Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with merchant

How do I create a RSS feed for my Amazon Web Store?

Aegean — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:44:56 -0800

I'm trying to figure out how to create a XML / RSS feed of my Amazon web store products so I can update to Google Merchant. There doesn't seem to be many functions / plug-ins offered by AWS and their help isn't very helpful. I've done a fair amount of searching and have come up empty handed. Would anyone have an idea how I might go about creating this feed?

Refunds from UK merchant

NorthCoastCafe — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:14:58 -0800

I mailed $20 cash to a British merchant to pay for an item ordered via email. The merchant refused to accept cash insisting payment only via Paypal. I refuse to use Paypal because of two previous bad experiences. The British merchant said they would return my cash but hasn't and no longer replies to my emails. What recourse do I have to get my money back and or file a complaint against the merchant? I'm in the USA.

White-label hosted credit-card processing?

pengale — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:03:21 -0800

What online credit-card processor best meets these criteria? 1. 100% hosted. No PCI-DSS worries.
2. 100% branded/white-label. Use own domain (i.e. CNAME), and customize design and navigation.
3. Concentrates on just the payment step; design your own cart/sales page
4. No minimum annual revenue amount; cost structure suitable for small business.
5. Customer-service-focused (where the customer is the merchant...)

Sorry if this has been posted before; most of the other questions I could find pertain to either shopping carts or payment gateways that require you to comply with PCI-DSS. Does something like this even exist?

Personal experience with payment processors that offer very simple transaction processing?

odinsdream — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:22:25 -0800

Personal experience with payment processors that offer very simple on-site credit card entry and the ability to sell digital goods (i.e., license codes, subscriptions, etc.). I'd like customers to enter the bare minimum of payment information. I'd like to accept credit-card payments on my website. I can already do this with Paypal or Google Checkout, but they are more complex than I'd prefer for this particular venture. Features I'd like include:

Bare minimum of data entry. I've purchased from sites that require only the credit card number and an expiration date. Examples include paying for a new account on Shopify, or paying for a checked bag on Delta and US Airways. I don't need to collect names, shipping information, or anything else for this product. It's a very inexpensive virtual good, which is why I'd like to make the customer payment experience as painless and hassle-free as possible.

Entry of data on my site, or at least visually similar enough to appear to be my site. Examples include Panic Software, Shopify, Delta, and US Airways.*

Able to process digital goods that are unique to each customer. Panic Software is a good example here. Immediately after you pay you get the product unlock code, which is unique to that transaction. I want this to be completely automatic. Out of the box Google Checkout doesn't seem to work for this. With their API it looks like it could work, but they don't meet my other requirements.

Do you have personal experience with payment processors that meet most or all of these requirements?

* Note on PCI compliance: This requirement is really a visual thing. The actual HTML form doesn't need to come from my server. I'm not interested in actually storing the credit card data - I'd still like it to go directly to the payment processor without passing through me. I just want the customer to have a seamless experience of not appearing to leave my site.

Red Fuji southern wind clear morning... on my wall

killdevil — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:55:14 -0800

I need suggestions as to how I can most easily and inexpensively get the full-size version of this arresting image reproduced at large size and on high-quality art paper. So, which Web-based printing vendors have you dealt with who'd be worth looking into? I'm guessing there are Internet merchants whose business focuses on print production for digital art applications, and who could take a huge emailed JPEG file, run whatever pre-press conversions and cleanups may be necessary, dump out a finished art-print via a shockingly expensive print production system, then send back the end result rolled up in a big tube?

And, secondarily, if you have advice as to the specific paper or printing process we should seek out, or as to easy/cheap/attractive framing options you think would work well with the subject matter of the print in question, well, that'd be greatly appreciated too.

What is a reputable, low-cost, non-PayPal merchant account to accept credit cards online?

roxie110 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:19:28 -0800

What are some reputable, low-cost, non-PayPal merchant accounts that enable you to accept credit cards online? Extra credit question: what are the best designed and lowest cost Web store options? I've been using PayPal for years to sell on Ebay, but want to open up a standalone web store and accept credit cards directly.

So my question is a two-parter:

1) Who out there has a good, reputable, low-cost merchant account to directly accept credit cards online? My business volume will probably be a couple thousand dollars a month to start, but hopefully as I move sales from Ebay to my Web store, it will be several times that. I'm tired of shoveling money into Ebay/Paypal's pockets, so I'm open to any suggestions. My biggest concern, besides cost, is protection against fraud. PayPal does have certain protections for the seller against unauthorized credit card payments, and I'm terrified of losing hundreds of dollars to bad apples if I go to a non-PayPal merchant account. Any insight on that?

2) Can anyone recommend a Web store that's easy to set up, allows for a certain level of customization, and has sophisticated inventory management? I've spent some time trying to set up a ProStore Business-Level account but refuse to open it because their inventory management is a joke if you have more than 10 or 20 items (I generally have 150-200). The entire interfaice is utterly slow and counterintuitive--though maybe I'd need to upgrade to Advanced to get more functionality. The upside is that it synchs inventory with your Ebay store, and it would be hard to let that go, as I'm constantly adding new items to the store. Any suggestions?

MANY THANKS for your help!!

At what point is a merchant required to complete a sale?

fogster — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:09:57 -0800

At what point, if any, is an online merchant required to complete the sale? I know that ads are "invitations to bargain" and whatnot, so that a merchant is not obligated to honor an advertised price.

But as the transaction progresses from me seeing the advertisement to me putting the item in my cart, to me tendering payment, to my order being processed, does the merchant lose their right to back out of a sale?

Specifically, I found a very good deal on a major retailer's "Outlet" website. Specifically, a nice monitor for $50, when $150-200 was the norm. But because it was the outlet site of a company known for cheap products, and because it didn't appear to be a decimal error (e.g., $19.99 when $199.99 was meant), I believed the price was correct and placed my order. If it matters, the product was listed as out of stock but still for sale.

Several days after placing the order, I received an e-mail explaining that there had been a pricing error, and that they were canceling the order and returning my money, as well as giving me a $10 online coupon.

Does the fact that I already paid for the product negate their ability to cancel the sale? It seems that they should lose their right to change their mind after I've already paid.

I'm not an unhinged lunatic planning to sue because they didn't sell me a computer monitor at a really low price. I'm mostly just curious about the law: can they take my money and then decide not to sell it to me?

Not money-laundering, I swear!

danblaker — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:45:44 -0800

Seeking e-commerce partner that supports funds disbursements (and Ruby on Rails). I'm building a (Rails-based) website for intramural sports teams, and I want to offer teams the ability to collect credit card payments from members for things like jerseys and parties. Essentially, each team would have its own merchant account; but all transactions for all teams would go through our website front-end. Another option would be to have a single merchant account for our organization, then we'd disburse funds to each team on a regular basis; but this option seems messier and more suspicious.

We'd like to use Shopify's well-tested ActiveMerchant library for RoR, and it has a long list of supported payment gateways. So far, I've spoken to authorize.net and they said they couldn't support the disbursement side; so before going down the list and calling each of the gateways, I thought I'd check here! Any suggestions?

Accepting credit card (paypal) payments offline?

cp7 — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:29:11 -0800

My singing group sells CDs online using paypal (accepting credit cards) on our website. We also sell CDs at shows where we perform, and so far have been accepting only cash and check. We would like to accept credit cards in hopes of getting even more sales. I'm having trouble finding/understanding the information on the paypal website. Basically, can we get peoples' credit card info (the chick chunk slider?) and manually enter the credit card info into paypal at a later time? (I don't mind doing this manually, it's 50 transactions at the most.) We are straying away from the automatic machines because 1) we won't always have access to power and phone lines 2)we don't want to sign up with another merchant account. Thanks for the help!

Are you for real?

forallmankind — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 13:12:00 -0800

Hope me! How can I verify if this online merchant, which also masquerades as this online merchant, is for real? Usually I don't bother with any site I consider potentially unscrupulous, but my story is this: I need a Denon FG-5000 replacement drive for my Denon DN-S5000 turntable, and this appears to be the only retailer online in North America claiming to have one in stock.

I've searched high and low, and short of importing one from Europe - which isn't a viable option with the exchange rate - this appears to be the end of the line.

Is it possible to verify if this retailer is for real?

I'll buy that for a thousand dollars... but no credit please.

lockle — Fri, 19 May 2006 13:00:50 -0800

My work wants to accept payments online but doesn't want to accept credit cards. Most banks issue debit cards that work as credit cards. Is there a way to determine the difference? Several years ago my boss went through some tough financial times that almost made him declare bankrupcy. He is a religious and moral man and after taking several credit courses, has become convinced that the whole concept of personal credit is immoral in some aspect.

In addition to the moral implications of accepting credit cards, there are some business decisions. I work for a company that does landscaping, landscape lighting, irrigation, and installs Christmas Lights during the holidays. There have been one or two occassions where customer was unhappy with an aspect of the work and rather than working with us to resolve it or with the BBB, they instituted a chargeback.

Currently when a customer accepts the service, we go and physically pick up a check or ask them to mail it. This year for the holiday lighting services, repeat customers will be able to just log into the website and select what service they want again this year.

We would like to be able to offer them the convience of online payment without accepting actual credit cards.

Gold stars for anyone that can suggest a payment processor that would allow us to just accept cards on the PULSE (ATM) network as well as electronic checking.

Email at Sea

Leud — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 03:34:10 -0800

How can you access the internet from a merchant navy ship via a laptop? I've been asked by a friend to help them get a laptop and the equipment needed to connect to the internet while they are at sea - The friend isn't computer literate and I have no idea what sort of facilities the ship will have. Does anyone know if this is possible? Presumably they are using a satalite phone system or something for telephony - can this be used for internet access? Are there specialist ISPs for this sort of service?

looking for 3rd party merchant account

brownpau — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:31:28 -0800

How's Charge.com for a third party merchant account to accept credit card payments online? Googling turns up either marketing goop, or much older reviews from WHT's archives, but I'd like to know if any recent applicants have been using it for their small businesses.