Payment Policies
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Contents
Payment Types Accepted
- Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, American Express
- Also personal and business checks (U.S. only) and money orders
- For more information about paying by check, see "Shipping Costs" near the bottom of the Shipping Policies page.
- For information about paying by PayPal, see the Frequently Asked Questions and check under "Payment"
How To
- If you need to send us a new credit card number after placing an order, here's how to update payment information
Debits and Deposits
The following policies are followed in general, subject to our discretion:
- We do not debit credit cards until we have part or all of the order ready to ship, and we only debit for the part that is ready. The major exceptions are drop-shipped items and large orders.
- We deposit checks soon after receipt regardless of whether the order is ready to ship, but we don't wait for the check to clear before shipping. This policy is subject to revision the first time we encounter a bad check. The major exception is checks for larger amounts, which may be held until cleared (usually 3-5 business days).
- We do attempt to verify credit card billing addresses when we process them. If the address does not match, we may take further steps to verify authenticity. Credit cards from certain global locations are also subject to additional scrutiny; for example, we have had many orders from Indonesia, and none of them could be authenticated to our satisfaction. We will continue to accept orders from such locations, but we may require additional proof of authenticity.
Payment FAQ
see also FAQ for questions & answers on other topics
- Q: I need to send you a new credit card number. How can I do this securely?
- A: See this page: How to update payment information
- Q: Is your site secure? I don't see the security symbol in my browser, and I'm concerned about giving out my credit card number over an insecure connection.
- A: The pages where you actually check out – where you enter your shipping and payment information – are secure, i.e. they use the https: protocol for communication. The vbz.net domain has its own site certificate, and we do not depend on any third party web sites for handling the check-out process.
- Since https is a somewhat slower protocol than http, however, we use http for all regular catalog pages in order to keep page-loading times to a minimum.
- Q: Do you accept PayPal?
- A: Yes! To use PayPal: When you are checking out and get to the "Payment Information" form, click on the "check or money order" link. This will load a different version of the "Payment Information" form which lets you enter a check number. Instead of a check number, just enter "PayPal" and be sure to fill in your PayPal email address, i.e. an email address you have registered with PayPal, in the "Email:" space. (If you would like order correspondence to use a different email address from your PayPal email address, then enter your correspondence email address in the "Email:" space and put your PayPal email address after "PayPal" in the "check number" space.)
Future Plans
- payment via some of the newer online methods such as PayPal. We already have accounts with PayPal and Western Union, but this has not yet been integrated into the checkout process.
- real-time card processing gateway so customers can be informed of potential payment problems when the order is placed.
Links
More information about the credit cards we accept is available at these web sites:
