PO Boxes- an idea whose time come.. and gone! 

Formerly a good idea, PO and MBE boxes can create problems.

 
In our last two issues, we have been warning that there are still reports of high volumes of counterfeit Postal Money Orders and Cashier's checks being circulated. 

We have warned merchants to treat Money Orders and Cashier's checks like personal checks..  Wait for them to clear prior to shipment.

Michael Hawkins of Tutu.com writes in: "My local bank-branch tells me they cannot determine a counterfeit MO or cashiers check by sight, and that it can take weeks, even months, for some international MO's and cashiers checks to actually clear the originating bank.  Which kinda kills the concept of delaying shipment for 3 to 10 days.  They also tell me the only way I will know whether an MO or check is actually cleared is if it doesn't bounce sometime in the next several days/weeks/months."

International does pose some specific problems, we agree. The counterfeit checks and MO's reported have all been domestic (so far).   For International, check with your bank, and make sure your account cannot be ACH'd from abroad, and can accept wire transfers instead.   We set up a SEPARATE account for this, and keep $5.00 in the account.  When someone wants to send us money, we give them wire transfer instructions.  Wells Fargo accounts accept the transfers at a central, San Francisco location, so your local branch can make sure nobody ACH's OUT- Just Wire transfers IN.

A wire is safe, bank-to-bank, and confirmed.   If a customer balks- remember the "long story" rule:  The longer the story: "why I cannot do that, and I must do it THIS way...." the higher the probability that it is fraud.  Also, the more believable the story is, the more likely he is a practiced fraudster sitting in a warehouse of stolen products.

A Treo 650 for only $329??  One of our merchants called us with this deal.  If you are a business (and all of our merchants are), and you have a Federal EIN (which you can get online), Sprint's Business Web site has this special: (if you go to a Sprint store, you better print the page and bring it with you- they might not believe it!). 

A long time ago, the common wisdom was to have your private mailings sent to a PO box. This would prevent people from taking your incoming credit cards, reports, and financial data. Not that today's reports are required to have confidential data suppressed (like Social Security numbers, Credit card numbers, etc), and even credit cards are useless unless activated on the cardholder's home phone, that rationale is no longer true, and in fact, can cause a number of problems.

First and foremost, small merchants cannot afford to ship to you when your AVS does not match!  Sure, Amazon.com will let you have a separate bill-to and ship-to, but a smaller merchants cannot absorb the loss if there is a chargeback, so unless you have had your shipping address added to your AVS record, many merchants will not ship to you!

When you apply for anything involving credit,  and you use a "mailbox etc" type address, it IMMEDIATELY sets a "Possible Fraud" flag on your application.  These are the addresses that the fraudsters hide behind!  Companies like Access USA specialize in this activity, forming the perfect US based "front" for overseas fraudsters, and credit organizations put up red flags whenever they see one of these in use.  Take a look at their site (link above): the page could easily be titled "How to rip-off stupid American merchants"!

Finally, the simple matter of safety and time.  People in some cities or areas are far more likely to be attacked or mugged going to the PO daily than having their identity stolen.  I don't know about you, but my time is FAR too valuable for a daily run to the post office.  All the companies are truncating or suppressing card, SS#, and other numbers now (by law), so the reason for this is long gone.  Helping us educate the public to stop this practice, or at least have their banks add their physical addresses will help all merchants!

There ARE some valid uses for PO and Mail box companies... If you are receiving checks or other negotiable instruments and are not available to accept the deliveries, or if you have a web site and you want a "junk mail" address for the automated address harvesters to find and use, the PO box is still useful.  Tying your credit cards and financial data to a non-existent physical address can end up causing more problems than it solves.  

When you go to a Ben Taylor Band concert, you may not get their autograph, but they will probably get yours!  After a concert, (and they will be starting soon, to promote their new album "Another run around the Sun") the band members pull out their Treo 600's and start swiping! 

"Merchandise sales are probably about half of our income right now. It's critical to be able to sell things at the shows," says Larry Ciancia, Ben's drummer, in an interview with Mobility Magazine. "We used to turn away a lot of people that didn't carry cash to the show, and so we lost a lot of sales opportunities."

"We used to see other bands with the ability to take credit cards and print receipts right on the spot, and we were definitely jealous," said Dominic Keska, the band's merchandize coordinator, in the same interview. "Now we don't have to deny sales to folks that don't carry cash."

Ben Taylor himself raves about the system: “With MerchantAnywhere, we can have everybody's money, how great!!!  What a sexy little piece of technology (and [Our Rep] ain’t so bad himself...).”

Visit the Ben Taylor band online at Iris Records, or at BenTaylorBand.com.  

 
See all of our newsletters in our newsletter archive!  Get tips and tricks, previews of new product announcements, tips to prevent fraud, Free stuff, and much, much more.

ORDER FREE MERCHANT MATERIALS HERE!!!

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

  See all of our newsletters

Merchant Information is a newsletter that is available to all members of MerchantAnywhere.com and Advanced Merchant Solutions, Inc. This newsletter is provided as an informational tool designed to keep you up-to-date on the latest news and tools available for mobile commerce and merchant processing. As with all user information, we do not give or sell your personal information to any outside company for its use in marketing or solicitation. To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please reply with “REMOVE” in the subject line.  All of our merchant applicants should be receiving this email newsletter.  If you would like to subscribe, send an email with "SUBSCRIBE" in the subject to: merchantapp@merchantanywhere.com.  If you are currently receiving the newsletter, and would like to be removed from the mailing list, send an email with the word "REMOVE' in the subject to: inform@merchantanywhere.com . Once removed, we cannot reinstate that email address, you must re-subscribe with another.