Once I capture funds, can I be assured a capture will go through?

[AffiliateDreamer]

When someone orders, I authorize the funds on the customers credit card.

Now when I ship the item, I will capture the funds.

Is it possible, or under what circumstance, would a capture fail?

[bwnbwn]

AffiliateDreamer how are processing the authorized amount? If your doing it manually as we do then it is a done deal, if your doing it through an api set up then there could be technical issues.

There is always a remote possibility the customer can call the cc company and cancel the authorization and or sale but that hasn't ever happened to me in 10 years doing ecommerce.

[AffiliateDreamer]

I am authorizing the amount via my website, which is using an API. (but I can see the response back etc. to verify)

Ok its good to know, I just don't want to ship items out to find out I can't capture the funds.

(say in a drop ship environment where I don't find out when the item ships exactly)

[bwnbwn]

(say in a drop ship environment where I don't find out when the item ships exactly)

Now you can have a problem as it is really not the best setup and the reason for most all customer problems.

Got to put yourself in the place of your customer. Would you want to be charged for a purchase a week before the item is shipped? Then I call you and ask you what my tracking number is and you can't tell me if the item is shipped or not. This will cause you serious customer issues that only spells bad reviews and poor customer loyality.

[HRoth]

You can't wait too long to capture either, though. If you do, your authorization can expire. Or if the customer is using a gift card or a debit card, the pending debit drops off. You still have a right to that money, but the customer doesn't know that or can forget they made the charge, and then they can end up with an overdraft or you can end up with no money. This has happened to me a few times with gift cards, maybe once or twice with debit cards where I waited too long to capture the authorization expired. Now I capture within a week's time at the most. It normally takes me two weeks to process an order. I have this info on my main page and during checkout. I rarely get people complaining about when I charge their card, and when they do, it is almost always that they used the card through Paypal, which charges them immediately. I myself buy from places that ship a few weeks or more after charging. <shrug> My stuff is not out of a box or from a drop-shipper.

[MrHard]

Got to put yourself in the place of your customer. Would you want to be charged for a purchase a week before the item is shipped?

There are many people out there who watch their statements online and know exactly when a charge is made. They sit on the computer waiting. They call in and want shipping info, and will sometimes complain if the card is charged early.

Actually it's a pretty obscure regulation that is in the banks fine print and I always find it strange that people will complain when there is a 30 day window until before you have to pay a credit card bill anyhow. Some people just need ammunition to hold against you if something is not shipped as soon as they would like.

Have had several times when this resulted in losing orders and having to credit back the amount due to irate phone calls and arguments over exactly when the card was charged.

I believe you can get around the regulation by stating in your policy exactly when cards are charged, if you want to play a legal game.

Better answer is, if you don't want to be charged, don't order it. If you want to complain about your card being charged, then we cancel your order, and you get a refund.

[LifeinAsia]

Back in the day when I was looking at merchant accounts, every one of them that I saw specified in their ToS that you were not allowed to charge until the day you shipped the product. (So you could charge at 10:00 in the morning, as long as the product went out with the 5:00 P.M. FedEx.) Although some allowed a 24-hour window to ship after charging.

Things may have changed since then.

[mvander]

LifeinAsia,

Yes I believe now it is a 2 day window for my merchant account.