Forum Moderators: buckworks
Do you ever "pretend" to be them, and place an order from your site using their information?
Is this even legal?
They may detect your IP address as the same one that logs on to check out your admin panel, so be careful with this kinda thing.
I don't really see any legal issues with this, assuming the customer wants you to do this on their behalf. If you had an special admin interface to enter a customer's details and order information, it's not really any different from using your regular, public site to accomplish the same task.
When someone calls in to make an order via telephone we use the same front end as they would and fill in the same forms.
Full-serve or self-serve gas, you still get it out of a hose.
They do it or we do it - it is the same thing.
Why create a checkout cart system in your admin area when you already have one that works in the front? Just twice as many things to breakdown/maintain.
built a whole back-end system because we were worried about what we would do if our internet connection was down - well that was the old days - today's answer is simple, just use your web interface!
CYA :)
What they are talking about in this thread is nowhere near factoring. It's just using your own external web interface to place a phone order for a customer instead of using a back-end order entry system. I can't see anything wrong with that at all.
But as blaze suggests, is it against the TOS? I couldn't find anything in our processor's TOS when we started processing all orders through our website. Anyone know of something in any of the larger processors terms that forbids doing what akmac mentions?
It depends on your acquiring bank if they are really going to do something about it. I guess most of them do know that this happens occassionally and take it for granted.
The problem is: If Visa/MasterCard finds out, both the merchant and acquiring bank can and, probably, will be fined or even loose their merchant facilities.
(That's what we call a MONOPOLY, although there are two parties involved that RULE the whole industry.
But I don't think that anyone has the time and money available to fight against that...
Maybe we can start a new topic about that subject?)
That's what we call a MONOPOLY, although there are two parties involved
Erm, that'll be a 'duopoly' then.
Sorry.
Pedant mode off. I'll go and sit in the corner now.
best, a.
I sometimes get people phone up who aren't happy to put "their creditcard details across the Internet". But then I go and type it in the same form they would have anyway...
Also, in the UK at least, credit cards often have passwords on them now for Internet use, which is a bit of a problem when we are prompted for this.
I think Worldpay do provide an Internet terminal for merchants to type card details in directly, maybe this would be a better approach.
Jonathan
Officially, if you have an internet merchant account, it is NOT allowed by Visa/MasterCard as they require the customer to enter the details themselves.
Officially from who? That's crazy. If Visa/MC required a customer to enter a CC themselves, then nobody would be able to take a phone order.
If it's a 3rd party system then the only person to ask is the 3rd party.
If it's your own checkout system then the only person to ask is you = you make the rules.
That said, still no news on whether the practice is prohibited, punished or pursued by either/all parties.
I currently use the Virtual Terminal functionality for phone-in orders when the customer doesn't care to receive order status emails. I also use it for special orders where the products being ordered don't exist in the website database. When the customer calls to ask questions about something on the website, and then decides to go ahead and order, we just use our shopping cart interface to enter the information. One difference is that our shopping cart asks for the CVC code, whereas the Virtual Terminal doesn't.
As for logging in as one of your customers - On one custom shopping cart I worked on, we added a "Login As Customer" link to the customer admin area of the website. You just navigated to the Detail screen for the specific customer and click the link. It allowed you to browse the site under their customization settings and access privileges. (This was a corporate purchasing site, so screens were heavily tailored to the individual user.)
It seems that it's commonly accepted...
Any evidence to the contrary welcome!
I sometimes get people phone up who aren't happy to put "their creditcard details across the Internet". But then I go and type it in the same form they would have anyway...
I had the same dilemma... so I'd tell them that I have to run the information across the same sort of phone lines but it is a secure transaction. They don't seem to mind that! LOL
But now I have switched to all manual online processing. Having Authorize.net was costing me double with having the POS machine here in the store. I just manually run all the internet orders I gather now. Makes it easier to delay billing, as well, if I have to backorder something.
