Overseas ordering again (was: Re: GZG 6/15/25 mm infantry figures questions)

>  >
>>  > Eh? We've had secure shopping facilities for the
>>  online ordering for
>>  > years..... it's a very long time since we asked
>>  anyone to send their
>>  > card details by simple email.
>
>I have been ordering overseas (as from US
>to Europe) for a number of years. I have
>established a number of rules on using
>credit cards and so far so good. The rules
>are:[snip]
>4) Find credit card company that is fast to
>    flag suspicious purchase. Every credit
>    card purchase I make over a certain limit
>    or overseas is flagged. Seller contacts me,
>    I contact credit card issuer and identify
>    myself and authorize purchase and seller
>    reissue goes through (I did this with GZG
>    and warned them it would be flagged).

Can I just point out that though this is generally a very good 
security measure, it DOES cause US a certain amount of problems and 
hassle - it results in the card bouncing when we try to put the 
transaction through (we don't get told the reason for this, as far as 
we know it could just be that you have no credit left!!). We then 
have to email the customer, and wait for a response, which can 
sometimes add a day or two to the overall despatch time, then put the 
card through again. As we don't try to process the card till the 
order is packed and ready to go, it's sitting there all the time 
while we wait for a response.
  In Scott's case, as he mentions above, he did warn us in advance 
that this might happen - but quite often we get transactions that do 
this without warning, and they can get extremely frustrating - we've 
just spent ages picking and packing a large and complex order, and 
then (for an unknown reason) the transaction won't authorise! I then 
have to sit down and write a politely-worded email telling the 
customer that their card bounced, and asking them to please check 
their account and get back to us. This all takes up time when we 
could be packing other people's orders.
  If people DO use this flagging method with their cards (and I'm not 
saying this is not a good idea...), we would very much appreciate it 
if they would talk to their card issuer BEFORE we process the 
transaction (ie: when they place the order with us) to let them know 
that they are placing an order with a UK supplier and therefore a 
payment request will be coming through from us in the UK, and that it 
is OK to authorise it - that way it goes through first time and there 
is no delay on your order going in the mail.

Jon (GZG)

>
>I suspect that over the next few years that the
>ability to make secure purchases will improve.
>
>Scott Siebold