Selling software online

[Telnes]

I am a software developer and use a third party company (Plimus.com) for credit card processing. The biggest problem I face as an online merchant is consumers blindly charging back licensing fees. I offer a very solid solution, offer a 30 day evaluation and excellent support... but there are still a few dishonest folks who charge the fees back and continue to use the license.

My question.... does anyone have any tips to make it harder for these people to charge back?

Thank you!!

Jason

[collegemart]

Hi JBS - Ive experienced something very similar...

Here are your options:

Get every customer to sign a form saying that they approve the purchase before you actually process the credit card - this way, you will have a signature on file and can win the charge back.

Only accept cheques - I know this is a pain - and may cost you some sales - but - it works... Set up an EFT account with your bank, and when someone makes a purchase - email them a standard form authorizing the withdrawl of $x for your product - ask them to fax this back to you with along with a void cheque - simply withdraw the funds from their account.

Only offer your product as an ASP service, rather then a downloadable product - therefore, as long as people are paying, they maintain using your service - as soon as payment stops, useage of the product stops...

Go after the people who charge back - Legally of course (often too expensive and usually not cost effective)

[Telnes]

Awesome! Thank you for your insight :-)

Jason

Originally Posted by S-T

Hi JBS - Ive experienced something very similar...

Here are your options:

Get every customer to sign a form saying that they approve the purchase before you actually process the credit card - this way, you will have a signature on file and can win the charge back.

Only accept cheques - I know this is a pain - and may cost you some sales - but - it works... Set up an EFT account with your bank, and when someone makes a purchase - email them a standard form authorizing the withdrawl of $x for your product - ask them to fax this back to you with along with a void cheque - simply withdraw the funds from their account.

Only offer your product as an ASP service, rather then a downloadable product - therefore, as long as people are paying, they maintain using your service - as soon as payment stops, useage of the product stops...

Go after the people who charge back - Legally of course (often too expensive and usually not cost effective)

[Melzbiz]

Another possible solution is a security app you can wrap your program in.

I saw the Armadillo product mentioned on another board.
http://siliconrealms.com/index.shtml

I haven't personally used this product or affiliated with them in any way.