Kid Steals Moms Credit Card to Buy from Me

She didn't project any anger at me except in the initial voicemail she left me. Her original tone almost sounded like I was in the crazed habbit of shipping dangerous weapons to minors for no reason.

She didn't know her son had turned pirate at that time though.

And this makes you so totally awesome!

Oh get real. You don't have to be an a-hole about it, jeez, kids will be stupid and this kind of thing is going to happen now and again.

And why in the world would you want the mother to walk away from this hating your company and telling everyone she knows what a jerk you are? Yeah, great plan you have there.

Speaking as a mother, I would immediately lose all sympathy for any inconvenience
caused to you by my child, and I would immediately call my credit card company
to advise of the unauthorized charge by my child who is not legally able to enter a
contract with you. Your merchandise would be returned in the slowest manner possible, as opposed to my normal reaction of getting it back to you as quickly as I could. I would not worry in the least about possible criminal charges.
Unless your kid has a history of trouble, or used your credit card to buy supplies to build a bomb, there will not be any prosecution. I usually let things go, but threaten
my kid with criminal action and you will not like the result.

Robyn

Well I hope so. If that was the case then sorry but if not then I stand by it.

I don't think that he was kidding....

First we have...

And then we get...

That really Boggles the mind. Not only wrote it, but attempts to defend it.

Or maybe not.

I guess someone had to be thinking along the lines of "How could I keep the cash?"

I hope you're prepared to duck if you ever have the opportunity to actually say this to someone's parent. Especially their Mom. All kinds of stuff will come flying your way for sure.

Of course, there will be a slight delay while they close their mouth. For it will surely have fallen open in amazement at the fact that someone in business actually said that to them.

Oh well, I guess you gotta give Mitch some points for determination. After all, that's his story and he is sticking to it.

Good Luck if you ever use this one,
Gene

From the tone of your statements, your goal is not to prevent crime for the good of humanity, it is to prevent you from having to return the money that you received from a minor who has the legal right to change their mind and demand a refund...even if they sent you a money order or ordered using a prepaid credit card they had received as a gift. It is always a risk to sell to minors. If you were sincerely trying to prevent some kind of crime wave, you wouldn't couch it in terms that if you made the threat, the mom will go away and leave you with your money.

From a legal perspective, as a business person, you have an obligation to ascertain that you are not conducting business with a child and that you are not accepting a credit card from an unauthorized user.

It may not seem fair, but I can tell you from retail experience (some of which was in a business that catered to kids),long before the internet, when we accepted credit cards for mail order transactions, that you are required to make sure that the person who is placing an order is in fact the card holder. If not, the risk is yours. Anyone who has been in business and been burned when they thought their cc company would back them up, knows this from experience.

There is a reason that children are not allowed to enter binding contracts....they are kids. Their judgment is still being formed. Most kids have no clue about how credit cards work (lots of adults too) they think it is like magic. Anyone with any judgment is not likely to pay $75 for shipping. I am not blaming the person who started this thread, but one could argue that if you are selling a toy, and it is not Christmas eve, and someone is willing to pay $75 for overnight shipping, you should question whether this is a legitimate transaction. As someone with experience, alarm bells would go off, even if the item was not one geared towards kids. There is a reason that it is not easy to get a reasonably priced merchant account when you primarily sell online...the issue of nonauthorized transactions is huge. It is the business person's responsibility to be sure they are dealing with the right person

If you really don't get the difference between stealing somebody's credit card, and a kid using their parent's credit card without permission, you are free to react how you choose. My guess is that if we were to lock up every kid who ever took money from their parents without permission, there wouldn't be too many kids left living at home.

Teaching kids the difference between right and wrong is an ongoing process.

Robyn

Obviously, the point you're missing is that if a crime was
committed you weren't the victim. It was not your card
that was used.

Exactly how has the kid threatened your business?

Tsnyder

Guys, I processed the refund pretty quick. I also "discovered" that I had a $25 flat restocking fee to boot.

Everything is taken care of and she's find with the restocking fee. There are plenty of reasonable people in this world and she's one of them.

In this case, the payment of a $75 express shipping fee is suspicious, especially if the shipping cost more than the item itself. In cases like this, the merchant could phone the customer. This was what we did with suspicious orders. Before you phone, you should also google the customer's phone number to see whether it matches the address or not. Of course, there is also AVS and CVS checks.

It is true that the mother could charge back easily. However, if that happens the merchant could take things up through legal channels. Afterall, there is some negligence on the mother's part for allow her son to access her credit cards.

Any mother who does a rapid chargeback in this case and let her kid off lightly sets a very bad example to her kid. She should well be prepared to see her kid in jail one day and nobody will have any symphathies.

I think that these things are always going to happen sometimes, and you just have to suck it up and be reasonable and professional about it, which is what you did. Most of the time the parents will be so annoyed with their kids that it won't happen again!