Lets Beat on Bav Auto

["Duane Collie" <drcollie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>What's up with Bav Auto?  They lost over $200 of my business today by
>declaring that they must have my home phone number.  When I told the
>salesman that I don't give out my home phone (I already get enough sales
>calls) he said he had to have it to process my order.  I told him no, all
>he needed was my credit card and address.  No, says he; Bav Auto needs it
>to verify my credit.

Dan,

Not that I'm a Bav Auto fan (I'm not, they are generally BMW-clueless
amazingly enough), but the salesman is correct in this instance.  He does
need your home phone number to verify that the 'ship to' address and your
credit card address match on his terminal.  There's a lot of credit card
fraud and any mail order shipper who does NOT verify the addresses will risk
a chargeback and lossif it turns out the transaction is fraudulent and he
did not verify.  All transactions via mail order are required to ship only
to the cardholders address and the automated checking system is based in
part on your home phone number.

Additionally, its so easy to make a mistake writing down 16 sequential
numbers on a card, that its important to have a call back phone number in
case a digit was transposed.  It is not necessary for anyone making a
counter transaction (face to face) to have your phone number, so you're well
within your rights on that one.

Credit cards are a royal pain in the ass for mechants.  They are costly to
process and we (merchants) always catch the crap from the customers when
THEY think we are doing something suspicious with their account numbers,
personal info, failure to authorize, declines, etc.  The rules and
restrictions set forth by the card companies are rigid and unyielding - if
we merchants don't play by their rules, they yank our card privledges.

<tip> One little known fact about credit cards and mail order operations is
that they, the seller, is forbidden to debit your card in full for the
merchandise until time of shipment.  That means they CANNOT whack your card
this week and then ship it the following week unless you O.K. that
transaction.  So don't let any merchant make you pre-pay in full an item via
credit card and then not ship it until some future date.  If they do, file a
complaint with MasterCard, VISA, AM EX, etc. and they'll get a visit from
those companies.

>Now, does anyone have a good source (phone #) for Red Line Lubes?

Eyah.  OG RACING (www.ogracing.com) will be glad to take your money!

- - Duane Collie

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