Thursday, October 11, 2007

Using PayPal - Please, please, return to our site to finish the order process!

The Yarn and Fiber Company website supports two primary payment methods, credit cards (through CyberSource and Bank of America) and PayPal. It is important to note the differences between the ways these two payment methods work.
  • Cybersource takes the customer and order details and credit card information from a form on our website, and processes it (the card is not charged). We get back an OK and the order is submitted. Your credit card information is held only at the bank. Your credit card is charged later when we ship your order.
  • PayPal is an entirely different process. PayPal takes the customer and order information and creates it's own copy of this. It then asks you (on the PayPal site) to make a payment to our account. After you do this you must then click the button to return to our site so that we know the payment was made, otherwise your order does not get submitted into our system (but is still fully recorded in PayPal).

The big difference is that it is possible, partly because of the long process, to fail to get your order into our system and have already made a payment [however your entire order is recorded in a PayPal shopping cart so we can still (and do) retrieve and process it].

Our PayPal integration does use the full capability of PayPal shopping carts (unlike many PayPal sites) so we do see your complete order in PayPal not just the total. So what is the problem if you do not return to our site after payment? Simply that your transaction is not recorded into our order processing system, so until our accounts department notices that your order is "missing" by checking our PayPal records it does not get submitted to our shipping department.

When paying with PayPal always check your order status by clicking the "My Account" link on the yarnandfiber website and review your orders.

If your order does not appear in your account, to avoid delays, simply forward a copy of your PayPal payment confirmation (you will receive it by e-mail directly from PayPal) with a cover note to sales@yarnandfiber.com and we will be happy to put your order into the system and get it out to you ASAP.

Other Differences

  • Unlike using Cybersource you pay immediately when using PayPal, Cybersource (Credit Card portal) just applies a authorization, PayPal does a credit transfer.
  • We never see any of your payment information when you use PayPal, and could not (even if we were unscupulous which we are not) record any of your credit card information.
  • PayPal guarantees the security of your transaction, we are not involved.
  • In either case it is not possible for us to charge you more than the amount authorised, although we can in both cases give refunds.

What are My Other Options?

Some people just feel uncomfortable shopping online and do not want to leave their credit card information anywhere (especially if using a shared public computer). We understand this. We offer the following options.

  • Place your order online and choose "Check/Money Order" for payment. In the comments section describe how you intend to pay. We will wait for your mailed payment or for you to call us with a credit card to place your order.
  • Call us and place your entire order over the phone. We prefer you not to do this as it is more likely that mistakes will be made.
  • Write to us and include a complete written order (please include our model numbers and product description and price) and payment. We will enter your order into our system and ship it as soon as possible.