[10859] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Factoring? (was Re: Billing on the net)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bruce Gingery)
Sat Mar 12 19:19:03 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 13:41:05 -0700 (MST)
From: Bruce Gingery <lcbginge@antelope.wcc.edu>
To: Russell Nelson <nelson@crynwr.com>
Cc: brad@looking.clarinet.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <m0penjG-000I9vC@crynwr>
This raises one question that has been bothering me for a while. Just
what is the difference between "factoring" as described here and the
various Telco's billing for 976 and 900 services -- other than the sheer
fiscal mass of the participants?
Some telco's WILL submit bills for electronic payment, just as other
utilities do. Hence it cannot be the "banking" side of it. The
difference between a "976" and other number is strictly in the accounting
and billing, hence they serve as a billing agent. Some will accept credit
card payments, and ALL will accept "credit card checks" as have become
popular in recent years among some major lenders.
The telco taking their own payment BEFORE passing along collections to
the 900 or 976 service holder makes it more like rather than less like the
credit card "vendor" (not credit company) who takes in secondary charges,
especially if such a "vendor" performs ANY other service for the secondary
vendor. It becomes a matter of semantics and phraseology more than reality.
Seems to me that it's just one more case of "them that has the money is
them that has the power".
That's my "laser eagle's" worth!
Bruce Gingery lcbginge@antelope.wcc.edu
On Thu, 10 Mar 1994, Russell Nelson wrote:
> Newsgroups: compriv
> Organization: ClariNet Communications Corp.
> Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 1:10:20 PST
> From: Brad Templeton <brad@looking.clarinet.com>
>
> All credit card merchant agreements, with a few special exceptions,
> forbid you making charges on behalf of another party. All it takes
> is one complaint to get caught.
>
> And when you do, you're blacklisted.
>
> I got merchant accounts with no storefront and no history in the USA at
> all, but that was 2 years ago and I'm told it's a bit harder now.
>
> I had one three years ago, but there was so much fraud (they lost $6 million
> to just *one* party) that the bank dropped ALL their phone-order customers.
>
> But if it turns out that my TinyPay scheme turns out to be legal (re Sean's
> post), you-all'll hear about it.
>
> -russ <nelson@crynwr.com> ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav
> Crynwr Software | Crynwr Software sells packet driver support | ask4 PGP key
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