are there any laws/timelimits which protect the merchant from charge backs?? selling anything by accepting a credit card is simply rediculous..

I dont think there is any, that is the downside of having 3rd party cc processor. They dont protect you, if your client buy a web hosting for 1 year, after using it for 11 months and they decide to issue a charge back, there is nothing you can do about it.

Of course there are laws, but your main problem is that you have to show proof that the customer bought something from you and that they really received it (either product or service).
This is why all cc processors do a chargeback everytime a customer requests it - or do yo really want to go to court for $10 to $100?
*sigh*

Originally posted by vegs
I dont think there is any, that is the downside of having 3rd party cc processor.
Not sure this has much to do with 3rd party processors, more of a general credit card problem.

Credit Cards are truly a customer's tool. Online they make our lives (webmasters) easier but the real idea is to let people spend more money with more protection. In the world of cgi/php scripts, fraud is often over 75% of all orders so many of those sites manually check each order for suspicious information, some require you to fax a copy of your signature over and others track the actual order (that is you click an activation link to download the program, prooving you recieved the email).

Even with all this charge backs still occur and theres not much you can do about it. I suppose a smart company would even have a complete money back offer... charge backs cost a lot more than pulling the orginal money out of your pocket. Still, I would imagine that in time things will change, espcially with v-chip cards, after all, if you slid the card through your computer, how can you say you didn't buy the product?

Originally posted by Walter
Of course there are laws, but your main problem is that you have to show proof that the customer bought something from you and that they really received it (either product or service).
This is why all cc processors do a chargeback everytime a customer requests it - or do yo really want to go to court for $10 to $100?
*sigh*

is it enough to see that they are running your software on there site?? :)

Originally posted by kunal


is it enough to see that they are running your software on there site?? :)

That's what i said, law tends to protect consumers not sellers. Imagine 10 person using the same scam technique by issuing a chargeback once they receive the software. :angry:

Originally posted by Walter
Of course there are laws, but your main problem is that you have to show proof that the customer bought something from you and that they really received it (either product or service).
This is why all cc processors do a chargeback everytime a customer requests it - or do yo really want to go to court for $10 to $100?
*sigh*

lets say 10 of your customers did a chargeback, $100x10 = $1k

I always thought that the customer only had 30 days to do a chargeback, but our first chargeback that we ever had was a customer claiming that they had canceled their account months ago even though they hadn't. They never even notified us, they just requested a chargeback. They successfully got a chargeback for three months worth of charges without the processor even notifying us before hand.

Our merchant agreement said that we're supposed to be notified of a chargeback request and have 24 hours to address the issue by providing proof before the chargeback goes through, and that the customer only has 30 days to reverse the charges.

Seems to me that we were violated, because our processor didn't want to follow the merchant agreement. They said "well typically when a customer cancels their service and you keep charging their card, we don't do the 24 hour notification thing." So their standard operating procedure is totally different than what they agree to.

We successfully had the chargebacks reversed by providing a lot of paperwork and disputing it. The user never provided any proof showing that they had canceled their account within the 45 days that they had to dispute our reversal of the chargeback. We still have their money.

Originally posted by kunal
is it enough to see that they are running your software on there site??

Ah, I see, that one is a bit different, I didn't know you were talking about your support desk.
Make hard copies and ask a few people to visit their site so you have a witness. Then go to a cheap attorney.
If you don't want all the hassle, simply complain about them to their upstream provider.

A chargeback can be requested from the cardholder up to 6 months of the date of the charge.

bitserve, your story is just like mine.. but with one twist.. revecom has been a pain in the #@$ and hasnt replied to me as yet.