Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

We pack our orders, then calculate shipping and make the invoice.  For credit card orders this is the point at which we charge the card.  We have UPS World Ship (their software), but can also just go to ups.com to make and print labels.  Our software is actually synched up with ups so it calculates automatically.  You can also add a handling charge if you like.

We get our boxes from a local company because it is about half the cost of ULine, but I think ULine is a great place to start! 

As far as what to include on the form, I think you have covered just about everything, except for maybe you`ll want their sales tax reseller number so you won`t have to collect (and they won`t have to pay) sales tax.  At least that`s the way it works here in this state, don`t know about yours.

We in the processing business have noticed a trend in the past 5 years or so for wholesale business to be done on credit card--that probably explains why lots of biz-to-biz providers are offering their own plastic brand, and the credit card companies are pushing business (as opposed to personal) cards.  The reasons are:  People like to accumulate their rewards points, it makes for easier bookeeping, and probably most importantly of all, it allows businesses `float time` for cover their business expenses.

If you are interested in a merchant account to accept credit cards over your website, you might consider a particular plan we have in mind that has a couple of significant advantages.  First of all, it contains it`s own secure gateway at no additional charge--otherwise you`ll pay setup fees and $20 a month or so for Authorize.net, Verisign, or whatever.  Secondly, there is no long term contractual obligation with early termination fee--who knows if this will work out for  you, if not you can cancel out anytime.  Finally, there are no setup, programming, equipment, or software expenses whatsoever.  It is sponsored by the makers of QuickBooks software, so it`s a legit first-rate merchant account, not brand X or Paypal.

For details, please feel free to contact me.  Thanks, and good luck. 

Barry G
AMSPCS
amspcs@juno.com
www.MerchantServices-help.com

Hello there.  Please permit us a brief amplification of your comment concerning when  you charge the credit card.  You stated that you pack the shipment, figure postage, then post the credit card.
That`s the correct procedure assuming you actually ship the package immediately thereafter.
However, just for clarification, it`s important that everyone knows the proper credit card charging procedure when the package is NOT shipped immediately for any reason--back order , delay in fulfillment, or whatever.  In this case, you do NOT charge the customer credit card until the package is actually shipped.  What you DO do is run an `authorization only` for the full amount due at time the order is received, then run a "post authorization" or "ticket only" procedure on your terminal at the time it actually physically ships.  The "auth only" reserves the amount for the merchant so he knows` he won`t get a decline, and the "post auth" actually charges the card using the authorization number obtained at the `auth only` stage.  The reason for this is because you don`t want your customer to get the credit card bill for the charge before he actually receives the shipment--this will lead to a chargeback. I`ll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have. 

BarryG
ams@juno.com
www.MerchantServices-help.com