Howdy all. I'm currently hosting with another reseller provider that's been pretty sporadic over the last four or five months. Today was the last straw when I watched my various sites go up and down (the MySQL server was especially fun to watch) and, after several emails to support with no response after five hours, I've decided to start shopping around for another reseller provider.

So, I searched here on WHT and found Hosting Zoom to come recommended. I contacted Kiet via the live chat and he kindly and professionally answered all my pre-sales questions. I signed up for service. I was rejected up to four times because my "billing address didn't match my credit card." So, I called Tuan (after the second time of rejection, of course because I thought I might have mistyped the address) and he suggested I contact my bank to verify the address. I did that and signed up again, using the address my bank gave me. Still rejected. I called Tuan again and he said I didn't put my apartment in the second address line (which I confirmed that I did) and he suggested I put it in the street address line. Did that and guess what? Another rejection.

Now, I'm out $100 until my bank puts the funds back in to my account tomorrow morning (that's what they told me). HZ doesn't have the money either so it's floating in thin air.

I suggested HZ look into another merchant account provider because I was told from Kiet and Tuan that they've had issues with this in the past. I wish I had unlimited funds to keep trying to sign up with them but I don't. They seem very nice and professional and I was looking forward to working with them, especially since they offer anonymous email support to clients.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Heck, if HZ sees this thread, I'd love to go with them still but, for some reason, they can't take me CC over the phone and I'm forced to use the sign-up form. Not going to go through all that again.

Thx much.

Regards,
Kory

All merchant providers/gateways have their own little issues. No one, or company, is perfect. Have you tried to pay via a different method? They offer both PayPal and check options.

Howdy, RS Michael. Thx much for your message. It's ironic you mentioned that because right after I posted this thread, I thought that I could pay them via PayPal. They also take checks too, from what I see, but I don't trust snail mail. ;) :)

I sent a message back to Tuan about this and am waiting to hear from him.

I totally understand that no company is perfect. That's why I've been with my current host for several months and put up with the various issues. But, eventually, I have to think of my own customers. Fortunately, if I can work with HZ, they'll move them for me too.

I hope it works out.

Thx again!

Regards,
Kory

Hello Kory,

When a transaction results in an AVS (Address Verification) mismatch, the transaction is voided but the transaction remains. The authorized amount reserved against the credit limit of your card will remain for a predefined period of time until it is expired by your bank. The time period varies with all banks so you must call them directly to find out the hold times.

If you repeatedly enter an incorrect zip code or address and all transactions were declined due to AVS mismatch, the preauthorized amounts will add up to reach or exceed your credit limit resulting in all future transactions to decline.

Authorize.net is our merchant gateway and at the time of transaction, they submit the address and zip code to our processor. The processor compares the address supplied with the address on file at your bank. If it doesn't match, it will come back as an AVS mismatch.

The best thing to do when you get an AVS mismatch is to call your bank and write down the address they have on file EXACTLY as they have it including any dots, number (#) signs, abbreviations, etc.

I hope that answered the issue you are having. Thank you.

That's a bit strange. Usually the funds are authorized and not immediately captured until the daily batch processing time. (But then our provider might be different from theirs - I'm not entirely sure).

Roj

HostingZoom,

You may want to get in touch with AuthNet. The process you are describing is drastically incorrect. It should not be auth/capture upon AVS failure.

If it's coming back with a failure, then it should not be capturing.

If the customer wanted to do the transaction via phone, why could you not process the transaction via Virtual Terminal inside your authnet account, but that's your call. I find virtual terminal eliminates any customer, or third party errors.

As an example, most third parties send the name "O'Rourke" to the gateway with a "/" in there, interpreting it as "O'/Rourke" which then fails. This can be eliminated very easily by using virtual terminal.

Simon

Originally posted by IHSL
HostingZoom,

You may want to get in touch with AuthNet. The process you are describing is drastically incorrect. It should not be auth/capture upon AVS failure.

If it's coming back with a failure, then it should not be capturing.

If the customer wanted to do the transaction via phone, why could you not process the transaction via Virtual Terminal inside your authnet account, but that's your call. I find virtual terminal eliminates any customer, or third party errors.

As an example, most third parties send the name "O'Rourke" to the gateway with a "/" in there, interpreting it as "O'/Rourke" which then fails. This can be eliminated very easily by using virtual terminal.

Simon

Simon,

I did get in touch with auth.net just to be sure on several occasions and both times they said the same thing. I also thought it was strange to capture the funds even when it declined but they confirmed it does both times.

Yes we can use the virtual terminal if we wanted to do but we decided that all transactions are to be done via the web for a number of reasons some including fraud rating scores, client data, etc w/o manual entries.

Though we get these AVS mismatch quite often, there is never a case of it not going through after verifying the address with the bank/credit card issuer.

However, thanks for the suggestion and good luck with your business.