prohibited items and payment processing

by 2 replies
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I've run into a bit of a hurdle. I'm developing an online store and the main category is survival kits. Those survival kits all include a small generic swiss army knife/tool. As I was looking at the various platforms like Shopify, Volusion and a few others, I stumbled onto some info that this item will fall under the "weapons" category that most, if not all of the payment processing companies call a "weapon". I started digging a little further and found the following.

1) There are a LOT of stores hosted by the main web store design companies I listed above that sell all kinds of stuff that would be considered a weapon like axes, swiss army knives, saws, etc. Maybe they use a different payment processor but I know at least shopify charges an extra 2% if you use another payment gateway aside from their own.

2) Godaddy.com's customer service told me that anything under 4" is not considered a knife but a TOOL and they THOUGHT I would be fine. I won't run a business on thoughts and maybes.

3) I am still waiting to hear back from Stripe as I had to email them since they offer no phone support.

This item is the main product and will be the bulk sales of my site so I need to get a definitive answer on this before I waste time and money developing a site that will be shut down from the get go, be forced to start over or pay a ransom like what Shopify does where they force you into the arms of another payment gateway and then charge you for it.

Aside from this I have all my ducks in a row but I'm not sure how to proceed here so any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!
#website design #items #payment #processing #prohibited
  • You may want to try other payment processors like Intuit. I use to sell QuickBooks Merchant Services. They will approve just about anything that isn't adult. You go through an application process that is more indepth than say Stripe. So if they approve you, then your products are approved. I'm pretty sure they will go for survival kits with knives..
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    • Thank you for your reply. I know there are other payment processing companies out there, the problem i'm running into is that the website companies like shopify, (still waiting to hear back from Ecommerce and Volusion) is that they charge you an extra fee or % of your sales if you use another besides their chosen processor. So by the time you figure the credit card fee, and the additional charge to use another payment processor, you're at almost 5% just for them to have the privilege of taking your money. Thats cutting into my profit a pretty decent amount.
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    prohibited items and payment processing

    I've run into a bit of a hurdle. I'm developing an online store and the main category is survival kits. Those survival kits all include a small generic swiss army knife/tool. As I was looking at the various platforms like Shopify, Volusion and a few others, I stumbled onto some info that this item will fall under the "weapons" category that most, if not all of the payment processing companies call a "weapon". I started digging a little further and found the following. 1) There are a LOT of stores hosted by the main web store design companies I listed above that sell all kinds of stuff that would be considered a weapon like axes, swiss army knives, saws, etc. Maybe they use a different payment processor but I know at least shopify charges an extra 2% if you use another payment gateway aside from their own.