Using Propay for shows and website, info needed please!

Byrdbeads · #1 2006-09-09, 10:59pm

Hi After 4 years of making beads and jewelry I am finally foraying into the selling. Would love to be able to take CC at shows but not sure how it is done. With propay you can use internet but most shows you wont have a connection (no i dont have a satelite connection LOL so not an option) or for the higher fee you can use a phone (woudl assume a cell is ok for this unless you dont have reception if not let me know please!) DO any of you use this and how do you process the transaction at a show? Do you wait till you get home then run the charges and if so how often are you stiffed for the charge, if at all? Do you use a knucklebuster to get the info at the show just to have the info to process at home or just write it on the reciept? All so confusing and I thought getting the pictures for the website was the challenge LOL. (well still is but movign forward LOL) Any help or info would be appreciated. Propay's fees seem reasonable for someone jsut starting out so if you came actross any other fees thatwere a suprise or if you had any problems witht hem please let me know. Also, becasue of the fees involved with CC's is it ok to have a min purchase if using a CC like 20.00? And another thing (this is turnign into a real book here LOL) I was thinking of the second level account to be able to take AE and Discover, any problems with these on getting payments?

Beyond the Bead · #2 2006-09-28, 1:26pm

So I'll bump this back up and see if anyone can give us some info and feedback on Propay... Pro's... Con's... Please share your advice and experiences!
Thank you,

angelinabeadalina · #3 2006-09-28, 2:05pm

Too late for this Saturday, but I'd like to know, too.

Karen Hardy · #4 2006-09-28, 4:09pm

I think that the credit card companies have very firm policies about you NOT
having minimum amounts - you'll have to check to be certain, but another vendor told me that.

As for propay - I just signed up with them so I can take cc's at my show tomorrow. I bought a knucklebuster and I have charge slips - so I'll have
a paper trail in case someone tries to dispute the charges.

Wish me luck....

mnoelker · #5 2006-09-28, 4:09pm

Just got Propay and used it at my first show 2 weeks ago. It's easy to do. You just call in the charge from your cell phone and get an approval code. Sometimes I waited until the customer left (I knew a lot of people at the show) to call it in because it does take a couple of mintues to enter all the info and get the approval code.

I had no problems and would recommend it so far. It sure makes taking ccs at shows easy.

Mary

rubytwoshoes · #6 2006-09-28, 4:56pm

I also used Propay for my last show. It was great. I used my cell phone to get approval and didn't have any problems. The only thing to keep in mind is it does take a couple minutes per transaction so that would be two or three minutes that your eyes are not on your table. This could mean trouble if you are busy and by yourself. Also be sure to remind your customer about the charge on their bill because they may not recognize it. I had a lady call me several weeks later and ask me about a charge that she didn't remember. Could have been a chargeback if I hadn't have had the invoice receipt with her address on it.

Beyond the Bead · #7 2006-09-28, 10:06pm

the "Knucklebuster" machine and slips, but doesn't call each transaction in until the end of the day???

Sometimes I get so busy, I don't know how I would call each one in (and some shows have no reception). Anyone ever have problems with that?

I have vendors do that to me all the time at bead shows, they just imprint my card, write down my phone # and Driver's License ID, and have me sign it. No machine, no call in.

Am I too trusting to think that would work????

bead crazy · #8 2006-09-28, 10:33pm

I use Propay and I am to affraid of getting a bad credit card so I call each one in through my cell phone. Be sure to get the phone number and there zip I ask for a address. Then I can have a mailing list too. I also always check ID like a drivers lic. If you have that number you would have proof along with there signature and will avoid charge backs. I also write on each charge slip ahead of time so they will know what the charge will be on there credit card bill. I put my business name and your email it the name that would be on there bill. I also give them my card too.
Lori

zen-mom · #9 2006-09-29, 8:31am

I use Propay... & I use a knuckle buster and charge slips. In my shop I wait till the end of the day and do them all at once. At shows I do the same thing. I've only had to take a CC a few times, most people have cash and/or a check. I only take local checks (I've never done a show more than a few hours away from home) and I make sure I get all the information possible. I think I'm more worried about taking checks... you can always keep trying the card until it clears... if you did that with a check you'd have to pay all those lousy NSF bank fees.
I also have a $20 minimum in my store... when the CC companies pay my transaction fees they can decide about whether or not I have a minimum. What are they gonna do, take my knuckle buster away? : )

LoriBird · #10 2006-10-07, 4:47am

It's ok to send these peoples CC #'s over an unsecured phone line like a cell phone? I know when I call in my own orders buying things over the phone..I switch from my cordless to my hard wire phone because I know cordless phone calls can be listened to....If anyone knows for sure about the cell phone thing please post! I'm curious about propay too.
xoxo
lori

Byrdbeads · #11 2006-11-01, 4:02pm

Thanks for the replies! Im going to go with Propay for shows and also for website for now. Fees and minimum at my bank are a little extreme. Getting a sep checkign account tomorrow so can have propay set up for the Christman show I have in 2 weeks. Have several other larger shows lined up about every other weekend till mid December. Hoping they are as good as the smaller, local ones. Have been really happy with the sales at the one dayers. Thanks again for the info. Reading all the archicves and your replies have calmed me down a bit about all the business side of things.

whimzicalities · #12 2006-11-01, 5:31pm

I've been using a similar system to accept credit cards for about a year and a half now through this provider:

Touch-Pay

The discount rate is a bit high, but it has a low monthly minimum and no contract which was good for me. It's a bit unwieldy to use if you have lots of shows and process a lot of cards. I've never had any complaints from customers and have found it to be easy to use.

If a sale is higher than I'm comfortable with (say anything over $200) or the customer seems a bit off, I'll process on the spot, but I'll usually process them all at the end of the day. I've only had 2 cards that were declined, one for $40 and one for $60, and for each I called the customer and got a new card number.

I know there are lots of other systems out there that are easier to use, but if you don't want to get stuck in a long contract, this seems to work fairly well.

i09172 · #13 2006-11-02, 2:24pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Byrdbeads

Hi After 4 years of making beads and jewelry I am finally foraying into the selling. Would love to be able to take CC at shows but not sure how it is done. With propay you can use internet but most shows you wont have a connection (no i dont have a satelite connection LOL so not an option) or for the higher fee you can use a phone (woudl assume a cell is ok for this unless you dont have reception if not let me know please!) DO any of you use this and how do you process the transaction at a show? Do you wait till you get home then run the charges and if so how often are you stiffed for the charge, if at all? Do you use a knucklebuster to get the info at the show just to have the info to process at home or just write it on the reciept? All so confusing and I thought getting the pictures for the website was the challenge LOL. (well still is but movign forward LOL) Any help or info would be appreciated. Propay's fees seem reasonable for someone jsut starting out so if you came actross any other fees thatwere a suprise or if you had any problems witht hem please let me know. Also, becasue of the fees involved with CC's is it ok to have a min purchase if using a CC like 20.00? And another thing (this is turnign into a real book here LOL) I was thinking of the second level account to be able to take AE and Discover, any problems with these on getting payments?

Hi Byrdbeads,

I can't answer your questions about Propay. We use a company called "Global Payments". Same sort of thing, though. We're getting near the end of our third year doing shows and events and we've run quite a few credit cards so I can tell you how we do it and why. When a customer presents a credit card we run it through an imprinter (knucklebuster). This gives us a copy of the customer's card number and expiration date. We write down the amount of the sale and the CCV number (the three digit code from the back of the card) on the recipt and ask the customer to sign and to add their phone number above their signature. Sometimes, on sales over $200 or so we will call the sale in for verification fairly quickly but, in most cases, we wait until either that evening or, if we don't have cell phone reception, until the Monday after the show. It's usually just too busy at the show for us to call in every card immediately. Out of all the cards we've run we've only had two that were declined. In both cases a call to the customer cleared up the problem. BOth were very apologetic and one gave us a different card number and the other sent a check. So, knock on wood, we've never had a bad card. The credit card slips give us a bit of proof that the customer actually made the purchase which helps some, I think, against chargebacks. Our merchant account requires that we keep the cards secure for a period of (I think) two years after which time we can destroy them. We store them in a safe in our house to help protect our customers. We accept credit cards for any amount (although I will admit that it's sometimes a pain to write up three or four slips in a row for customers buying earrings) as our feeling is that a sale is a sale.

Again, I'm not familiar with Propay. The folks we use for our Merchant account are usually pretty good but it is very important to follow up in a day or so, to ensure that the money from the sales was actually deposited in your bank account. If there are any problems with our deposit our Merchant account providers will NOT notify us. We need to check with them when we learn of an issue. They are great in straightening things out once we've contacted them but they will NOT contact us. So we keep a very close eye on our bank account after the show is over to ensure that all of our funds get deposited correctly. Fortunately, in the three years that we've used them, we've only had a problem once and it was quickly cleared up once I called them.

We also gladly accept checks and, again, have never had a bad one. We actually prefer checks, if the customer asks, because we don't have to pay a percentage of the sale to our Merchant account provider like we do for credit cards. With a check we also make certain that we have a phone number listed although I suppose, if someone wanted to rip us off, they'd just give us a bad number. So far, that hasn't happened and I think that the majority of the people that come to the shows to buy are honest and straightforward. If we ever do get a bad check or card we'll write it off as a cost of doing business and try to remember that most people aren't like that.

Good luck to you in your venture!

Vickie · #14 2006-11-02, 7:10pm

I use Teamac. I quit them and went with Propay and am now back with Teamac. I liked Propay until I had a problem. I only bought the basic account because normally I don't take too many cards at a show. Then in October I did 2 shows and ran over my monthly limit. I knew what was going to happen and contacted customer service via live chat. I was told I could have my limit temporarily raised with no cost to me. This was not true!!!

You also have to email limits@propay and it may be 2-3 days before you hear from them. If you don't hear from them, you email again and wait another 2-3 days. In the mean time you are getting auto-responses telling you this. Then they tell you about your limits and how if it is over the per transaction limit you can do 2 or more transactions. DUH! Like I can't figure that out. Then I was told I would have to upgrade my account. I told them repeatedly I didn't want to upgrade my account since I only have one more show for the year. They still told me I would have to upgrade. So, basically, I feel like customer service didn't know what they were talking about and the limits people completely missed my point. So I went running back to Teamac.

Teamac also knows their stuff regarding wireless and they specialize in taking care of artists! I found them through a friend. They also have rave reviews on the Crafts Report forum as well as American Craft.

Plus, with propay it takes 2-3 days for the funds to get into your propay account and another 2-3 days to get into your bank account after you transfer it, unless you get the premium account. Then you can get a debit card. That's at least 6 days to get your money and they charge you another 35 cents to transfer it to your bank account. With Teamac, I process on the phone and the money is in my account in 24 to 48 hours, usually the next day.

Also, if you have a problem on the weekend or after normal business hours, you are out of luck because they are closed.

I use a knucklebuster at shows and process when I get either home or to my hotel room.

One more thing with propay, if you don't get their Zip code you will NOT be able to process the card. Ask me how I know. One of my customers didn't put her phone number or her zip code on the slip like I asked her to do and I didn't catch it. Fortunately, I was able to find her on the web and got her zip code so I could run the card.

Sorry, didn't mean to write a novel here.

Byrdbeads · #15 2006-11-03, 2:47am

Thanks for the info Vickie! Will keep track with it and see how it works out. I have got the premier account incase I had a large sale and have 4 large weekends commign up in the next 2 months so hope it is worth it LOL I woudl rather just stick with checks nad cash but I have had lots of people ask if I took CC's and lost a few sales because I didnt. Im thinking there will be a lot of Christmas shopping with CC's so wanted to be able to take them. Will keep the other one in mind if I have any problems whit them. So far I have had plenty of help manning my table with my sister and cousin comming with me (LOL actualy BEGGING) to let them go LOLLOL Both of them have been invaluable and know more about the selling part than I do LOL so they have been teaching me as well. Bonus is it is free labor to I do pay them in jewelry. Thanks again!

mnoelker · #16 2006-11-05, 9:05am

Update on Propay...At my last show I was unable to call any sales in. The only way to contact them is through live chat so I couldn't get any help until I got home. Then I entered them on my computer and thankfully had no problems. According to Propay there were no problems reported that weekend. I certainly had a problem and will switch to a different service if it happens again.

Mary

evilglass · #17 2006-11-06, 6:13am

I used paypal to take credit cards this weekend at a show. I did have a laptop and an aircard for basically wireless dialup. Worked like a charm, and paypal's usual fees were deducted, nothing else.

Whimsey · #18 2006-12-16, 3:28pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karen Hardy

I think that the credit card companies have very firm policies about you NOT
having minimum amounts - you'll have to check to be certain, but another vendor told me that.

As for propay - I just signed up with them so I can take cc's at my show tomorrow. I bought a knucklebuster and I have charge slips - so I'll have
a paper trail in case someone tries to dispute the charges.

Wish me luck....

What is a knuclebuster and charge slips and where do you get them from?

Dasi · #19 2006-12-17, 5:57am

I have used propay for 1 1/2 years and they were fine. Thanksgiving weekend the phone autherization was down the whole weekend. I took about 60 credit cards without authorization. All got approved by the computer after the show. None were declined.
I also went over my maximum since I could not keep track of what I was taking in. I guess that is a good thing.
I still had some slips to authorize after I reached my limit of charges for the month. They just upped my limit, and they cleared. I was happy with that. They were very easy to deal with. I even got calls from a live person.

I like not having a monthly fee. I sometimes have two shows in a month and then 3 months off so this works for me.

I also use a knuckle buster. It is a Credit card imprinter. Type it into any search and all the items you need to purchase pop up. IT works great.
I bought a kit the first time. It had credit/debit slips, and the imprinter with a plate of my information on it. I paid about $50 for everything with the shipping and the special plate. I needed it fast so I may have overpaid??

JavaGirlBT · #20 2006-12-17, 6:42am

Heather, I always take credit cards the way you did that weekend. I just plug in the info online the next day. I've never had a problem with a declined card. I always get a phone # in case there are problems but I've never had any. I really like ProPay.

Dasi · #21 2006-12-17, 8:05am

I usually verify any card over $100 during the show at a slow time when I do not have a customer. If it is a sale over about $300, I take the 3 minutes to do it on the spot. I have a few large purchases that I would have liked to not take blindly. Many of my sales are for 32.10. 30 + tax. I never worry about those charges until later that night.
I have been happy with program offered by propay. I just wish their statements of our income were designed a little different.

Vickie · #22 2006-12-17, 8:48am

Heather, that's amazing. I went over my limit one month and they (propay) would not raise it. Told me I would have to upgrade my account, after I had already been told my customer service that my limit would be raised without charge to me. I was so mad I went back to my old company. At least with my old company the funds are directly deposited into my bank account usually the next day.

Byrdbeads · #23 2006-12-17, 6:29pm

I do have to say that it has been a great thing to be able to take credit cards. If not than my sales would have only been about 1/4th of what they were. The last show of the 800 some we took in, close to 600 was cc's. Was hoping for a lot more sales but location problems and the neighbor booth was the problem there. I did have a few times that a Debit card was declined. Once on the phone in and once on the online. The first one, the customer went ahead nad used a reg cc so I thought it was the fact it was a debit card. The second time I tried calling it in the next day before I called the customer and it was accepted so wonder what the deal is with that. Will call in Debit cards form now on tho at the time. Also someone mentioned an "air card" for online at shows. Whats that and how does it work???? I have a new laptop that is wireless capable so that may work for me too. I always call charges over 100 too. Thanks for all the info on this guys. Now to just get to some shows that run smoothly or have actual customers would really be nice! Merry Holidays all!

Frit Diva · #24 2006-12-17, 10:36pm

I've used Propay for over 4 years and never had any problem with them, but it is true you MUST have the zip code or you won't be able to authorize the charge. Also, the more complete info (mailing address, etc) you gather, the better authorization code you get, meaning you are better protected from chargebacks. I use a carbonless invoice form that I created in Word, preprinted with my business info website and phone number, then I hand the customer the slip onm a clipboard and say "now for the written portion of the exam!" and have them fill all their own credit and address info into the blanks on the form. Most people are very pleasant about this, and it's actually a plus from my point of view, since it helps me build a pretty good mailing list at the same time! The customer gets a copy of the invoice that says in prominent type across the bottom that their charges will appear from my email address!

When I needed to increase my limit, Propay told me I couldn't go up to the highest premier level without a brick and mortar store, so instead they increased my charge limit "temporarily", but it has remained at the increased level for over a year now.

I never call in charges during the day at a show, I just trust my gut and have never been stiffed yet (knock on wood!). Also, if I am getting close to my processing limit, I just joke with the customers and say "hey, you wouldn't mind if I didn't process this till the first of the month, would you?" and explain about the processing limit. I've never had anybody object, and sometimes they volunteer to pay cash if they know I will have to wait for the payment.

Dasi · #25 2006-12-21, 9:17am

My husband took a card and forgot to get the zip. I was concerned at first. Then I just entered the zip area that was most common in the area of the show. I got an email that the zip did not match but the card was still processed and everything was fine.

I have had people give me zips that do not match. I now ask for

"the zip associated with the billing address attached to the card. "

Propay sends a special email that tells you there was not a match with the zip. BUT they have given me autherization on the card. I have not worried about it in the past, since I got the autherization on the card before I ever knew the zip did not match. ALL the cards have been fine.....thank goodness....

Hope this helps....

LoriBird · #26 2006-12-28, 6:17am

ok, so, I'm wondering, along w/ wilma, where do you guys get the knucklebusters and how much are they? From your bank or are they in the propay site as you sign up? And the fees they charge...is that a one time fee or a yearly fee? I probably looked right at the answer and missed it...but I swear I've read it 39x! LOL
xoxo
lori

Mr. Smiley · #27 2006-12-28, 5:16pm

It's an anual fee and you can get the knuckle busters on Ebay for about $20.

limamike · #28 2006-12-28, 7:41pm

I use Propay at shows, and have never ever had trouble with processing the cards at the end of the day. Maybe I've just been lucky? But I love Propay, been using it for over two years and it's worked out great.

lunesse · #29 2007-01-04, 2:26pm

dumb question:

How do you know what to put on a plate on a knuckle buster....?

Sometimes they want a merchant #?

Huh?

Dasi · #30 2007-01-05, 5:21am

I put my contact information. Especially the email address attached to my propay account. The email address shows up on the bill to my customers so I felt that was the most important part. I have 4 lines....
Business name
email address
Jacksonville fl
phone...#'s

I did not put my home address! I don't want anyone just showing up but they certainly could find me and do that if they really wanted to....