"Call Center" -  What do you do? 

"Call Center" does not HAVE to mean more charges and higher rates!

Consider using one-time use credit card numbers, called "controlled payment numbers" or "virtual account numbers," for your online purchases. Controlled payment numbers help protect your privacy and your security. They are substitute numbers that let you shop online without using your real credit card number.

Typically, controlled payment numbers expire after one use (although their use can be extended for repeating monthly bills). These substitute numbers link back to your credit card number without you ever having to reveal your actual credit card number when you shop.

"The big issues are phishing and identity theft. And what happens from a technology perspective is, as the keepers of data become more sophisticated, so do the criminals," says Penny Gillespie, a Cambridge, MA-based senior analyst for Forrester Research Inc.'s financial services group. "The problem [these numbers] are tackling is the merchant who stores credit card numbers on servers where they are accessible to whoever has access to the merchant databases."

The benefit is that if the substitute credit card number is stolen, such as in this case of the 40 million MasterCard and other credit card numbers, the substitute number would be worthless and your real credit card number would not be compromised.

There are at least two credit card issuers who offer this service: Citibank and Discover Financial Services. For more information, visit:

Citibank (Virtual Account Numbers)

Discover Card (Discover Deskshop).

American Express HAD a similar program, which they introduced in September 2000, but alas, it is no longer available.  They tout their "on-line fraud system" will protect the cardholders, of course leaving merchants holding the bad... again.

If all online purchases were made using one-time numbers, the cardholders would be safer, the merchants more protected, and the problems caused by data loss would be prevented forever.  Unfortunately, this would cost the card issuing banks' money, and deprive them of chargeback fees, so don't hold your breath.

  Shield your system!   Zone Alarm Personal sets up an internal firewall that alerts you when a program attempts to access the Internet.  It knows about browsers, email apps and such, but will inform you even if a commercial program attempts to 'call home'!  You will be surprised how many software packages send data to their manufacturers, often without telling you!  Zone Alarm gives you the option of saying "NO"!  If you are a company using a local network, you can specify a range of your internal addresses (192.168.1.1..255 for LinkSys) so your computers can still share files and peripherals. 

One of the most frustrating things that can happen to a merchant (especially a mobile merchant) is the dreaded "DECLINED - Call Center" message.  The "standard" procedure to handle this (or at least the procedure the card associations promote), is for the MERCHANT to call the voice center (a $1.50 charge), and get a voice authorization for the sale.  Often, an operator will come on line (another delay) and ask questions about the sale, ask if the customer is present, etc.  Then you have to KEY THE TRANSACTION in, using the "Force" button on your PC or terminal, turning your swiped transaction into a keyed one, raising the percentage you pay for the transaction.

Why does this happen?  First, we need to understand who actually issues the authorizations or declines.  These are sent by the bank that issued the credit card.  A "Declined - Call Center" is sent when the card issuing bank wants to keep an eye on a particular account.  There are many reasons they want to do this, some of them include:  unusual spending activity, change in purchasing patterns, or possibly the card is being watched because it may have been compromised.

What can I do when I get the "DECLINED - Call Center" message?  You have 3 options:  

1) You can go through the voice authorization process, paying the $1.50 fee, and then key in the transaction (when you get to a terminal or PC), and pay the higher rate! 

2) Have the customer call the 800 number on the back of his credit card, identify himself, and ask his bank to remove the restriction on his card!  Remember- the card was DECLINED by HIS bank, the problem is REALLY between your customer and their bank, you should not have to pay more for his bank's decision to watch a particular card.  After he has called and resolved his issue(s), just swipe the transaction, and get a "clean" authorization!

3) Just ask the customer for a different card, possibly the easiest option of the three.

The next time you are in the field swiping, or taking a card in your office, and you get the "Declined- Call Center" message, you won't have to scream in anguish.... you know what to do!

One thing to remember, this is a "Decline", and the card may very well be fraudulent!  If the customer hesitates or refuses to call and identify himself to his bank, you might want to think twice about taking any other card he may have.  Check his Identification carefully!

Hometown Fireworks Inc., is one of our seasonal businesses that uses our wireless technology to get swiped transactions anywhere.  They use our Treo 300 and Pocket Merchant package for their fireworks stands.

Brad Thomas, president of Hometown says: "I will start out by saying that if more companies had customer service like Advanced Merchant [Merchant Anywhere] does, it would be a happier world we live in! Their people are FANTASTIC! They totally went out of their way to help me over the hill."

Far and away the best product on the market today! So easy to use, I have 13 units in the field for 10 days of the year. The people running the machines aged from 18 to 74 years old had zero training and it was a breeze!

Hometown Fireworks Inc. would recommend this product/service to any mobile person or company out there today with full confidence. They receive a 10 in my book!"

One of the most inexpensive and useful items a merchant can own is a manual imprinter.  With a Swiped Transaction, it can provide you with Chargeback Protection (see column one)!  It can also provide a backup if you are out of wireless, range, or if your network or Internet provider is having problems.  When storing swiped transactions on your PDA (for instance, if you were out of range), a manual imprint gives you a permanent copy of the cardholder information should your PDA be lost, stolen, or damaged before you get back in range.  All in all, since your livelihood depends on credit card transactions, there is no better $50 investment!  Our Imprinter bundle includes 300 sales slips, at 30% of their normal price!  

ORDER FREE MERCHANT MATERIALS HERE!!!

Copyright (c) 2004 Advanced Merchant Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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