Hi. Udi Finkelstein wrote: > On a related note - for the last year I haven't ordered anything from the > Internet. What is the status of Internet ordering with Visa CAL? Has anyone > recently ordered from cheapbytes using Visa CAL? I have a gold card. (Yes I > know Visa Alpha allows internet orders, but for various reasons I don't want > to change my card at the monet). I've ordered quite a lot of stuff over the Internet. There are two scenarious: 1. The company tricks Visa into thinking it got the order by fax (and so Visa honors the transaction). Most on-line bookstores use this technique (amazon, clbooks, etc) 2. The company declares "an Internet transaction" (this rarely happens, but it's possible). In this case, Visa will *not* honor the transaction, until you call their customer support line and ask them to honor it (they're used to people doing that, so it shouldn't be problematic). After you authorize the payment by phone, the transaction is usually complete (well, it's not really, you usually have to call them Visa again, and so on) There's another issue, though, with shipment. If you use Fed-Ex, you might be asked to pay tax. There are two kinds of payments you might be asked for. One is MEKHES, and the other is MAAM. If they ask for for MEKHES, you're doomed. You'll probably have to pay (and pay a lot. I bought a Timex that cost 80$, and paid another 30$ for shipment and 40$ tax. Make the arithmatic yourself). Keep in mind, that this is a random thing. For example, about one every number of books shipped by Amazon, is caught by the MEKHES. This is an easy problem. Just refuse to pay - the book is shipped back to Amazon, you send an e-mail to Amazon requesting the book again (since you didn't receive it). They are more than happy to send it again, and in the resend, the chances the MEKHES will bother you again are slim. I did it a few times with Amazon, and it works just fine. (They have an excelent resend policy). MAAM, is another thing. When you are asked for MAAM, they know you don't really have to pay it. It sort of a "SHITAT MAZLIAH" for those who know it. Just *refuse* to pay MAAM, and they'll let you have the package without extra pay. This is the reason DHL almost never asks the customer to pay MAAM (they know the customer will refuse). I don't have a lot of experience with packages I was asked for MAAM for, but the online book store clbooks used to send the books with their actual price on the shipment card. When I received it, I was asked to pay MAAM, I refused, and with very little argument I got the shipment without paying anything. What happened on later shipments from clbooks was that the price on the shipment order was changed to half or onet third of the price of the books, to avoid MAAM! Which is just fine by me. Don't worry - it is NOT as difficult as it seems. There's no problem in ordering on line, you just have to expect once in a while a problem that might cost you money. However, when I bought the Timex, and had to pay double (80$ + 70$ shiping & tax) it still cost *much* less than the price on the stores (200$ on the US!) so it's wirth it. Not to mention books. The general rule is, if it's a big store - you're probably not the first to buy from it. And about Visa - they have the obligation to honor every payment you make. The fact that they say "we don't honor Internet transaction" is a bulshit attempt to drag the SET standard in. Take Care, Udi :-) -- ------------------------- Aviram Jenik "Addicted to Chaos" ------------------------- Today's quote: Never say "Oops" in the operating room. -Dr. Leo Troy
S/MIME Cryptographic Signature