Posted by Ed on March 27th, 2006 — in Random
From glueing 200+ red envelopes. Elmer’s glue sucks! Anyhow, it’s in the mail.
Suz and I have been altering our diets. Instead of not caring about the amount of sugars, carbs, etc. we’re taking in, we’re actually reading the labels. Everything is whole wheat grains and low sugar everywhere. No juices, water only. Essentially, I have turned into a major gas making machine. It is non-stop farts since changing diets. I assume because of the brown rice and crazy amounts of vegetables I eat now, my body is having a romp digesting all of it. By-product being gas of course. So while I’m running on the eliptical, a squeaker slips by sometimes. It’s really un-controllable!
I bought Suz her wedding band the other day. She’s all giddy and happy. The jeweler tried to sell me my wedding band at just about the same price. Suz has diamonds on hers, I have 14 carats of jack shit! Come on! That’s highway robbery Mr. Jeweler! So I am wedding band-less.
We actually haven’t booked our honeymoon yet. Here are some choices:
- Greece
- St. Lucia
- Mexico somewhere
- Taiwan
Ok, that last one I snuck in there. So, any thoughts?
5 Comments »
Posted by Ed on March 17th, 2006 — in Technology, Random, Internet
Since I own a dot com company, so I’ve been conducting sales as a true online merchant accepting all major forms of credit cards. As a consumer, I’m sure some of you have issued chargebacks through your CC company. Whether it be magazine orders that show up without warning or that charge you made at Club Super Sexe that somehow you don’t remember, it all goes back to the merchant.
What exactly happens when you do this? Does it really somehow magically disappear from your statement and you feel cleansed? Not exactly, it actually costs merchants money. Now in my case, often times when someone issues a chargeback, it’s done by mistake. They accept the charge for annual service then forget about it. Twelve months later they see a charge from my company for renewal and they cry bloody murder. This is where kittens die.
When you, the customer, issue a chargeback it starts a chain of events. First, your credit card bank or company issues a hold on the charge. My merchant account processor receives notification of this and promptly stops the charge. If it’s an old charge, they reached into my business account and withdraw the money. They do this without consulting me first, which is perfectly legal according to their service agreement they have with me.
Next, they drop kick me with a $25 per chargeback non-refundable fee. So if your charge was for $4.95, I end up getting reemed for $4.95 plus $25.00 before I even start to cry and shed a tear. They then send out a mailing with this information and state I have less than a week to reply or else this charge sticks. I would then proceed to print out the charge with proof of a valid purchases. I then fax this over to the chargeback department of my processor and they review it. Once the chargeback has been reversed, they put the money back into my account, a full $4.95. I don’t ever see that $25.00 again. This is not a quick process either, expect at least a week or two of just waiting.
So imagine if you will, getting 10 or 20 customers doing chargebacks on tiny sums. It can clean your account out rather quickly. So next time you decide to pick up that phone and issue a chargeback, think long and hard what the charge is for. About 95% of the time, it isn’t fraud, it’s you closing in on being senile and forgetting what you purchased. It not only hurts merchants like me, but it also kills kittens.
4 Comments »
Posted by Ed on March 16th, 2006 — in Random
My awesome friend Lisa just IM’d me this:
her (1:58:48 PM): Ed
her (1:58:55 PM): i bought Bimibop for lunch
her (1:59:00 PM): and opened it at my work
her (1:59:16 PM): and one of the girls were like WHOA what the hell is that smell? did someone run over a rodent?
her (1:59:18 PM): a skunk?
me (2:02:50 PM): HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
2 Comments »
