Forum Moderators: buckworks
Then she emailed me yesterday about it, and I told her I had voided them. Today I see a new transaction with what must be a US-issued card because the AVS matches. I emailed her for the bank's customer service phone number again, although really since the AVS matches, what can I do? I just feel suspicious. I do get some large foreign purchases, and most of them are totally legit. But usually they are for other things, stuff they can't get easily in Europe. Why would someone in the UK buy things from here that are available there? The shipping is a lot and then I know they have to pay duty. Okay, one of them is a rare widget, and some of them are things I make and so are unique, but the bulk are widgets easily obtainable in the UK. They are in large amounts individually. I feel uneasy about this but I am not sure how to handle it. It seems to check out. But it doesn't feel right, and it is for $279. She is emailing out of a yahoo.co.uk account, which is another strike against it. Because my shop is set up for customers to make payments through a gateway, I don't see the card number unless they call. I've used all my usual techniques to check out a purchase. What now?
It might sound harsh judging a person's ability to purchase based on the address. But with so little protection to merchants, every little bit helps to fight against scammers.
theoretically yes! but since the 'right to buy' - lots have people have bought and then sold their housing estate flats/houses.
these flats in inner london can now be very expensive.
also many very smart blocks of flats have estate sounding addresses.
however your other info is a def. red flag to me, just drop it and don't worry.
AVS is supported worldwide - at least as far as I can tell from a quick look at my merchant account (I can see AVS positive matches from the UK, US, Netherlands etc.)
Secondly; what aspect of the address is making you think that the property is on a "Housing Estate"? There is certainly nothing "poor" implied by the general definition of a housing estate in the UK - a large development of brand new homes would be called a housing estate.
We do have what are called "Council Estates" in the UK, which sound like they may be more along the lines of your "Housing Projects" - they are generally large estates of local goverment owned properties for affordable rent, but even then;
- Many people have bought their council house off the Government (you've had the right to do that for many years now)
- It's certainly no definitive indicator of being poor.
- I would have thought that $400, or about 270 pounds is certainly within the realm of disposable income for most households in the UK, even if it means saving up for a 2 or 3 months.
Hope this helps!
Aren't housing estates there like housing projects here--places for poor people to live?
Nice way to get yourself sued ...you cannot NOT sell to someone because you think they live in a poor section of town.. a little word you may want to familiarize yourself with
-------------DISCRIMINATION------------------
But as a rule they can be a "bit" dodgy..
what you really need to do is get the buyers postcode and go visit Multimap
this will give you the exact location they say they are from....area...street map and so on...
be careful it's not an industrial "estate"....
and post back the exact area if you can
[edited by: lorax at 8:30 pm (utc) on Jan. 18, 2006]
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Hadn't thought of the council estate Vs housing estate difference as the poster above did!
BIG difference!
Nice way to get yourself sued ...you cannot NOT sell to someone because you think they live in a poor section of town.. a little word you may want to familiarize yourself with
that's what i love about webmasterworld - the pure nonsense we see on an almost daily basis .............
I did a search on [the post code] and came up with sites like a counseling place for homeless people, a tenants' rights organization, and an article about some charity that built a playground there. OTOH, another search showed a flat for sale for 189K GBP in some unremarkable brick building. You guys have the absolute worst housing prices.
I've asked the customer for more info because I haven't found any more info on the customer my usual ways--by searching for their email addy, their phone number, and their name. That's why I also asked for feedback here.
[edited by: lorax at 8:37 pm (utc) on Jan. 18, 2006]
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if you wanted to - you could call the person in the US, ask them to fax you back a CC validation which could help. Ask them to fax you the back of the CC just black out the CCV
-Corey
As far as the area is concerned then the UK has a service known as Acorn that classifies areas.
The post code is Acorn Classification 55:-
Which is Category "Hard Pressed", "Inner City Adversity", "Multi-ethnic purpose built estates"
Your call HRoth.
Nice way to get yourself sued ...you cannot NOT sell to someone because you think they live in a poor section of town.. a little word you may want to familiarize yourself with
Utter nonsense.........If I dont like you, I wont serve you. Simple :)
You guys have the absolute worst housing prices
Tell me about it!
I will not sell anything to anybody from London with postcodes from E1 to E18, to many cases of fraud originate from that area, it just isn't worth the hassle.
<snip> doesn't look to bad, you can usually tell how iffy it is from the amount of non English names on the electoral roll, but I does border E4 nice and E17 which is not so nice.
[edited by: lorax at 8:38 pm (utc) on Jan. 18, 2006]
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That map thing is pretty neat, especially the aerial views. London is awful crowded.
The amount, the items ordered, and that it's a US card with a foreign address still make me feel funny, so I am going to wait for the customer's response about the issuing bank and the bank's customer service phone number.
Utter nonsense.........If I dont like you, I wont serve you. Simple :)
But "not liking someone" certainly isn't the issue here, where there are legitimate, objective concerns: specific concerns about the CC, questions about the bank that she hasn't answered (which I'd think would make her the one holding up the transaction at this point). If the Gateway had doubts about the purchases, that's another legitimate concern. You could ask yourself whether you'd still be concerned if you didn't know her address, and it sounds as if the answer would very likely be yes.
The address certainly doesn't tell everything. Maybe she's a social worker. And, hey, if you think you can make big money running websites, try running a crack house. ;-) <-- Yes, I'm kidding! Although the money's real enough, sad to say.
Dont ship dont sell.
it's not illegal face-to-face ............
if i don't want to serve you, i won't ........
However, I did look further, both at urls posted here and elsewhere. There are not only housing projects in the area but also Victorian houses that have been renovated. It seems like some neighborhoods in Chicago used to be when I still lived there--kind of run down in parts with yuppies moving in and renovating some places.
The thread has taken on a tone ( not that of the original OP who just wanted something clearing up ) of predjudices being vocalised under the guise of advice ..
The inference that an area is inhabited by dealers and criminals based upon
you can usually tell how iffy it is from the amount of non English names on the electoral roll
Thought this place didn't go info for that ..dont trust poor people ..strikes me as politics that does ..I leave all you rich people to it
HRoth ..nothing against your question ..nor really the way you asked ....It's the attitude of some of the Brits who are all obviously white millionaires .
that's what i love about webmasterworld - the pure nonsense we see on an almost daily basis
The only nonsense is to not take your business serious enough that you would jepordize with it discrimator practises.
It isnt a topic that comes around much but it's clear from some of the posts that people really dont "get it"
HRoth may very well not make a sale because of all the discrepancies he has received from the potential customer..thats within his rights ..he has some very valid reasons
But when you start making discrimator comments ..thats what will burn your ass if the customer would ever find out ..and if this is a regualr part of a companies practices..eventualy thue will get burnt..
But when you start making discrimator comments
i didn't ........
I'm a member of a minority, and my father was an immigrant. I remember when we traveled around the South in the sixties how some motel owners would not rent a room to us because my father had an accent. I hope I never behave that way to other people. My customers come in all colors. There are plenty of foreigners among them (even people from the UK, lol!), and people of other religions, from Orthodox priests to Muslims to Hindus, and I am glad. That's what makes life interesting to me.
Yes, there have been a couple people over the years I have decided I didn't want to sell to. They were all white and born in the US and from what I could see, middle class. They were also jerks. That is one group that occurs everywhere with equal frequency.
Anyway, I am sorry that my question upset people.
