Mr.81 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Hi guys, I'm looking into the option of using a payment gateway so I can accept credit cards; I have been using PayPal but having to send packages with tracking is putting the price up of shipping and is sending some customers away. What do you guys use when shipping physical products? e.g. how do you accept payment and how do you ship your items? Have you come across this problem before? Oh, and I'm going to be selling from the UK. Thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Hi guys, I'm looking into the option of using a payment gateway so I can accept credit cards; I have been using PayPal but having to send packages with tracking is putting the price up of shipping and is sending some customers away. What do you guys use when shipping physical products? e.g. how do you accept payment and how do you ship your items? Have you come across this problem before? Oh, and I'm going to be selling from the UK. Thanks for your help! I am in the US and we use delivery confirmation on all packages. Some merchant accounts will only allow "signature confirmation" as proof of delivery and you can still lose a chargeback with only delivery confirmation. When we ship to Canada we use Endicia insurance. It covers the parcel against loss or damage. We rarely get customer complaints about not receiving their order, but when we quote the delivery date and time from the confirmations, the complaint goes away. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.81 Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 I am in the US and we use delivery confirmation on all packages. Some merchant accounts will only allow "signature confirmation" as proof of delivery and you can still lose a chargeback with only delivery confirmation. When we ship to Canada we use Endicia insurance. It covers the parcel against loss or damage. We rarely get customer complaints about not receiving their order, but when we quote the delivery date and time from the confirmations, the complaint goes away. Tim Hi Tim, Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I've been using PayPal and it seems they will only accept signature confirmation as a way to protect the seller, otherwise the buyer can say they didn't receive the package and get their money back, which has happened a couple of times to me. I'm not really sure what to do about it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Hi Tim, Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I've been using PayPal and it seems they will only accept signature confirmation as a way to protect the seller, otherwise the buyer can say they didn't receive the package and get their money back, which has happened a couple of times to me. I'm not really sure what to do about it... Paypal seems to protect the buyer more often than the seller, in my experience. I appealed a decision by AMEX one time and they reversed their decision. The purchase was made last November, the chargeback filed in late spring of this year. The customer never contacted us and just filed a chargeback. I feel like the customer hit hard times and tried to scam their money back. Other than that, our target audience is a fairly honest group and we don't have much trouble with chargebacks. Generally they are from not recognizing the merchant name on their credit card bill. (2 or 3 per year) I guess you have to weigh the value of your products versus the cost of sig confirmation and insurance. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.81 Posted November 19, 2009 Author Share Posted November 19, 2009 Paypal seems to protect the buyer more often than the seller, in my experience. I appealed a decision by AMEX one time and they reversed their decision. The purchase was made last November, the chargeback filed in late spring of this year. The customer never contacted us and just filed a chargeback. I feel like the customer hit hard times and tried to scam their money back. Other than that, our target audience is a fairly honest group and we don't have much trouble with chargebacks. Generally they are from not recognizing the merchant name on their credit card bill. (2 or 3 per year) I guess you have to weigh the value of your products versus the cost of sig confirmation and insurance. Tim Hmm, okay. Thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xpajun Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 It's not just PayPal that is the problem nor the odd customer that tries to scam their money back. It's also the postal service, compensation for a lost shipment is limited to the price that you paid for it. This means that if you manufacture and sell then all they (Royal Mail & Parcelforce UK) will compensate you for is the cost of the raw materials no manufacturing costs will be compensated - makes a mockery of compensation. Pity the person that ships their valuables and expecting a 'insured value' when they get lost... How much did you pay for them when you bought them 20 years ago sir? My store is currently running Phoenix 1.0.3.0 I'm currently working on 1.0.7.2 and hope to get it live before 1.0.8.0 arrives (maybe 🙄 ) I used to have a list of add-ons here but I've found that with the ones that supporters of Phoenix get any other add-ons are not really neccessary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.81 Posted November 20, 2009 Author Share Posted November 20, 2009 It's not just PayPal that is the problem nor the odd customer that tries to scam their money back. It's also the postal service, compensation for a lost shipment is limited to the price that you paid for it. This means that if you manufacture and sell then all they (Royal Mail & Parcelforce UK) will compensate you for is the cost of the raw materials no manufacturing costs will be compensated - makes a mockery of compensation. Pity the person that ships their valuables and expecting a 'insured value' when they get lost... How much did you pay for them when you bought them 20 years ago sir? Luckily I don't manufacture the goods; I purchase them from a supplier. The main problem with PayPal is, as you probably know, that if I can't prove that the package got to the buyer (or got lost) they get their money back...I can see the only way around it would be to get a merchant account with a bank? Or could I still encounter problems? It's just websites such as Amazon.com and Play.com send their items out regular 1st Class post...does anyone know how they deal with this problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 I can see the only way around it would be to get a merchant account with a bank? Or could I still encounter problems? It's just websites such as Amazon.com and Play.com send their items out regular 1st Class post...does anyone know how they deal with this problem? Merchant accounts may not help you on this matter. Most still require signature proof of delivery. Here in the states, I use an online postage program. It allows me to use delivery confirmation or signature confirmation on first class packages. Not sure about the UK mail. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Agree with Tim. However, chargebacks with merchant account is a lot less than PayPal, from my experience. It is still depends on the delivery method. We use Express Courier International here from Australia to ship overseas, which is a first class service but it is still a crap service as when it reaches the destination country, it will change to another mail service and you'll lose your first class service. For the business practice here, we usually keep in mind 1 - 5% of our sales to be either chargebacks, damaged parcels or simply Australia Post screwups.. Cheers, Afif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xpajun Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 ... For the business practice here, we usually keep in mind 1 - 5% of our sales to be either chargebacks, damaged parcels or simply Australia Post screwups.. Cheers, Afif I think that the 1-5% is pretty accurate for the UK as well which means that between 95-99% of sales are either bought by honest customers or the shipment never gets lost in the post. A comparison of world shipping rates might be useful here as it would seem that some countries get far cheaper rates than we do in the UK (it can cost an extra £5 just for a tracked delivery). Interesting to note that I have had a tracked shipment go missing in the post in the past as well :'( so nothing is foolproof! My store is currently running Phoenix 1.0.3.0 I'm currently working on 1.0.7.2 and hope to get it live before 1.0.8.0 arrives (maybe 🙄 ) I used to have a list of add-ons here but I've found that with the ones that supporters of Phoenix get any other add-ons are not really neccessary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Interesting to note that I have had a tracked shipment go missing in the post in the past as well :'( so nothing is foolproof! Same here in the US. The downside is this: I pay the US post office to deliver my package, I pay extra for delivery confirmation. If the package is lost or delivered incorrectly, I am out the package. The post office will only compensate lost parcels if you pay a third time for the additional insurance. They are under no financial responsibility to actually deliver your uninsured mail! Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.81 Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 So what is the real answer here? Do websites like Amazon just not worry about this problem because they are such a big company? What would happen if I said I didn't receive an item from them? Would they simply send out another? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knifeman Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 So what is the real answer here? Do websites like Amazon just not worry about this problem because they are such a big company? What would happen if I said I didn't receive an item from them? Would they simply send out another? Amazon is made up of many individual merchants also. These merchants have their own policies and ideas about how to handle claims of non delivery. Sites like Amazon and Ebay leave the seller open to feedback ransom. "If you don't reship, I will leave negative feedback". Even if the customer does not say it, there is the possibility looming over their head. I would imagine there are 2 extremes; 1 write it off off as a cost of doing business 2 If it says delivered, it was delivered and numerous options in between. Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.81 Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 Hmm okay, thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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