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General FAQ
- How do I get started
with Beanstream?
- What does it cost
- What do I need to get
started?
- What services do you
provide?
- What credit cards do
you support?
- What do you do to
ensure reliability?
- Does Beanstream do
web design?
- How is my site linked
to beanstream?
- Do I require
merchant status to use your system?
- Do you offer
training?
- Do you offer a
shopping cart?
- How are customer
disputes handled?
- How are refunds
credited to Customers?
- What will be the name of
the merchant on my customers credit card statement?
- What auditing
services do you offer?
- What types of
reports do you provide?
- Can you provide
electronic delivery of products upon purchase?
- Are sales
restricted to Canada and the U.S.?
- How are currency
conversions dealt with?
- In what currencies
can the merchant request payment?
- Who can I call if
I am having difficulty?
- Is you site
available in other languages?
- Are there types of
merchants that you do not accept?
- Is there a minimum /
maximum dollar amount that you can process?
- How do we ensure that
order information and/or payment amounts are correct?
- Has Beanstream completed
the Visa AIS program
1. How do I get started with Beanstream?
Simply review the steps on our getting started
page or contact a member of our sales department
at 250-472-2326 or 888-472-0811.
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2. What does
it cost?
Our rates for merchants with merchant accounts are posted online on
our services
page. We have two pricing categories depending on whether you
are using our services yourself or reselling them to a 3rd party. If
you are unable to obtain a merchant account or do not wish to use the
one that you have, we will provide you a with a merchant account
solution. Pricing is dependant on the type of business you operate,
your sales volume, and your credit card processing requirements. We
fully disclose our pricing and there are no hidden costs!
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3. What do I
need to get started?
What you need is Internet access and a product or service you wish to
sell. If your product or service is being sold over the Internet then
you will also need a website. If you do not yet have a website or are
looking for a shopping cart solution, then you may want to consider one
of our hosted solutions or shopping cart products.
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4. What
services do you provide?
We offer a variety of payment processing and
authentication services. We also provide debt collection
services and licensing of our patent portfolio. A complete list of
services with detailed descriptions can be found on our services
page.
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5. What
credit cards do you support?
Beanstream supports the following credit cards:
- VISA
- Mastercard
- American Express Card
- Discover Card
- JCB
- Diners
- Sears
If you require merchant accounts from Beanstream, we can
provide Mastercard and Visa merchant accounts in both Canadian and US
dollars.
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6. What do you
do to ensure reliability?
We use enterprise class servers configured in a redundant
array in two seperate world class datacentres. We monitor our servers
and services 24 hours a day from 3 different locations.
Support staff are available to help you with any questions or trouble
you are having during normal business hours. Email any questions to technical support team,
or call 250-472-2326. 6AM to 6PM Monday through Friday PST. We
also provide after hours emergency technical support 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week.
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7. Does
Beanstream do web design?
The short answer is no. Beanstream does not host or design web pages.
However, our services are integrated into the majority of leading
shopping cart and hosted solutions in North America.
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8. How is my
site linked to Beanstream?
If you are using a hosted website solution or shopping cart where
Beanstream has already been integrated then linking to us is as simple
as adding your account information to the configuration page of the
shopping cart or website.
If you are hosting your own site on a web server, a link
must be placed from your site to our secure server during the final
purchase stage. Purchase information is passed to our server where your
customers can enter their credit information and complete their
purchase. Alternatively, we also provide APIs which allow you to pass
transaction information to us from your own secure server. We also
support secure FTP access for batch processing of credit cards and cash
management services.
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9. Do I
require a merchant account to use your system?
No. If you do not have an existing merchant account, then we may be
able to facilitate you in receiving one. We have an excellent
relationship with several merchant account issuers. In addition, we
have the ability to provide a merchant account solution for merchants
who do not have their own merchant accounts or who do not wish to use
the ones that they have.
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10. Do
you offer product and technical support?
Yes. We have dedicated customer support staff to assist with
integration, administration and maintenance issues.
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11. Do you
offer a shopping cart?
Yes. We have our own shopping cart and Beanstream is already integrated
into alarge number of 3rd party shopping cart platforms as
well. Currently supported shopping carts are listed at carts
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12. How are
customer disputes handled?
Often referred to as a chargeback, a customer can dispute a credit card
charge for a variety of reasons. Visa, Mastercard and American Express
can then chargeback the transaction amount to the merchant. Under the
Merchant Agreements with Visa/Mastercard/Amex they do not guarantee
non-face to face credit card transactions even though the original
transaction was approved. A transaction can only be guaranteed if the
merchant saw the card and has a signature from a
receipt. Beanstream works with the merchant to resolve these
disputes.
The risk due to credit card fraud can be mitgated by
deploying Verified by Visa, or Mastercard Securecode.
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13. How are
refunds credited to customers?
The merchant would normally process refunds to ensure that they are
accurate and justified. Beanstream provides a flexible software "POS"
interface free of charge that you can access through your web
browser for refunds and manual transaction processing. There
is no additional charge for you to process a refund and we have
security measures in place to ensure that you don't accidentally refund
to the wrong credit card or account.
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14. What will be
the name of the merchant on my customers credit card statement?
Your own company name will appear on the statement. If you are using
our dynamic DBA service then your own company name plus a uniquie
identifier will appear (ie Merchant inv#123456).
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15.
What auditing or reconciliation services do you offer?
Our reconciliation tools allow merchants to automatically validate our
payment records against their own electronic
bank information daily. There is no waiting for month
end statements and no lump sum deposit issues!
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16. What
types of reports do you provide?
We track many types of information on behalf of merchants. We
provide extensive summary and detail reporting of
transactions, dollar volumes and inventory turnover. We track
information by merchant chain to allow organizations with several
merchant accounts to consolidate their reporting details.
Summary reporting allows a merchant to quickly generate
reports by day or month based on predetermined data fields while
transaction detail reporting provides extensive information on each
transaction and can be sorted by a wide range of variables including:
- Order, date and time
- Transaction type
- Transaction origin
- Dollar Amount
- Card type
- Inventory item
- Customer
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17. Can you
provide electronic delivery of products upon purchase?
Yes. Prices for this service vary by the size of the download and the
number of products available for sale. Please contact sales for
more information.
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18. Are
sales restricted to Canada and the U.S.?
No. You can sell your products globally subject to any geographic
restrictions that have been introduced for risk management measures.
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19. How
are currency conversions dealt with?
Normally, the merchant would have both Canadian and U.S. dollar
accounts at their financial institution. The merchant would then
determine to which account a specific transaction would be deposited and
there would be no currency conversion loss to either the merchant or
the cardholder
. If this is not the case, then the card
issuer would perform a currency conversion at their posted rate at the
time of the transaction. Beanstream offers a servcie called Beanstream
FX for merchants who wish to collect credit card ayments in both U and
CDN dollars but only receive settlement in one currency.
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20. In what
currencies can the merchant request payment?
At this time, a merchant can request payment in either Canadian or U.S.
dollars.
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21. Who can
I call if I am having difficulty?
You can contact either your sales representative or our
technical support department if you believe that your transactions are
not being processed or you are having difficulty accessing our site.
Contact 250-472-2326 or email support@beanstream.com.
In an emergency we can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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22. Is your
site available in other languages?
At this time our site is only available in English although all of our
agreements are available in both French and English and we have
bilingual sales and support staff. Most of our co-branded web services
are available in both French and English.
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23. Are there
types of merchants that you do not accept?
Yes. Due to the higher risk of chargebacks and fraudulent activity, we
have chosen not to accept business from the following merchant
categories:
- Adult Sites
- Internet Casinos
- Pyramid Sales
- Lottery Tickets
- Merchant Account Factoring
- Alcohol, Firearms and Drugs
- Goods and/or Services prohibited by law or card
associations
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24. Is there a
minimum / maximum dollar amount that you can process?
Generally speaking there is no minimum order amount although the cost
of the order must obviously exceed the transaction cost itself.
Beanstream, upon consultation with an individual merchant, will
establish maximum dollar amounts to protect against fraud.
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25. How do we
ensure that order information and / or payment amounts are correct?
Beanstream monitors and records a variety of details with every
transaction. In addition, we provide each merchant an easy to use web
interface for tracking and recording transaction details. Every time a
customer makes a purchase, an email is sent to both the customer and
the merchant. The merchant can later reconcile these messages against
the transaction list to ensure everything is correct.
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26. Has Beanstream
completed the PCI DSS program?Yes. Beanstream
is level 1 PCI DSS complaint. Level 1 compliance applies to all payment
gateways and the card associations' largest merchants.
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