Blue Mountain - COVID-19 Update

[AtomicSkier]

2 minutes ago, Schif said:

What about one of those metal things with a slider that makes a carbon copy of the card? 

those only worked for "card present".  i work for a company that handles all aspects of payments.  but, i really know nothing about our products. 

[Schif]

3 minutes ago, Benm said:

most cards don't emboss anymore because this used to be an easy way to swipe numbers.

90% of the cards I produce are embossed on the front in the personalization process. 

[Benm]

1 minute ago, Schif said:

90% of the cards I produce are embossed on the front in the personalization process. 

bank cards? damn that's way more than i thought, sorry. read an article way back about them getting away from it.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

12 minutes ago, Schif said:

What about one of those metal things with a slider that makes a carbon copy of the card? 

I can take their info over the phone and run it when I go in the office.  Right now working on a quote on a St. Joseph statue...

[Schif]

7 minutes ago, Benm said:

bank cards? damn that's way more than i thought, sorry. read an article way back about them getting away from it.

They are getting away from a lot of things, but it takes time. At this point we still make a decent number of old school mag stripe only cards as well as some super advanced hybrid cards. The variation in cards is astonishing and the wild part is that at the end of the day almost all of them do the exact same thing. It's all about vanity. The big banks and credit card companies either try to order a literal million cards at once and get a cheap rate on a basic one or they go nuts on the crazy structure and design and everything else. 

I mean when is the last time anyone actually looked at the edge of a card they have and cared what it looked like? That is a hot point of contention for some customers if we don't have the correct plastic in stock for the core so they either need to wait or deal with a different edge color. If they really push we upcharge them and have a whole set up that will print a color on the edge of a finished card, which might be the most precise machine I've ever seen. 

[PSUFrankenstein]

22 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

No problem, I like talking about work way better than actually working. I have sold quite a few tombstones from the hotel house this year. A shame I don’t have a credit card reader here. 

They make credit card readers that hook up to a phone or tablet - not sure what they cost, but I've seen them at beer festivals, farmers markets, etc. being used by small businesses and breweries.

Not sure how/if you process credit cards, so you may know this...You can also get access to an online credit card terminal where you can take customer's info in person/online/over the phone and enter it there.  Depending on your bank, they may have one that they'll set you up with.  Otherwise you can probably find one online.  My workplace uses one called WorldPay.  They charge a monthly fee + transaction fees (ours is summarized and charged once a month).  AMEX can be processed through it but get deposited and charged separately (side note, AMEX can be a pain in the ass to deal with)

[Shadows]

we use square. Its ok. readers are free.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

18 minutes ago, PSUFly said:

They make credit card readers that hook up to a phone or tablet - not sure what they cost, but I've seen them at beer festivals, farmers markets, etc. being used by small businesses and breweries.

Not sure how/if you process credit cards, so you may know this...You can also get access to an online credit card terminal where you can take customer's info in person/online/over the phone and enter it there.  Depending on your bank, they may have one that they'll set you up with.  Otherwise you can probably find one online.  My workplace uses one called WorldPay.  They charge a monthly fee + transaction fees (ours is summarized and charged once a month).  AMEX can be processed through it but get deposited and charged separately (side note, AMEX can be a pain in the ass to deal with)

That isn’t gonna help me when I don’t physically meet with customers.  My mom has the credit card reader that hooks up to her iPhone because she does some art shows. Most mail in checks anyway which eliminates the merchant processing fee. We don’t accept Amex. 

 

I had had one customer who tried to pay her balance I believe around $900 over the phone on her debit card.  It didn’t work and so she said she’d transfer money to credit union and use that card.  She called yesterday to pay with that card and declined again.  Of course she has a $500 daily limit which happens sometimes so called bank and then an hour later it worked.  Pretty standard except customer was all mush mouth and there was organ music playing in the background but she called me sweetie for being patient. 

Edited December 4, 2020 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[NMSKI]

39 minutes ago, Schif said:

What kind of services allow you to do this? I'm pretty naïve about how credit card payments actually get processed, especially for a small business. 

My company uses a merchant services processor and we actually don't use a card reader in the office, but we have the option to if we ever want to hook one up.  We could also set it up on our website for customers to make on-demand payments, but that brings up a whole host of cybersecurity considerations that I don't want to open the door to.  Right now we just take down card info over the phone and enter it online and its hooked up to our bank account where the batches get settled to every day.  Its not too expensive and really easy to set up.

[Schif]

2 minutes ago, NMSKI said:

My company uses a merchant services processor and we actually don't use a card reader in the office, but we have the option to if we ever want to hook one up.  We could also set it up on our website for customers to make on-demand payments, but that brings up a whole host of cybersecurity considerations that I don't want to open the door to.  Right now we just take down card info over the phone and enter it online and its hooked up to our bank account where the batches get settled to every day.  Its not too expensive and really easy to set up.

What is the transaction time between you entering the information and the cash showing up in the account? 

[PSUFrankenstein]

8 minutes ago, NMSKI said:

My company uses a merchant services processor and we actually don't use a card reader in the office, but we have the option to if we ever want to hook one up.  We could also set it up on our website for customers to make on-demand payments, but that brings up a whole host of cybersecurity considerations that I don't want to open the door to.  Right now we just take down card info over the phone and enter it online and its hooked up to our bank account where the batches get settled to every day.  Its not too expensive and really easy to set up.

Yeah sounds about the same for me.  Depending on what programs are going on we have an on-demand site set up. (at one point we had a contract with Harley-Davidson, which involved about 600 different dealers, so we had a self service site set up).

6 minutes ago, Schif said:

What is the transaction time between you entering the information and the cash showing up in the account? 

Ours is next day - instant confirmation though if it gets denied/goes through.  AMEX is two days, but they like to put holds on some payments and request all sorts of documentation before releasing the funds.

[NMSKI]

15 minutes ago, Schif said:

What is the transaction time between you entering the information and the cash showing up in the account? 

Cash is in the account the following morning from a transaction the previous day.

[toast21602]

29 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

That isn’t gonna help me when I don’t physically meet with customers.  My mom has the credit card reader that hooks up to her iPhone because she does some art shows. Most mail in checks anyway which eliminates the merchant processing fee. We don’t accept Amex. 

 

I had had one customer who tried to pay her balance I believe around $900 over the phone on her debit card.  It didn’t work and so she said she’d transfer money to credit union and use that card.  She called yesterday to pay with that card and declined again.  Of course she has a $500 daily limit which happens sometimes so called bank and then an hour later it worked.  Pretty standard except customer was all mush mouth and there was organ music playing in the background but she called me sweetie for being patient. 

What kind of artwork does your mom sell?

[Shadows]

37 minutes ago, NMSKI said:

 but that brings up a whole host of cybersecurity considerations that I don't want to open the door to. 

I have an online square checkout. should I not?

 

[mute1080]

I have an online square checkout. should I not?
 

Take it to the credit card thread.

When we went online only for April and May, our online merchant took 2% of total sales. Doesn’t sound like a lot but when profit is 20-25%, it’s noticeable. Build the online fee into profit margin or by service fee and then it’s no problem.

[NMSKI]

3 minutes ago, Shadows said:

I have an online square checkout. should I not?

 

You should be fine!  I honestly don't know how the security and encryption stuff works with square but if it were bad it wouldn't be as widely used as it is.

I only avoid it because we are regulated by several state and national regulatory bodies and there are crazy cybersecurity regulations that I would have to abide by if we were to transmit personal financial information online.  I'd probably have to hire someone to take care of the IT and compliance side of it.  We have cyber insurance, but even with that, a data breach would be bad news and a pain with over 10,000 customer records (which probably isn't a lot, but seems like a lot to me).  

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

24 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

What kind of artwork does your mom sell?

Landscape paintings, mosaics, shadow boxes.  

Edited December 4, 2020 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[NMSKI]

2 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Landscape paintings, mosaics, shadow boxes.  

 

https://ssslif.wixsite.com/sally-slifkin

Nice.  She's talented!

[toast21602]

5 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Landscape paintings, mosaics, shadow boxes.  

Wow that's awesome. Go Sally! 

[Schif]

8 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Landscape paintings, mosaics, shadow boxes.  

Pretty nice stuff!

Does she do commissioned work? Would she paint Mt. Blue? Or the parking lot? if we asked nicely? 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

10 minutes ago, Schif said:

Pretty nice stuff!

Does she do commissioned work? Would she paint Mt. Blue? Or the parking lot? if we asked nicely? 

Sure she could. There might be a ski painting at my work let me see. Just heading in now. 

 

Not to tuen this into show and tell but my mom is also the illustrator in my sisters children’s book series. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Architect-Laura-Slifkin-Venos/dp/1516857836

Edited December 4, 2020 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[mute1080]

Sure she could. There might be a ski painting at my work let me see. Just heading in now. 
 
Not to tuen this into show and tell but my mom is also the illustrator in my sisters children’s book series. 
 
https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Architect-Laura-Slifkin-Venos/dp/1516857836

The kid’s going to love them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[saltyant]

3 hours ago, AtomicSkier said:

These policies are just theatre.  They can’t “require” anything, as noted in the article.  “Self certification” 😂

Soon you'll need your embedded microchip containing your ID2020 Bill Gates approved COVID19 digital vaccine certification to ski anywhere. A Facebook meme told me so.

[toast21602]

1 minute ago, saltyant said:

Soon you'll need your embedded microchip containing your ID2020 Bill Gates approved COVID19 digital vaccine certification to ski anywhere. A Facebook meme told me so.

STFU

[JFskiDan]

More back on topic, how are you guys feeling about Christmas with the fam?  I for one aint feeling real good about it.