His hands started widgeting, he looked askance

April 19, 2018 8:59 AM

We sell Widget through a web site for £X,000 (it's a very good widget). Widget is all we sell. Demand for Widget spikes once a year when we release a new version of Widget and trickles down to a Widget purchase once every couple of weeks after a while. Here's the thing: we get a failure rate of c.40-50% on attempted purchases of Widget because credit card companies say WIDGET IS FRAUD (Widget is not fraud).

Is this related to our payment processor? The pattern of purchases? The cost? Would we do better moving to a different payment merchant? If so, who is the best?

Further info: Widget is physically located in the UK, as is the web site. Potential Widget purchasers are scattered all over the world but mostly in UK and Europe. We sell Widget online but need to take payments over the phone when online doesn't work.

posted by humuhumu to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

We sell Widget online but need to take payments over the phone when online doesn't work.

"Doesn't work" as in "the payment processor replied with FRAUD and did not approve the transaction"?

Sounds like it may be down at the bank level where some individuals never make purchases that large, so a £X,000 purchase falls outside the comfort level of the approving robot and it's tagged as a possible stolen card.

Cardholder gets contacted, says "yeah that's me buying Widget", and then the subsequent phone order goes smoother?
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:13 AM on April 19, 2018

Pretty sure JoeZydeco has it. I work for a company that sells [$thing] for $X,000 and we run into this all the time. If the people just contact their bank and tell them to anticipate a charge of $X,000 to WidgetCo, you should be able to run it again with no issues.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:18 AM on April 19, 2018

I get this when I use my debit card for anything over $1500 and don't remember to warn my bank first. But if it's something on your end, someone should be able to tell you what it is and what if anything you can do about it. Talking to your payment processor is where I would start.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:38 AM on April 19, 2018

Related to the international aspect? My credit union sends me a robocall to double check any unusual transactions - and a once-in-a-year large amount expense posted to a company outside of my home country would definitely be flagged.
posted by caution live frogs at 9:46 AM on April 19, 2018

Yes, it's your payment processor. Switch to Stripe, it's pretty painless.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:21 AM on April 19, 2018

I used to bank with Citibank and they always blocked my international online purchases as fraud.

I would often just walk away from a purchase or buy elsewhere rather than spend 15 minutes on the phone, entering my info, wading through menus and being on hold to deal with it.

You should add other payment options. Paypal, Stripe, Venmo/Amazon Pay, Android/Apple pay.

Yes its a hassle for you, but lot of people prefer those to entering all their info into a random new website anyway, so if you do I bet you will see an increase in conversions.
posted by mrmurbles at 10:32 AM on April 19, 2018

The only other suggestion I have is to make sure how Widget Co shows up on a customer's statement -- or alert if fraud is suspected -- is easily identifiable by your customers. We have made legit purchases, but when the cc company sends us the alert and we see XBOUT-online (made up) and that doesn't match up with our recollection of the company with whom we did business. Therefore we are more likely to mark the transaction as fraudulent.
posted by terrapin at 10:43 AM on April 19, 2018

In the UK, it may not help for a buyer to tell their card issuer in advance. I have a UK credit card that I use infrequently for large purchases for airline tickets. Once when a transaction got blocked I actually tried to tell them to expect a large transaction for air tickets but they weren’t interested. The only way they would deal with it was by blocking an attempt at a purchase and then approving it when you called them.
After a couple of goes round the loop I finally got hold of a supervisor who lifted all the restrictions on the card. Makes buying air tickets easier but god knows what will happen if that card gets compromised.
I’m not even sure that PayPal would help—doesn’t there still have to be some sort of bank account at the end?
posted by Logophiliac at 11:16 AM on April 19, 2018

Can you tweak your payment workflow on the site? The customer attempts a purchase, but when it fails they see a screen that says "Call the number on the back of this card, tell them you're trying to purchase a £X,000 widget from WidgetCo, then click [this button] when they tell you the purchase should work." This would save customers time instead of requiring them to go through the purchase process several times, and it also lets them know an easy way to resolve the issue.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:53 AM on April 19, 2018