Payment by Interac E-Transfer (Canada)

Stragus

A buyer demanded to pay by Interac E-Transfer (an instant and low fee bank transfer in Canada), which I enabled for his order.

He tried to have the payment sent to the (very long) BrickOwl address, but that wouldn't go through for some reason. Since email addresses are stripped from all messages, we of course had to resort to unusual syntax to communicate an email address. I had specified the email address to be used in payment's note, but apparently that isn't too visible to the buyer, or it was stripped from there too.

I feel something could be improved there. Could the email address to be used for the E-transfer be made quite clear and visible?

On a very closely related topic, would it be possible to include a discount on certain payment methods? I would love to give a 3% discount for payments by Interac E-transfer (be gone Paypal fees!). I would do a refund, but Interac doesn't permit partial refunds.

Thank you for considering these issues!

BrickItOn

I actually have the same "issue" with deleting email adressen. Sometimes things do go wrong, they just do. As well with paypal. When the initial paypal transfer does not go trough, you need to do some effort to get an emailadres to the customer.

I do understand the reason for the deletion of emailadressen (the fear of selling outside BO), but speaking for myself: When a customer ask for something that I don't have listed yet, the eassiest way to make the sale is simply listing it first for a customer.

And lets face it: When somebody want to sell outside BO, they will.

Personally: Keep emailadressen visible.

Lawrence

If you put the e-mail into the payment instructions on the payment method, it will be shown to them during checkout, after they complete checkout with a big section telling them how much they need to pay and giving them the instructions. Lastly, it is sent in the order confirmation e-mail.

@BrickItOn The deletion of e-mail addresses is not for fear of selling outside of Brick Owl, it is related to how the system works whereby you can respond directly to an e-mail. It is on the development list to come up with a different solution to the problem.

budgetkids

I read an article earlier. I finally found it here to reference it:
http://time.com/money/2962417/amexs-battle-with-the-feds-visa-mastercard-credit-card/

American express terms and conditions forbids anyone who accepts their payment to entice customer to use any other payment method.

Meaning it is cheaper to process the E-Transfer, but you can not give discounts to people who use this method if you accept American Express. However we accept PayPal which in turn accepts America Express, so are we subjected to the ToS of Amex or just PayPal, maybe both?

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert. I am only getting this information from the stated article. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Hoddie

You also have the issue that you're selling through a UK-based platform, and UK/EU law prohibits the variation of pricing based on the payment method used by the customer. I can't say for certain whether or not the non-EU sellers on BO are bound by UK law but I suspect you probably are. Amazon, for instance, are based in Luxembourg/Ireland but are subject to UK consumer laws. I suppose there's next to zero chance of anyone trying to enforce such laws on a US seller though.

Stragus

Thanks Lawrence, so the payment method's note should have been quite visible, and the buyer completely missed it. All right then.

Interesting point, budgetkids. I know that when I purchase some high-end computer hardware ($5k or such), I am offered a 3% discount if I want to pay by cash, check or bank transfer. They have once explained to me that they can't charge 3% extra for paying by credit card (the law forbids it), but they are allowed to offer a 3% discount on every other payment method. That's in Canada of course, I am not familiar with the law elsewhere.