Cyptopay and other systems and their delay in actual charges

[copperglobe]

Been having problems with Cryptopay's merchant providers. Tired of a customer swiping a vacuum or vending machine for $1 and having them instantly receive on their phone a notice of a pending $10 charge. Customers don't see the "pending" part of the deal. Cryptopay tells me it takes up to 2 days to reconcile from the pending $10 charge to $1. Meanwhile customers think we're ripping them off. I guess I'm just venting some frustration with this whole CC application in our industry.

 

[BBE]

You can switch to count down and get rid of it, no? I always look at it as the price you pay for the extra revenue that count up will bring. I've never heard of someone not experiencing more revenue with count up, and I've never heard of someone who doesn't deal with the pending charge problem because of it

 

[copperglobe]

My application is count down. With the vacs you swipe and get $1 worth of time. I have Cryptopay on my vending machines with a fixed $1 sale price and with both the vacs and the vending I get the $10 charge on my customers' accounts for "a couple of days". The gas stations used to have that same problem but now they worked out a deal somehow with the merchant providers so that we are instantly charged the correct amount at the pump. I wish we could get the same deal.

 

[Ghetto Wash]

You can switch to count down and get rid of it, no?

No. I'm count down and my customers all get hit with the $10 pending charge.

 

[chaz]

Obviously some customers don’t read...so I still deal with a few calls a week. I have signage unde each swiper.

Attention debit/credit Customers
Your financial institution may place a temporary hold of $15 for each card swipe
Your actual total is that displayed on the screen after you push the red stop button

 

[BBE]

That's a bummer. I use washremote, and if I do count down, I select the dollar amount I want to charge for example 5.00, and it charges exactly that and gives exactly that much time, no pending charges or holds.

 

[Earl Weiss]

If you think about how this has to work, and I do not think it has been eliminated at gas stations, person swipes card and there is no way the card company knows what charge will be. So, the card is "Authorized" fr the max amount and that remains in place until perhaps the second business day depending on timing of the transaction. I think gas purchasers have become accustomed to the system so we get very few complaints these days. Some operators have posted a sign explaining this.

 

[Greg Pack]

You can reduce your pre authorization charge down to startup price of $1. There is a little higher risk of not getting money. If the customer has $1 credit available it will start the machine, but the transaction could bounce if they use more than the total available credit. I figure the chance of that is relatively small. It stopped all my phone calls.

 

[copperglobe]

You can reduce your pre authorization charge down to startup price of $1. There is a little higher risk of not getting money. If the customer has $1 credit available it will start the machine, but the transaction could bounce if they use more than the total available credit. I figure the chance of that is relatively small. It stopped all my phone calls.

Are you talking inside the ss bay? Don't understand how this would work on a vending machine of a fixed $1 price or a vacuum with a fixed count down price of $1, example.

 

[Jeff_L]

There are tradeoffs on any system/method you choose. Even if you use count down on CryptoPay, you'll still get the pre-auth/pending process. The benefit is that the client can use their card multiple times at your site within a given amount of time and you'll only get hit with one swipe charge as it'll batch up the charges. This is useful when they swipe at a reader in a SS bay or Vac for $1-$2 start up and have the ability to press the button to add more time, resulting in more charges. I have both Crypto and WashGear, I get multiple calls a week about the $10 or $15 charge and have to go through the explanation of what it is. No matter the signage, people still only react to the notice they get on their phone.

 

[Roz]

I spoke with CryptoPay about the issue too after a few customers asked. Was told that I could not change the pending or hold charge as the hold amount is twice your min charge. In general people are calm about it as they see the correct charge when it is finalized. I looked again at the configuration website, do not see anything that allows me to control the hold amount.

Anyone been able to find such a control box on the Cryptopay site?

 

[Ghetto Wash]

You can reduce your pre authorization charge down to startup price of $1.

I don't see anywhere to do this. On the CryptoPay site you can change the minimum charge and the maximum charge per swipe. Neither one have any effect on the hold amount. There is nowhere we can change or have any control over the hold amount.

I am count down. I have my min charge set to my start up price of $1.25. My max charge is set to $2.00. I swiped my personal credit card one time today and got a notification from my bank that I had just made a purchase for $10. Two hours later when the CrpytoPay coordinator added up all the charges on that card and sent them to the merchant bank, I got another notice that I had just made a $1.25 purchase.

I think it is a short coming for CryptoPay that we have no choice but to live with.

 

[xbowhunter86]

You can call into Cryptopay and have them change the pre-authorization amount. I have had then do it for the two sites. The authorization amount it tied to the coordinator. For example if you have a swiper on a self serve bay and an ACW with Cryptopay the pre-authorization amount is the same.

I set mine to the minimum charge for a self-serve bay. I have never had a transaction get denied when it finalized because of lack of funds. This has also eliminated phone calls from disturbed customers thinking they were overcharged. Infact I have had a few honest people call think they were undercharged. Makes for a very easy explanation.

 

[Ghetto Wash]

You can call into Cryptopay and have them change the pre-authorization amount. I have had then do it for the two sites. The authorization amount it tied to the coordinator. For example if you have a swiper on a self serve bay and an ACW with Cryptopay the pre-authorization amount is the same.

I set mine to the minimum charge for a self-serve bay. I have never had a transaction get denied when it finalized because of lack of funds. This has also eliminated phone calls from disturbed customers thinking they were overcharged. Infact I have had a few honest people call think they were undercharged. Makes for a very easy explanation.

Thanks for the info.

I just called CryptoPay and reduced my authorization amount to my start up price. Time will tell if it results in chargebacks for not enough money in the account.

 

[Jeff_L]

Will you incur extra charges when the customer pushes the button each for more time? Or will CryptoPay still batch up the charges and submit one time?

 

[xbowhunter86]

Cryptopay will still batch charges from a customer. We are count up in our SS bays.
I guess there's a chance of a customer not having the funds when it finalizes however we have not encountered that. We figure the chance of it happening is very low. If it does occur a free wash for someone is less costly that disturbed customers or fielding alot of customer calls about a higher pre-authorization amount.

 

[soonermajic]

You can call into Cryptopay and have them change the pre-authorization amount. I have had then do it for the two sites. The authorization amount it tied to the coordinator. For example if you have a swiper on a self serve bay and an ACW with Cryptopay the pre-authorization amount is the same.

I set mine to the minimum charge for a self-serve bay. I have never had a transaction get denied when it finalized because of lack of funds. This has also eliminated phone calls from disturbed customers thinking they were overcharged. Infact I have had a few honest people call think they were undercharged. Makes for a very easy explanation.

My minimum charge is $3. So what you're saying is, you can call & ask Crypotopay to change the initial "hold" to basically whatever you want? Mine currently puts a $10 hold on it. This seems to indicate I could switch that "hold" to $3 or $5, or whatever I asked it to be? I think I would do $5, because nearly everyone does around $4---$6...

 

[xbowhunter86]

You are correct. Give them a call!

 

[Sudz]

You are correct. Give them a call!

Good to know!