[lug] Letting folks pay from the web.

[karl horlen]

> > The Colorado Moon Festival would like to start letting
> folks sign up and pay
> > via PayPal (or Google Checkout, or ...).
> > 
> > Have any of you, in BLUG, had experience setting this
> up?  If so, can you
> > offer advice?
> 
> You will need a merchant account. Depending on the card
> processor, the way your
> 
> You need a durable data store to track your records -- what
> happens if the hardware
> goes down? How do you know what charges were approved, etc?
> This is not something
> where a hobby-level setup is OK. Unless Google Checkout
> tracks order/payments for you,
> your site still has to have a reliable recovery mechanism
> so you don't lose
> orders/payments due to a hardware failure.
> 
> FYI I recently did _not_ do purchase with a company because
> they only
> had paypal available. Since I don't already have a paypal
> account, setting one

i'm no expert on any of this stuff and am no raving proponent of paypal.  but i have set up and used paypal in the past.  unless someone can correct me, it sounds like folks are going way overboard on their recommendations which are leading jeff to set up a full time merchant etc which i gather he doesn't need to do.  the hammer vs feather approach.

iirc, you can choose at least three different levels of paypal accounts / configs.

2 or 3 years ago, the lowest or even second to lowest level account allowed customers to pay with credit cards meaning they were not forced to set up paypal accounts to buy from you.  maybe something has changed but i just want to make sure we're not passing on false assumptions.

finally, when you set up a paypal account, i believe that in effect pp becomes your processor / merchant banker.  your customers will be routed to *their* https site, *they* will keep all the credit card info, etc.  when the transaction is done, customer is routed back to your site.

basically pp was designed to be a quick way to sell stuff on line and i believe help you eliminate all the hastle that goes along with the security implications of the credit card numbers.

granted, it's probably not as powerful, especially for recordkeeping or tying into your own shipping system as if you setup your own merchant but it works in a pinch and it's a lot less work versus going the other route.  other notable pp restricitons are limits to when and how much you can withdraw from your account which can suck.  i think the rates they take may suck as well.  and i've heard monkey business about chargebacks. 

so pp definitely has flaws.  but for a what sounds like a one time only registration type event, i think it might be exactly what you're looking for or even google checkout.  if you choose their higher level service, i think it functions more like a true merchant where the gatewaying is handled behind the scenes from your site so it looks more seamless to said customer.  it also means more work on your part too.

note, i only used pp for very low volume sales when i did but it worked fine.  i'll bow out now because this is all the info i can offer.

jeff, regarless of what method you choose, it'd be great if you can post back about your final experience and what route you took.