| . | The Following case reported
in the mail list may be of interest to the Cyber Law observers. The point
to be noted here is that Visa seems to have ignored the Web based form
as an evidence of the ccustomer agreeing to the terms of sale. Probably,
if the merchant had insisted on the use of a digital certificate, he would
have been in a better position.
Many merchants are not insisting on Digital certificates because they fear that this may reduce the market for their products. However it may be time to use them atleast when the stakes are high. naavi
From: Brian Marine [mailto:brian@visionwork.com]Subject: Re: Chargebacks on sales Brian Considine wrote:
Apologies for the long post, but I just went through thisfor the first time, Brian, and it's no fun. Back in 10/99, acustomer decided he didn't like the software we sold him andreturned it asking for a refund. Our policy of no refunds onopen software (only defective exchanges) was clearly stated,not only on the receipt we mailed him, but also in multipleplaces on our web site, as well as during the shopping cartordering process. So we returned the software to him statingthis. In late November, my merchant account bank, Humboldt Bank ofCA, notified me there a chargeback dispute with thiscustomer, and asked me to provide documentation, which wedid. A month later they asked me if the customer had signeda copy of our return policy(?), and I said no. This wentback and forth in a morass of paperwork until last week whenHumboldt notified me that we lost our case with Visa,because it is their policy that a company return policy isonly valid if the customer signs something stating it, andthen returns it to you. I told them I wanted to appeal thisto Visa, and they basically said it would cost a lot ofmoney to do this, and that if I lost the case, I would haveto pay the fees, and that they told me they thought I wouldlose since I obviously hadn't complied with their policy. SoI asked my bank how I was supposed to know about thispolicy, since it was not stated anywhere on any of thedocumentation or contracts they had given me when I signedup with them. They basically said, sorry it's Visa's rules. It's easy to have your refund policy in fine print on areceipt a customer signs on a swiped transaction in a retailstore... but as a web/mail order merchant, how am I supposedto get someone to do this? Suppose I ask them to sign andreturn it, and they simply refuse? Basically I'm supposed tofigure that out for myself. And to add insult to injury,since I had already sent the merchandise back to thecustomer prior to knowing about Visa's rules, I am out thecost of the software too, since my customer has gotten hisaccount credited, but refuses to respond to repeated phonecalls & emails asking him to return it to us. At this point, we're still not sure how we're going tohandle this from now on, but it's clear that web-basedbusinesses are at a definite disadvantage if a customerdecides to dispute a sale, unless these rules are changed. Regards,Brian Brian Marine | Digital Pro Audio36 Tamarack Hill Dr., Poughkeepsie, NY 12603800-240-4079 | 914-473-9987 | 914-473-9986 faxhttp://www.digitalproaudio.com/ |
. |
|
|