I just made a sale through 2co (customer paid via CC). Is it normal for the payment to be put in the pending area, or does this imply the customer has in fact not yet paid? A little confused about the whole system.

easybyte
2Co team will review this transaction within 24 hours, and then will approve or decline it :) It's normal :) You'll receive a second e-mail from them :)

Originally posted by easybyte
I just made a sale through 2co (customer paid via CC). Is it normal for the payment to be put in the pending area, or does this imply the customer has in fact not yet paid? A little confused about the whole system.

All new sales are verified and in the meanwhile they will go pending, after like 2-3 days , the ammount will be transfered to you balance. The 2-3 days period can be extented for as long as they see fit, like if they are suspicious about an order they can keep it on pending for 1 month or even bether. Hope this helps Cheers

orders stay in the "pending" area until the end of the payment cycle (pending payment).

At the end of the payment cycle, the funds are either sent to the vendor, or, if the 'minimum payment' is not reached, the funds are added to the account balance.

Originally posted by pochtamt
2Co team will review this transaction within 24 hours, and then will approve or decline it :) It's normal :) You'll receive a second e-mail from them :)

Forgive me - I'm new to using gateways like this.

Is this normal?? I've got a merchant who is going to sell ebook versions of a book she's writing, and when a credit card is approved, the customer will be able to download the book immediately.

Will they NOT be able to download the book, possibly for days? Or maybe will they be able to enter a bogus credit card, and by the time my client gets the "denied" message, will the customer be halfway through the book?

Originally posted by enchant
Forgive me - I'm new to using gateways like this.

Is this normal?? I've got a merchant who is going to sell ebook versions of a book she's writing, and when a credit card is approved, the customer will be able to download the book immediately.

Will they NOT be able to download the book, possibly for days? Or maybe will they be able to enter a bogus credit card, and by the time my client gets the "denied" message, will the customer be halfway through the book?


In case of a credit card fraud there can be a waiting for 30 days or more before the system will identify the order as a fraud, and by that time the "customer" can do anything. Depends on the site policies and the software they use to give access. The best way is NOT to automatize every order and keep that "click to give access". So the best way is to verify every order yourself before giving access.

Originally posted by darkstorm
The best way is NOT to automatize every order and keep that "click to give access". So the best way is to verify every order yourself before giving access.

Hmm... That may be the best way for the merchant, but not for the buyer. And that would equal loss of sales for the merchant when the buyer takes his business elsewhere. And that may not be the best way for the merchant.

Originally posted by enchant
Hmm... That may be the best way for the merchant, but not for the buyer. And that would equal loss of sales for the merchant when the buyer takes his business elsewhere. And that may not be the best way for the merchant.


Yea maybe, but this is how i do it, and the verification ussualy takes less than a minute... so the only thing you need is someone to be 24/7 in front of the computer prepared to take care of incoming sales.

Originally posted by darkstorm
Yea maybe, but this is how i do it, and the verification ussualy takes less than a minute... so the only thing you need is someone to be 24/7 in front of the computer prepared to take care of incoming sales.

I think there's something that I'm missing. When someone orders something, they are transferred to the 2CO site where their credit card info is taken. Then they are returned to my site. I THOUGHT that the gateway was supposed to verify the credit card in real time, and return the customer to the vendor's website upon success.

But it sounds like the customer will be returned regardless. Earlier in this thread, people said that it could take days (or longer) for the transaction to be approved by 2CO. Now you're telling me it takes seconds? I'm confused.

Well, the card processing it's instant, but the fraud verfication is not. The fraud verification is the one that can take up to 30 days or more. but that doesnt mean the money wont be put on your balance so if you do not do some verifications of your own you could end up after 30 days or more, paying some fees 10-30$ because of a fraudulent order. To understand bether i will explain some of sittuations. I'm using 2co as a payment gateway. I recieved some fraud orders by now, when i discovered they were fraud( after doying some verification) i emailed the "customer" and ask for some verification and told him that he has 72 hours to comply. After 72 hours, i refunded the card owner. Now although that order was 100% fraud i didnt recieved from 2co any email stating that the order was a fraud. The second case( the most obvious) was an fraudulent order that was token by a neglijent guy, because the order was place from Romania (ip) and the credit card owner was from US. In this case i recieved an email from 2co within 24 hours stating that a fraudulent order was placed , and the ammount had been automaticly refunded. I dont know what kind of system your using for giving access but if you still didnt get the ideea please explain more and maybe i can help.
Cheers

First, thanks for taking all this time to explain this to me.

Perhaps I'm being naive, but how is it that someone is able to investigate and discover "fraud" when 2CO has overlooked it? Somehow I assumed that these gateways have access to the latest updated information on a credit card.

I do a fair amount of online shopping, and on 95% of the orders that I make, I get notified that the order is in process within hours of placing the order. In most cases, I'm notified that the order has shipped that day.

Are these companies using a more robust gateway for the credit card processing?

I've designed a website for a company that offers "learn to ride a motorcycle" classes. The program keeps track of how many seats are available in each class and only sells as many seats as are available.

My client enters in the class information, and then sometimes doesn't check in on his business for over a week at a time. The orders are processed through authorize.net, and AFAIK, he always gets his money. Is he just incredibly lucky?

From reading this thread, it just sounds to me like 3CO is a horribly lame gateway that returns information to you saying, "We *think* this credit card is ok, but you should probably check yourself. We may change our mind about it in a couple days after we do some more checking."

Well, let's say your a payment gateway, when you have over 100.000 transactions a day i dont think you have time to process them in that day. And this applies to others payment gateways aswell.


"Somehow I assumed that these gateways have access to the latest updated information on a credit card. "

That doesnt mean a fraudulent order cant occur. These days the outlaws have information about ppl that you cant imagine. eg: full name , address , phone number, email, credit card detail, cvv2/cvc/cvn code , ssn , mmn, dob, and even ATM PIN. So the only thing he needs to do is to go and use a proxy and that's it. If you know how that guy thinks you know how to catch it.

"I do a fair amount of online shopping, and on 95% of the orders that I make, I get notified that the order is in process within hours of placing the order. In most cases, I'm notified that the order has shipped that day."
I think these companies are real merchants and do not use payment gateways(2CO is only a payment gateway) ,that means they store your information and they charge it manually at some merchants. And the fact that they send before they process ( or my thought before they update your order status) depends on they're policies.

"My client enters in the class information, and then sometimes doesn't check in on his business for over a week at a time. The orders are processed through authorize.net, and AFAIK, he always gets his money. Is he just incredibly lucky?"

Now not all is sold on the net are searched by outlaws and as you told me i dont think anyone would be intersted in placing a fraudulent order at what that client has to offer. Just put him in a high risk business and we will talk later. And to let you know, some orders can get passtrough the checks and a refund will not be issued . WHY? 1. the most important : the payment gateway doesnt see's it . 2. the card owner doesnt look carefull at his monthly billing. So if the card owner doesnt see's anything wrong no calling to bank>no refund.


"From reading this thread, it just sounds to me like 3CO is a horribly lame gateway that returns information to you saying, "We *think* this credit card is ok, but you should probably check yourself. We may change our mind about it in a couple days after we do some more checking."

Not really, i think they are among the best and so far i'm satisified with them. The only problems i have and questions are only tech related. Other than that i dont have other things to say about them.

Hope this helps..
Cheers

enchant,

I suggest that if you are looking for an explanation of the 2CO order process, you go to a source that will provide you with the correct information.

http://www.2checkout.com/contactus.htm

Originally posted by darkstorm

[ ... ]

Hope this helps..

It definitely does. And thanks again for the good explanations!

TAKES A FEW DAYS TO TRANSFER FUNDS

It's always best to conduct your own fraud analysis on orders and cancel them early if needed. 2CO will only refund their fees to you if the order is cancelled within 2 days. Since sometimes it takes the fraud staff 3 days to review an order, you wouldn't get your transaction fees back.

Perhaps I'm being naive, but how is it that someone is able to investigate and discover "fraud" when 2CO has overlooked it? Somehow I assumed that these gateways have access to the latest updated information on a credit card.

Just because someone has the latest "fraud" information doesn't mean that they have ALL of the information as it's been explained here. What you need is an in depth analyzer, something that can't really be provided by 2co, but SHOULD be provided by your billing client (Drams, modernbill, etc) and looks for fraudulent material, such as:

A> does the BIN match the country?
B> is the order taking place within, say 1 mile of the individual's home address?
and on and on and on.

This will help reduce any and all fraud risks. Unfortunately, most don't implement those, because they must be implemented into the billing client itself, NOT the processor. The only one that I've seen successfully do this is modernbill. Hopefully(hopefully) we'll see more and more billing clients add this to the list of stuff for their clients.

As others have said, fraud verification is far from instant. This is why most CC companies allow 6 months for chargebacks, because they KNOW that it's possible to lose a card, not realize it's gone and then when you go to look for it, realize it's gone. An example of this:

I have three cc's (debit cards), all tied to different banking institutions (paypal, 2 US bank for personal and business). Now I rarely use the personal card, and I mean rarely, because most of my stuff is business related. Do I always check to make sure it's in my wallet? If I don't use it, no, I don't.. Could it be stolen? Quite as easily as anything could be stolen from anyone. The difference is -=I=- monitor my bank statements daily, most don't. Most wouldn't realize it was stolen until the person decided to use the card, or they went to use the card and found it wasn't there.

Now, that's extreme, but it's a reality. The best way to handle any credit card processing is through AVS, THEN through another verification process, at the billing client level, so if something is fraudulent it's never even sent to the processor.

Of course, the best bet is always getting a real processor and moving away from those that would hold your funds for weeks on end, but in many cases, unfortunately that's not an option.

Originally posted by linux-tech
A> does the BIN match the country?
B> is the order taking place within, say 1 mile of the individual's home address?
and on and on and on.

Sorry - what is a "BIN"? And how can I know if an order is taking place within 1 mile of the home address? I know that I've ordered far more from my work address than from home.

Of course, the best bet is always getting a real processor and moving away from those that would hold your funds for weeks on end, but in many cases, unfortunately that's not an option.

What is a "real processor"? Is there a hard line between real processors and (whatever you call processors that aren't real)? Is there a list if real vs. non-real processors somewhere?

When I was in Driver's Ed, we were told that EVERY DAY, before we start up our car, we should check all of the engine fluid levels and the air pressure on all of the tires. Is this the safe way? Yes. Is it absurd? Yes. Do any experienced drivers actually do it? Maybe a dozen in the world.

With all due respect, the steps you're talking about remind me of this. I know a good number of merchants, and I KNOW that they don't take these steps, aside from the glaringly obvious, e.g., the credit card belongs to someone in Iowa, and the items are to be shipped to Singapore.

But maybe this comes down to my ignorance of "real" vs. non-real processors. My client is a woman with minimal experience with computers and technology. She was referred to 2CO by a trade organization she belongs to, so that's what I'm using.

My clients want a 3rd party cc processor to do ALL of the work.