Accepting Payments for a service

Any systems out there?

[Tommybs]

Happy new year all,

Does anybody know of a decent system that allows for the payment of a service? Think along the lines of if you needed a plumber. I guess in that respect some kind of booking system might also be available. I know there are tools for digital goods etc. Am I just over complicating things and I could actually just use something like paypal and in effect I create each 'SKU' for a service purely as a label?

Many Thanks

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I use PayPal invoicing or "Request Payment" and find it to be simple and convenient for both myself and my clients.
[paypal.com...]

[paypal.com...]

[Tommybs]

As a developer, I take it they have tools to test implementations etc. BEFORE you sign up for a specific product? So I could test the Payments Pro integration without signing up for the monthly fee?

I know really I should look on paypal for all this, and believe me I'm trying, but they've either got a number of expired links or there are issues with their servers as most of the pages aren't loaded when they look like they should have the info I need

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I just looked at the links I posted Tommy and apart from their usual lethargy I had no problems.

Paypal "Request Payment" does not require integration. All you have to do is send an email to the client requesting the Payment. The client does not have to be a Paypal account holder. It really is very simple and ideal for situations like this.

[Tommybs]

Thanks BeeDeeDubbleU, I managed to sign up, must have just been an intermittent issue that made me look like an idiot! I'll dig through all the documentation!

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Call me BDW if you like.

I wish I had! :)

[LifeinAsia]

NEVER use PayPal for payment for non-tangible goods or services. If the buyer decides they don't want to pay for any reason- tough, you're out the money. You are NOT protected by PayPal's Seller Protection, which they will quote you over and over if you complain about losing the dispute.

[Tommybs]

Unfortunately I don't have many other options at the moment. I'm not at the point where I feel comfortable coding the whole secure db side of things and handling all the pci compliance issues.

Do payment gateways with the major banks offer these kind of services as well?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

NEVER use PayPal for payment for non-tangible goods or services. If the buyer decides they don't want to pay for any reason- tough, you're out the money.

There are many millions of people doing this on a daily basis. They would not be doing it if there was a significant risk or indeed if Paypal was as bad as some people would have us believe.

I think it depends on the nature of the "goods" and their relative value. If the payment is for a relatively small amount then a reversal is likely to be no more than an irritation to you.

If the payment is for a substantial amount then a cheque or some other method may be more appropriate but remember that a cheque can also be stopped. In the case of payment for a service then payment can be requested up front.

I have only had one or two payments reversed. In one of these a client decided to pay me twice then upon realising he had done so he stopped both payments. I had to wait a couple of months for it to get sorted out but it was for £60 and hardly likely to put my business under.

Paypal has had some really bad publicity for this, some of it justified but as a percentage of all transactions it does not happen very often. Most buyers are not aware of Paypal's procedures and would not do this. We also have to accept that those who set out to cheat or try to get something for nothing will do so whether you use Paypal or not.

[piatkow]

There are alternatives to Paypal but they are country specific.

[LifeinAsia]

There are many millions of people doing this on a daily basis.

Millions of people smoke every day- that doesn't mean it's not risky. People take risks every day. I'm just pointing out the risk with using PayPal for non-tangible goods.

With non-PayPal transactions, you get to use your own risk management triage to decide whether or not to accept the payment and deliver the goods. With PayPal, everything is behind a black box.

The last problem we had was with a PayPal Verified Buyer. A week after PayPal approved the payment, they notified us they were investigating the issue (but didn't say what they were investigating). A week after that they told us the transaction was permanently reversed because the credit card was stolen. (Had they told us upfront what the issue was, we could have recovered our money directly- the perp made the payment for a hotel reservation and had not yet checked out when we received the initial message from PayPal. By the time they finally told us the whole story, he was long gone.) Upon further investigation, wee found that the e-mail associated with the account was not the same e-mail as on the reservation- if we had seen the e-mail address, it would have been a big red flag. There were other items that we were not aware of until after the issue had been closed- all of which would have been huge red flags (like account name not matching the CC name, IP address in a completely diofferent country from the card holder's address) that would have required more more manual verification. There is no way we would have ever processed the transaction with all the red flags, yet PayPal happily went on its merry way, disregarding all the red flags. Of course they refuse to take any responsibility for their negligence. In response to the reports we filed with the PayPal, BBB, the local police, and the state Attorney General's office, PayPal basically said we were stupid to trust them (PayPal) in the first place and it's our fault.

a reversal is likely to be no more than an irritation to you

We decided that it was way more than an "irritation" and no longer accept PayPal for payments. (However, we still use it for B2B payments from trusted partners.)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

However, we still use it for B2B payments from trusted partners.

Then clearly you have principles, eh? ;)

[Tommybs]

Getting back to country specific, I'm from the UK, so would good places to look be rbsworldpay and sagepay?

[LifeinAsia]

Then clearly you have principles, eh? ;)

I have a desire to get paid. The alternative with those partners is to do a wire transfer with higher costs.

[ectect]

NEVER use PayPal for payment for non-tangible goods or services. If the buyer decides they don't want to pay for any reason- tough, you're out the money.

I agree with BDW here, that's quite a sweeping statement. We've been using PayPal for over 10 years selling downloadable goods and services. On the few occasions we've had a dispute, they have been resolved correctly, not always in our favour but correctly all the same. I really haven't noticed a difference between out regular merchant account and PayPal in that respect.

[Corey Bryant]

Just curious - usually when a person has a plumber come in, the customer is there as well. Have you considered / looked at a wireless terminal?

Swiping the card will help you reduce chargebacks (but not all of them). Barclay's also might be able to help you.

[lilagreen]

Interested in accepting credit card payments? If so, you can try for cheap and portable imprinters to accept credit card payments on the move like taxi services, limo services, moving truck and trade shows.

If you transaction volume is large you may try to get good quality credit card terminals to accept credit card payments.