[thelist] eCommerce - transaction status [OT]

[Bob Meetin]

Brian Cummiskey wrote:
> Jack Timmons wrote:
>   
>> On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 6:00 PM, Brian Cummiskey <brian at hondaswap.com> wrote:
>>     
>>> It is illegal to charge a credit card before the item has shipped.
>>>       
>> I would have to argue this. We've done business for the past 15 years
>> charge first then shipping. Nothing ever mentioned about it being
>> illegal.
>>
>> Where's your evidence of such? Is it a state thing? As Hassan said,
>> how could you ever ensure they're actually paying  you?
>>
>>     
>
> http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/rules_for_visa_merchants.pdf
>
> page 126 of the PDF
>
>
>
>
>
> Reason Code 30: Services Not Provided or Merchandise
> Not Received
> Definition
> The card issuer received a claim from a cardholder that merchandise or 
> services
> ordered were not received or that the cardholder cancelled the order as 
> the result
> of not receiving the merchandise or services by the expected delivery date .
>
>
> Most
> Common
> Causes
> The merchant:
>
> · Billed for the transaction before shipping the merchandise
>   
This is good stuff!

I remember from my own experience as a buyer that with some shops, you 
will get a message that you card will not be billed until the item is 
shipped.  Following along on this logic:

A couple things are configurable in the shopping card; when you list to 
configure the shipping modules, the credit card module is set up with 
authorize.net as the gateway, no surprises.  In the module you have 2 
general config options:

  1) Order Status for successful transactions
  2) Order Status for failed transactions

Each can be set to:

  1) Pending
  2) Confirmed
  3) Cancelled
  4) Refunded
  5) Shipped

I 'assume' that for "successful transactions" that I set the default to 
"Pending" and the order goes over to shipping.  Since the item is in 
stock, the transaction needs to be switched to "Confirmed".  So someone 
in the food chain now goes into the shopping cart and finds the order 
and changes the Status to "Confirmed" and also selects to Notify the 
Customer and commits the change.

Q: I don't see anywhere that it lists an option to 'authorize' the 
transaction.  Is setting the default to "Pending" the eCommerce app's 
equivalent of "Authorized"?
Q: Will changing the status to "Confirmed" then trigger the event which 
will talk to authorize.net and make the shopkeeper a richer individual?

Depending on how much time has elapsed, one's gotta assume that there is 
the possibility that something has gone wrong in Muddville resulting in 
insufficient funds.  So, don't put it on the truck before the 
transaction has processed successfully I assume.

I can put up pics if need be.

BTW - I am setting up tax based upon the ship to address.

-Bob