How to scam people using American Express

Meatytreats said:
In the former ecommerce business I owned, we did about 225K/month in CC billing... about 75% of that was Visa/MC and the rest was Discover/Amex...

If you don't accept Amex you are an idiot! Sure, their rates are higher and they always side with the consumer, but who gives a fuck! In the grand scheme of things, it's just one of many costs of doing business.

However, if you don't accept them, you are turning away free money. Because people that have Amex, use Amex for the exact reasons stated above.
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How do you know that 25% wouldn't have just whipped out their Visa and paid with that because you don't accept Amex? I find Amex card holders (and I'm guilty too) will always try to use their Amex because of the customer service, and protection it provides but if you tell people you don't take Amex they go straight to their Platinum Visa.

From my meager e-comm sites I have only had 1 person walk away from the transaction when I told them I don't take Amex. They were probably going to chargeback anyway so no loss there.

Amex holders typically have excellent credit so they will always have a backup Visa/Mastercard on hand.
 


That's funny that you started this thread. I recently lost a dispute regarding a charge on my AMEX from a strip club that overcharged me for drinks. Good luck bros.
 
as a consumer, I love american express, and use it every chance I get. as a business owner, I do NOT accept american express.

thats just the way the motherfuckin cookie crumbles my niggas.
 
CCarter said:
I'm a partner in a merchant processing firm, and also have credit cards being processed in another business. American Express are complete idiots. They will ALWAYS side with their customer, you know why? Cause you are not their customer, your a one in a dozen merchant.

I can safely say this from processing thousands of credit cards since 1998 from my merchant processing company, dealing with the top boys at Amex, and processing with my other companies.

Whatever dispute you give them, they will accept, since they are the 3rd largest, and know less people take Amex than Visa and Mastercard, they are willing to bend over backwards for their customers. So yeah, dude, that scam has been going on for a while now, and there is nothing the merchant's processing company can do, because, the merchant has to deal with Amex directly, and not through their merchant company. I solved this problem for one of my companies by not accepting Amex.

Merchants has the perception that accepting Amex is more expensive than Visa or MasterCard, and that is never the case, in fact it is cheaper to accept Amex. Amex charges one flat rate, the other cards and merchant processing companies can say you are getting charged this rate, but there are 5 additional hidden rate fees along side, that is always equates to being more than Amex. But, the main reason people don't accept Amex, is ignorance, but that ignorance allows them to not get completely fucked by Amex customers who know the game.

My advice, never accept Amex, ever. PM if you want more info, I can talk more freely there.
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Yikes. So I take it you disagree with the advice to accept it here:

http://www.wickedfire.com/traffic-c...mmerce-platform-small-stores.html#post1773560
 
I sell a product both B2B and B2C, many businesses will ask if they can use their Amex which we don't accept, and it has only been a problem once where they did not have another payment method.
 
Berto said:
Yikes. So I take it you disagree with the advice to accept it here:

http://www.wickedfire.com/traffic-c...mmerce-platform-small-stores.html#post1773560
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Everyone has their own way of doing business, If I was a brick and mortar store(selling physical product) And i sold highend products I would have to take Amex, period. This conversation was referring to gettig ripped off when Amex customers buy shit on eCommerce stores. I am run a consulting service business, so I DO NOT take Amex, since it's Amex usually sides with cardholders on those type of transactions. Pure ecommerce, I recommend not taking Amex. If more than 50% of our sales are "not card present" transactions, you should lean towards not taking Amex.

Some of the thread posters stated that Amex is higher in rates, which again shows their lack of knowledge in the fees. Amex has a flat rate fee way of doing business, I love that they do that. So people think, it is more expensive, if you calculator the total fees taken when you are take a visa, it is usually on par. The processing company just hides the fees in either the monthly "membership fee" or they got them charging you for the credit card machines (additional fees), or some interchange fee charge, or they way you accept credit cards. If you do "card present" swipes like when you go o the grocery stores, those fees are lower, since it is less risk, "card no present" (eCommerce, digitally, iphone tap, or whatever) have higher fees, the. Authorize.net has their fees, shit adds up. But Amex, its a straight fee across the board.

This is how you can tell I know what the fuck I am talking about, Call up any merchant processor agent, and ask them if anything I said is wrong. Call up 5 or 6 and copy and paste my statements, see what they say.

Notice that nobody is disputing anything I said from a merchant processing side, not on this forum or on the phone call, everyone will be crying that Amex cardholder want points or some other shit. The argument will be from a customer standpoint.

No one but me is claiming to work for a processing company, much less own a percentage of very large one, but me. All arguments are about the customer, when Amex cardholders always have higher credit than most, and ALWAYS have a visa or mastercard, period. There has been no on disputing that.
 
You should ship and require a signature. I am pretty sure this is the only way to avoid what you described.
 
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