Minor Re-payment / Preordering Update

[stpk4]

Hi guys
just a quick question
i didnt realise the first batch would happen without CC orders = (
I'm in Au with only an Au bank account, what would be the best and fastest way to get my money in for the first batch?

Thanks,

 

[Prometheus]

I think the thread "Working Payment Options", if you haven't already seen it, should hopefully shed some light on that for you. (If not, I would advise e-mailing them directly, by replying to your order confirmation e-mail, and enquiring that way - they are always very quick to reply.)

 

[Alpha2]

Since it's all clear now, maybe you could tell us how many people didn't reorder due to this CC problem?

Yeah, such information will change nothing for me, but you know - it's called curiosity.

Wouldn't it be kinda hard to determin that with the money still coming in? Not everyone is using transfer, some of us are using check or money orders which would probably still be in the mail at this point.

 

[stustaff]

One little thing keeps bugging me.

People keep saying no wonder the bank froze the account they wouldnt want to take on this amount of risk for a product that doesnt exist etc.

But it isnt Craigs bank that would be assuming the risk! it would be the individual card providers, If i pre ordered a product with my barclay card and the product never arrives it would be Barclays that give me the money back not the bank that barclay sent the money too.

this is why to me anyway a lot of the reasons being guessed at dont seem quite right...

 

[mali]

There might be automated message chains. Bank freezes account, account gets a red flag, money senders(CC-companies) are informed. Too many variables are still unknown. Every guesswork will just be another swiss cheese, full of holes.

Edit:
Forget that. Craig once said, that the only way to free the money, was to re-fund.

 

[gaterooze]

I'm in Au with only an Au bank account, what would be the best and fastest way to get my money in for the first batch?

Ask your bank, they will probably send a transfer for you. The Commonwealth does them online, for example.

 

[Monk]

One little thing keeps bugging me.

People keep saying no wonder the bank froze the account they wouldnt want to take on this amount of risk for a product that doesnt exist etc.

But it isnt Craigs bank that would be assuming the risk! it would be the individual card providers, If i pre ordered a product with my barclay card and the product never arrives it would be Barclays that give me the money back not the bank that barclay sent the money too.

this is why to me anyway a lot of the reasons being guessed at dont seem quite right...

Banks are, as I believe is well known, a bunch of thieving bar tenders. Yes - your Barclays bank would refund you - but you can bet your last penny that they will do their very best to extract whatever they pay you from someone else - and OpenPandora's bank would be an obvious next choice.

I was enjoying an article on the BBC News channel the other day where a banking representative was defending the fact that banks are leery of giving credit at the moment, and the reporter repeatedly tried to get them to answer whether the bank would actually pay the amounts that were defaulted or whether they were covered by insurance. The banker eventually admitted that they wouldn't be out of pocket themselves directly but that wasn't the point - the point was to avoid situations where chargebacks and defaults and so on occurred - to be more fiscally responsible.

Banks may insure you, but (except when they are being exceptionally greedy and overconfident) they turn right around an lay the liability off on someone else. Craigs bank, being a bunk of thieving bar stuards themselves, know full well that if OpenPandora vanish with a million and a half pounds having not provided the goods, that a million and a half pounds worth of vengeance from other banks will be visited upon them. And other banks/credit card companies DO have the funds to pay for great lawyers, where we (individually, at least) do not.

Of course, this doesn't say that the speculations about why the banks have/did/might have been silly are TRUE - but certainly HSBC could be exposed to considerable potential risk from masses of credit card orders.

 

[Alpha2]

No the bank isnt going to pay you anything until they get the money back from he bank you sent it to. And the work they'll do to get that money ranges from "none" to "battering ram and catapults". Banks fear the second option and dont want to have to go through that if they run into trouble. That's why pay pal gets so strict it's too easy for someone to rip another person off through transfers and digital payments for real items.

Somewhere a long the line if Craig wasn't onthe level the banks would end up having to deal with requests and demands from a dozen banks all demanding the money back in varying level of politeness and tieing up their business for days to that end.

 

[chiark]

But it isnt Craigs bank that would be assuming the risk! it would be the individual card providers,

That's not how credit card processing and liability works. For cardholder not present transactions, the risk is almost always with the merchant, and only recently have things started to get a little better for them. If the merchant has no money, the risk is with the merchant acquirer.

The risk would be with the merchant acquirer bank (Craig's bank) because these are Cardholder Not Present transactions, and they didn't use VBV or SecureCode and these are CNP transactions. At least that's my understanding.

 

[Prometheus]

The risk would be with the merchant acquirer bank (Craig's bank) because these are Cardholder Not Present transactions, and they didn't use VBV or SecureCode and these are CNP transactions. At least that's my understanding.

Hope you don't mind me making a note of this here, but both Verified By Visa and Mastercard Secure Code were options, which I understand are meant to be used if your card issuer requires them, during the credit card ordering process provided by Protx.

 

[lobski]

Bank Transfer:


How can we send our original order number to you guys when making a bank transfer, so you'll know our place in line? How does this work?

 

[mali]

There is a 'Reference' field where you put your order number.

 

[Nightwind0]

I have no options available to me besides a credit card transaction. Do I really need to wait 4-5 months? No other choice what so ever?
As of right now, we can only accept bank transfers, checks and money orders. I suppose there is also the option of flying to England and handing over a wad of cash.

We may be able to come up with a better solution in less than 4-5 months, but I can make no guarantees.

By then, won't the systems actually exist and it becomes ordering instead of pre-ordering? And then shouldn't CC work just like for the other stuff at the stores???

 

[Chip]

By then, won't the systems actually exist and it becomes ordering instead of pre-ordering? And then shouldn't CC work just like for the other stuff at the stores???
The fact that the units haven't actually been manufactured yet is only part of the problem. Banks simply aren't willing to take large numbers of orders from new companies at all. Even if we were shipping Pandoras today, we'd still be unable to take credit card orders until the bank decides to "review our account".

It's a catch-22. They are unwilling to take orders for an unestablished company because we might go out of business, but it is incredibly hard to establish yourself when you can't take orders. If it wasn't for the fact that you guys are awesome and are going the extra mile to pay with transfers / checks / MOs, we might be in some danger of going out of business. I don't see how any new company could have a chance these days without either a huge amount of startup capital or a dedicated fan base.