Archive for December, 2008

Online Commerce Package – Magento

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Magento is an ecommerce software package that greatly assists people looking to have an ecommerce site without the cost of custom programming. Magento is feature rich and easily installed. It’s greatest strengths are in it’s ability to be customized quickly and easily.

Magento offers multiple store fronts, templating options, and skins. Features include many site management tools, marketing tools and optimization, iPhone optimization, search engine optimization, international support, easy checkout options, many shipping options built-in, order management tools, built-in payment methods, customer account and service tools, many catalog management tools and ways to customize items, along with many reporting tools.

More information on Magento can be found at Magento!

Who is responsible for currency conversion differences, the buyer or the seller?

Monday, December 8th, 2008

A frequent question in the payment card industry is who is responsible for currency conversion differences when there is return or over charge.

According to Visa/MasterCard, the rule of thumb is if the refund is for returned merchandise, or the cardholder changed their mind, the currency conversion differences is the responsbility of the cardholder.  The merchant must process a return.  This is of course assuming that the the merchant can provide proof that the original transaction was valid and there is documentation substantiating the refund, if requested.

If the transaction was processed in error, then the merchant should process a reversal instead of a return.  The reversal process will eliminate possible currency conversion differences.  Reversals can only be submitted by the processor and must be issued within 30 days of the transaction.