Asus A730 $100

[cjasus730]

[PROPortable]

[cjasus730]

[cjasus730]

[PROPortable]

[David Horn]

[dan.p]

[PROPortable]

[David Horn]

Can't you just refuse to ship to anywhere that doesn't exactly match the credit card billing address? Or do what other companies do and ask for a fax of the credit card bill or a utility bill with the card holder's name and address on it.

[PROPortable]

Well, we use the best payment processor in VeriSign and maybe 10% of international banks use the same system we do in the states for verification. This means we'd have to call the banks who hold the credit cards for every order... figure that to be very difficult when they speak a language that you don't and obviously the cost of international calls.

But the bottom line is, international payments are very tricky. Every bank and every currency is going to have a different exchange rate and different costs for the transaction.... thats not the easiest thing to have our site do automatically. But in the end, the biggest problem is someone claiming they didn't get the merchandise or that they say they never ordered anything. The credit card companies deal only with merchant in their country. So it's their word against nothing...... They don't want to see proof like US credit cards would. People think it's unsafe to use credit cards internationally... but it's really more unsafe to accept them.

..... Now, in another case.... if someone from the UK or someplace were to walk into a store in the US and use their card, it's much much different. They presented an actual card, showed proof of id, and signed for the merchandise.....

It's really tricky... especially when you deal with the cost of items like what we sell. Profit on computer hardware is minimal as anyone would know, so it's not like shoes that we're exporting. One loss is someone's salary for couple weeks........ When you look at it like that, I don't think anyone could do anything but be understanding.

Justin
PROPortable

[David Horn]

I'm surprised the level of card fraud in the US isn't higher. When I was in New York, all the retailers had little touchscreens where you signed. The trouble was, they were so worn that you only got half a signature, so they couldn't even see if the signature matched.

In the UK we've just rolled out chip and PIN, which will hopefully cut fraud. They don't, however, seem to identified the fact that everyone standing behind you at the checkout also knows your PIN number once they've seen you enter it.

It is useful, though - I can do the shopping for my Grandad just by taking his credit card and tapping his PIN number in. No longer any worries about trying to duplicate his signature...

[PROPortable]

Well, there you go... that will be the new fraud... a pin number isn't all that hard to obtain, considering the majority of fraud in the US is committed by people who know the person who stole from them..

However, with the pin number option Visa is offering as "verified by visa", if someone enters the pin, the can tell you to ship it half way around the world to whoever they want..... so with that the merchant can feel safe.

I know what you mean about the screens where you sign... if they aren't broken, they have new screens which they don't even use (staples is often like that.. they only use their machines so you can slide your card....

Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of fraud in the US, and we encounter it on a daily basis. The only difference is, the software we use on our server that does the checks with the banks will decline the order unless every bit of that information it asks for is verified. Every once in a while someone gets pissed off that is trying to place a legimate order and they get declined. This has only happened a handful of times in the last year though. Every single time, their credit card didn't have their street address listed exactly how the customer thought. In the past (or from stores that don't use this technology yet), often those addresses would just pass right through... However with all of the tricky little ways people are getting away with fraud and how close to home it often is..... 8 main street and 9 main street won't pass with us.

I can give you a quick little story without naming names or anything.... We had a customer who placed an order for a laptop, then day later placed another. We called just to make sure they didn't think the first order didn't go through. The woman didn't know anything about the whole thing. We gave her the card number and she said.. "oh, thats the card that I lost somewhere in my car, I haven't seen that in months". Anyway, the shipping address a couple houses down. Turns out, her 5th grade son's, friend, who bummed a ride to school in the mornings, took her card, ordered the laptops and no one would have been the wiser. Needless to say, at the very least, that kid needs a new ride to school :)

Justin
PROPortable

[Kzinti]

[David Horn]

[PROPortable]