private label credit card This is a topic that many people are looking for. newyorkcityvoices.org is a channel providing useful information about learning, life, digital marketing and online courses …. it will help you have an overview and solid multi-faceted knowledge . Today, newyorkcityvoices.org would like to introduce to you private label credit cards, ch 11. Following along are instructions in the video below:
“My name i m his pop this is a reading of chapter 11. Private label label credit cards from billy bubba s dumbass texas muffler shop chapter 11 a year. I sold my last shop i had become very involved in selling the private label credit card we already took checks cash mastercard visa discover and american express. I had a free standing credit card machine in the processing company was npc national processing company.
I could swipe a card and receive authorization. Within a couple of seconds and it was very very convenient on those occasions. When the card came back declined. The customer would very often without another name brand card and this one would go through on a very few occasions.
The customer would offer me a succession of cars all coming up declined. Not to worry. I always had the upper hand and never release the car until i got full payment. If the customer tried to switch to check after say three credit cards were declined.
I would be doubly wary of the check not to worry. I had a check verification machine. Also i bought the machine from one company and the check. Authorization company was another company so many banking and money and computer and credit card.
Companies were somehow all working together unbelievably will run the check readers motor zipped through the check asked me to type in the amount. And it s lcd would output an authorization number. I wrote it on the check along with the customers driver s license. I m a belt and suspenders man so instead of merely writing down the preferred driver s license.
Number. I casually through the license face down along with the check on my usb 5995 canon flatbed scanner five seconds later i had lots of information and this was never lost as an object lesson on the customer as i stapled the copy to my yellow copy of the end those checks invariably never bounced sometimes however after three credit cards declined. Then very often the check also declined these situations very often ended up as multiple payment invoices 100 bucks. Okay don mastercard hunterdon discover hunterdon visa.
The remainder in cash usually an odd figure say 5782 or whatever this brings up the private label credit card. We offered a card run by firestone cfn a credit first national. But it said our franchise on it not firestone. There was a simple one page application and if approved on the spot.
The card could be used immediately the actual plastic card was then mailed to the customer after the first transaction now although common sense tells you that after a succession of having three plastic cards and a personal check being turned down that it is very very unlikely that some private label card company like firestone would actually approve such a risk not so apparently all such risks were evaluated by credit rating and history of default not current dire straits here s what invariably happened it is kafka esque billy bubba s mastercard discover. Visa and personal check all declined in personally by disembodied machine presumably all three cards were already maxed out to the limit and each is in arrears. Plus. He is overdrawn on his checking account me if i were in such a condition.
I would kill myself at least. I would not sleep something but not billy bubba. He is there after all today in my shop to get a vanity muffler. A loud muffler.
A performance muffler. A flowmaster he can justify this to his trailer wife on the basis. That his quote internet research has shown that such a rig gets better gas mileage that the 350 expenditure will save them money. She is not convinced.
She is balancing a baby on one knee and trying to balance a checkbook on the other brow furrowed in concentration. What about our lat note. She checks out some financial status with a cell phone and shifts the baby to light. A cigarette.
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The dilemma is solved having shifted cigarette for cell phone cell phone for baby. She was required to put down the checkbook out of sight out of cf na. Not only approves. The sale.
They approve a 1200 dollar limit. Immediately homeboy decides to upgrade his purchase how much more you guessed it 1200 bucks. I watched this happen time and time again this was the rule rather than the exception. However the ballet does not end.
Here the terms and conditions of the new credit card are as follows no interest at all if you pay up in full within three months. If you do not pay. Well. It s a european medieval usurious.
22. Unconscionable. No that is what they have to charge to cover the unrecoverable similar such bills from similar deadbeats they leave the shop after the installation accompanied by the thunderous wonderful roar of the flowmaster they are also accompanied by the twelve hundred dollar bill do exactly three months later me i get paid that night by electronic transfer of funds from firestone to chase like clockwork. Though it played out as follows beginning with a phone call three months down the road.
I this this here s billy bubble. Whatever i m that guy who got that big brake job you know i m supposed to remember this transaction from quote that big brick job he could at least have narrowed it down further by saying for me something like i m. The guy who is one of your customers. Let brake job.
You done is no good. And i want my money back. I want a refund. Oh i m sorry to hear that sir can you bring it in for us to look at no i just want my money back.
I am authorized to give refunds. I told him under certain conditions. But i m required to at least look at the vehicle and make a physical evaluation of the situation. Now that all sounds real real reasonable and very professional.
But you must realize that the wording is all spontaneous and cya and well actually reasonable the phrase. I m authorized is malarkey. I m the guy who authorizes it is my shop i make the decisions. But it sounds like some olympian god wrote it down in the olympian brake shop procedure book physical evaluation of the situation means just that i want to see for myself what in the heck is going on nobody s going to refund money on the basis of a phone call how did i come up with this thinking this wording.
This style of fencing well the franchise. Certainly never offered any of this kind of training. There was no such procedure book. There was a procedure book.
But it never covered any real world problems thinking on your feet like this comes from thousands and thousands of hours of being on the phone of being burned time and time again and learning from your mistakes and developing a sense of business wisdom. It s like a chess game you have to learn to think. Four moves ahead in any direction moves attacks counter attacks defensive positions. It s not a game to play to win.
But to do the right thing to be just to be morally correct. But above all not to be stupid. I just reread the above after writing it and i noticed counter attacks. I got attacked on the counter.
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So many times well i can t just bring it in right now. But you re going to hear from mylar. If we don t get our money my little girl wife was almost killed well that does sound serious sir when did this happen and don t make a good goddamn when it happened. But if we don t get our refund you re going to be in some very deep.
I understand that sir it sounds like we re in trouble right now. But the thing is we got insurance and stuff so if anyone got hurt. We haven t been contacted or anything. So maybe i can help you out when did this happen bit by bit like pulling teeth like digging the grand canyon with a teaspoon.
The story comes out he had been in a collision with another car no there had not been any doctor bills. No one went to the hospital yes. He did get a ticket when did it happen about a week after leaving here three months ago. The truck.
It was total and is in the junkyard. It s terrible you see because he is quote upside down. Still owes more on the car than it s worth. But since it s totaled.
The insurance only paid him its current value less than what he owes then to add insult to injury now comes the twelve hundred dollar bill to the credit card company. I tell him reluctantly that under such circumstances i cannot give a refund since i cannot look at the condition of the car he asks me if i can go with him to the junkyard. I regretfully tell him no i cannot i further explained that though what he relates sounds real interesting to investigate that it would have been better if he had called three months ago. I do not tell him i making notes nor do i tell him one of my notes to myself is quote ticket arrow police report accident.
He gets mad now and says he does not plan to pay the bill and i tell him yes. Sir he apparently does not realize i was paid three months ago. That s how credit cards were they quote bought the debt from me now they have to collect of course. There are always quote chargebacks these are letters from the credit card company.
Saying they have received a complaint from the customer saying something like he never had any work down. There that that is not his signature that someone used his card without authorization. I would then have to make a copy of the signed work order signed invoice signed credit card slip. If i had a prior invoice from that same guy work done months or years earlier any kind of work.
I also would have another totally different signature on file. And if they all match. Then i had proof positive the guy was blowing smoke. Some chargebacks admitted doing the work.
But complained that quality or some. Such similar problem. I also made copies of the same documents and wrote a nicely worded letter saying this was the first such notice of any complaint and that i would like to address the issue with the customer since the terms of our contract. With him stated on the invoice guaranteed certain levels of performance.
Now here s where the credit cards got interesting with me we had been told by cf na over and over again that their card was not intended as a form of payment of the last resort. But rather. It was intended to be offered to all customers every customer. They stated our sales would go up due to loyalty and convenience and possession of the cfn.
A credit card and they were right the other franchise shops that i belong to all bitched about it they don t hardly approve any of them may be only one out of 10. It isn t even worth trying i disagreed. I went down to office depot and bought 25 legal sized clipboards and put cfn a credit card applications on each the app. Ask for name and address and phone and zip that same stuff was on my own work order.
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I used the application as a time saver when the customer came in i got his keys went to get his car while i did so the customer filled out the credit card had some of them noticed it said write on it that the form was a credit card application and that they definitely did not want to apply for a credit card. I truthfully told him no problem it was a dual purpose form just scratched through where it said to sign and that satisfied everyone meanwhile we wrote down plate vin mileage etc on another piece of paper now about three quarters of the people never complained about the credit card application. Just went ahead and filled it up there were two very sensitive questions on the form asked for driver s license. Number.
And worse yet. The social security. Number it cut across age lines anyone. Under 30.
Went ahead. And just filled out all requested information. Not even questioning the safety of it everyone over 30. Absolutely refused to fill this information in just left it blank.
They knew all about identity theft. Its implications. The sheer horror of it about fifty percent of my customer base in texas. Did not have a social security.
Number because they were in the country illegally when we evaluated the car and i worked up the total. I presented the sale and ask for the go ahead. I just went ahead and asked do you just want to sign for it to this today. I can send you a bill in the mail.
You don t have to pay the total for three months. And there s no interest usually that did it right there they agreed and i put in their application. Right. There.
There was a trick cfn a had a greater tendency to approve an application when there was a sale they always asked is there a sale. I told him yes and then they always ask the amount quite. Often i noticed a tendency to cover the amount of the sale and always seem to cap the limit at a higher amount than the sale amount whatever. It was you guessed it i told the customer.
His card would be sent in the mail and that his credit limit was so many dollars. I needed a moral issue never to suggest additional work to the customer under such conditions. I didn t have to within a few minutes. He would approach me i i saw your wall poster about this and so how much do they cost.
This worked. So well for me. That my sales crept up words people. With the card.
Really did return quite often months earlier had you done a poll. And asked. Me as a quote expert business owner. If such a private label credit card was a worthwhile idea i would have scoffed at the premise.
But i was wrong and it surprised me as an idea it seemed to generate sales without too much effort. And it brought in return sales to the people. At cf na were wonderful very professional and helpful at every request. They helped me out occasionally the phone would go out.
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Sometimes there would be a clerical error they rose to the occasion every time. I was printing money my customers began begging me for the private label credit card. My canon scanner was smoking. I made copies of the applications and stapled them to invoices if push came to shove.
I had backups then i got a letter telling me. I was number one in sales of the cfn. A credit card for all of the franchises in the whole united state not in dollar amount. But rather in new cards approved next month same thing for six months straight.
I was number one in sales in the nation. The amount of money coming in from the cfn. A card sometimes with seventy percent of my total for the week. My eggs were all in one basket.
But it was the right basket or so it seemed to me. But something was not right i had gotten not a word of recognition from the franchise. They had a monthly newsletter. Which normally would have announced such a thing every month or newsletter made similar such announcements.
Like joe blow sales go up after getting new sign or joe blow adds oil change and increases car count also they got their picture in the newsletter something was not right i found out what it was a week later with a letter from cf na. It was a regretfully worded letter saying they plan to honor their agreement to continue providing service to franchisees up to as long as possible even though. Our corporate had decided to spin off their own credit card using another carrier. They had fired cf cf na.
Our franchise had decided to use citibank piggybacked on top of the people who had bought out npc bank of america. It was a disaster. The transition was fubar it took six months. We had to purchase new terminals.
They required pccharge for checks. Nothing worked money would not go into the bank accounts for weeks at a time terminals were down. The whole upshot was they smelled money cfn ace service came at a cost. Our franchise claimed we franchisees would receive higher approval rates and more sales on top of lower rates.
Credit card rates charged to merchants are rather insignificant they varied over the years but went for a long. Time at one. Point six five percent for visa and mastercard. 155 for discover american express had the highest rate at 299.
But they were set up more as a monthly charge not a credit card and they maintained a higher level of professionalism. The private label card was actually lower they actually they provided the highest level of customer service check guaranteeing services charge in the neighborhood of 125. Percent. But they have a tight set of rules and do not actually cover each and every check more on that later i was not long.
It was not long after this occurred that i decided to part ways with the franchise. Enough is enough they went from bad to worse to worse yet to still yet worse they decided to buy a chain of bankrupt oil change places and i finally sold well that was a reading of chapter 11. Private label. Private label credit cards and this is billy bubba s dumbass texas muffler shop.
My name is pop and i have a whole bunch of videos on youtube not just reading from this and i invite you to look at them if you enjoyed this ” ..
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