Taking Credit Cards over the Phone

We are not an approved merchant for taking phone orders on MC /Visa /Discover /American Express/Wells Fargo Financing. Generally, these credit card and financing companies will give authorizations and accept our phone charges, BUT if a customer disputed the charge for any reason, the credit card or finance company may back-charge us since we have no signed credit card slip.

MasterCard, Visa, Discover

Therefore, we do not take MC /Visa /Discover phone orders.

Wells Fargo Financing

We also can’t do phone orders using Wells Fargo Financing, either for new accounts or existing accounts, whether the customer is known to us or not. These financing companies do not allow it.

American Express

However, American Express has more clearly defined rules which do allow us to use this card for phone orders with less risk of back-charge. THE RULES AS OUTLINED HERE MUST BE EXPLICITLY FOLLOWED – NO EXCEPTIONS.

1. Get billing address from customer. Tell customer you can only send the merchandise to the customer’s name at this address. Must be a street address, no P.O. Box. (Unless the customer has no other address other than a P.O. Box, in which case we will have to use it).
2. Call AmEx and verify the billing address.
3. Send the merchandise one of these ways:
   • Up to $500 value of item – ship USPS Priority Mail insured Adult Signature Required.
   • From $501 to $50,000 value of item – ship FedEx Overnight Hold for Pickup (via IFS).
   • From $50,001 to $100,000 value of item – ship USPS Registered Mail Restricted Delivery.
4. We cannot ship by UPS.
5. We cannot allow anyone else to pick up the merchandise in person other than the customer. This is the only way that we can match the person to their picture ID, have them sign, and check their signature. Shortcutting these procedures has cost the company thousands of dollars.
6. The only way that we can ship to a person other than the customer is if the customer comes into the store, shows ID, and fills out a form authorizing us to ship to a different name and/or address. Then we ship USPS Registered Restricted Delivery OR FedEx Hold for Pickup to that person and address.

This is the only way we can be safeguarded against chargebacks.

There are other ways to secure payment from an out-of-state customer such as bank wire transfer, Western Union, or holding the merchandise until their personal check has cleared. Offer our customer these options as well.

See LHFJ PL “Shipping to Customers” for more information.