Get the Fax Before You Act

Members of the ISP-Invoicing list lay down the law about charging credit cards and running a merchant account for better billing. It's a good idea—but beware of alluring shortcuts.

[September 26, 2002]

On the ISP-Invoicing list in September, CC explained,

"In the past, most of our billing has been through services such as iBill or PayPal. We are moving to a full-fledged merchant account, but we just found out we're supposed to obtain faxed written permission before we start recurring payments. Isn't this a hassle? What about all the companies that don't do that-are they going through another provider? How could we get around this? And are there any other hassles regarding merchant accounts I should know about?"

PT suggested that it's worth the hassle:

"Don't try to get around getting written permission. Even if it is a hassle, you'll be glad you established that practice the very first time you have a huge chargeback after someone has been through a dozen billing cycles and then decides you were never authorized to do all those recurring charges on their card. Plus, if your merchant provider requires such written permission, then to go around it would leave you open to prosecution by the merchant provider if there are ever any monetary damages to either party as a result of your actions."

Others warned that it's enough of a hassle that it could turn off potential customers:

[RD advised] "It is a hassle, and personally, I think that the hassle far outweighs the benefit. I also believe that many legitimate potential clients can't be bothered, and will sign up instead with a host that doesn't require a fax back. This is why most hosting companies, including all of the ones I've been involved with, don't require it."

[MK agreed] "I don't have customers sign or fax anything. They just call in whenever they want to make a payment, or they just let us know if they want to do it for them automatically."

—End