

>Since you aren't responding to my YoYo questions, I'll pursue another
>angle. ;-)

It's not that I was ignoring you, I just haven't had a chance to look
into it at all yet... :-)

>I'm sittin here looking at a credit card chargeback request from a user
>who has and is (until today) been using our service. I just terminated his
>account because of the chargeback request but my dilema is this:
>
>The credit card company, like most, is requesting a "clear and legible
>copy of the Visa or Mastercard sales slip(s)." I really don't have
>anything to give them that will satisfy their requirements.

What are you using for credit card authorizations? Something like that
should be generated by MacAuthorize, PC Authorize, etc.

>We used to snail mail a copy of our AUP which included a statement
>permitting us to charge their card for any time the customer used our
>service. We have not been dilligent in keeping track of which customers
>have or have not signed this agreement.
>
>If I had something like this, I could present this, along with a usage
>printout from my RADIUS logs to demonstrate to the credit card company
>that the charges are valid. As it stands, in this case I don't have a
>signed agreement so I'm kind of SOL with the chargeback.
>
>The customer owes us money which we'll collect via other means but
>chargebacks don't look good on your merchant account. I'd really like to
>avoid them when possible. I'm not sure exactly how to fix the problem but
>I think the following is a good outline of what needs to exist. If you
>have a better idea, I'm open to suggestions.
>
> 1. On option for the signup server that would force people to read
> through the AUP and click "I agree/accept".

Well, really it could already happen... Make it a static webpage that the
continue button takes them to the start of the online signup... {shrug}
Seems like the easiest way to me...

> 2. A checkbox or simple method of denoting if a user has a signed
> agreement specifically authorizing us to charge their credit card.
> Clicking "I agree" in the sign-up server will constitute an
> agreement but there has to be a denotation that the user set
> themselves up as well as logging the html headers, timestamp, etc.

Well, if the agreement was done as I mentioned above, EVERYONE signing up
via the web would be FORCED to click Continue (and accept it). The HTML
headers (IP address, etc.) are already recorded when they use the
signup... So that's already there.

> 3. A selectable preference to also print out an additional letter(s)
> when you sign up a new customer. We also send out a welcome letter to
> all new clients informing them of the additional services we offer.
> It would be nice to have Optigold do this automatically.

I've thought about it, but decided against it just because of the
problems it causes... If there is a problem with the printer or whatever,
it can hang the web interface until the problem dialog is okayed by
someone at the web server.

> 4. Yet another preference to print a credit card authorization
> agreement for credit card paying accounts when a new account is set
> up. This would let us print a service agreement/authorization
> statement with their credit card information and all the customer
> needs to do is sign and return it.

Just add it to the CDML code that comes with Optigold ISP and it can
happen...

> 5. Have Optigold check the "Have cc agreement on file" designator when
> processing credit cards and flag credit cards transactions that don't
> have an agreement on file.

Mmmmm... probably not. I can just imagine 1,000 people asking me why
they have to go back and fill in the credit card authorization agreement
for their 10,000 existing customers.

What *I* would do personally is just set their Billing Use to "None'
until their agreement has been completed and returned. Then I would
include in my past due letter something along the line of... "If you
haven't returned your credit card agreement, your credit card will not be
charged and this may be why we are about to turn off your damn service!!".

hehehe... If you really want to force people to get them back to you,
that would probably be the way to do it.

Either way, it's going to be a hassle, because some customers no matter
what you do will never return it. {shrug}

- Shawn

-------------------------------
Shawn D. Hogan
President, Data Point Solutions
http://www.data-point.com
(619) 452-3696
ICQ: 8319647

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