Authorize or authorize & capture?

[megan]

Hey all,

I've been wondering what the norm is for credit cards. Do you authorize or authorize & capture?

I personally capture at the same time the order is placed but it poses problems when orders are canceled or if an item is on backorder. I just imagine forgetting to capture when I ship and ending up giving away freebies all the time!

[materialpleasures]

Hi Megan,
I am set up to just authorize.
My inventory is one of a kind (antiques), so if an item sells at a show, or on my other site, and I haven't removed it from my 3d site, I don't want the hassle of revering charges.
If you don't have inventory concerns, then authorize/capture is fine.

My best,
Dana

[dynoJean]

Megan, another reason to authorize only when the order is placed, is that most merchant accounts require you to ship before capturing. If there's a delay of even a few days from order to shipping, you're better off capturing when shipped.

[tigger]

i authorize only first. so that way i can double check the info before capturing. once i place the order then i capture. it seems like a lot of trouble to refund.

as far as your comment about forgeting to capture once you ship you may have to develop a routine. once i got into it i was working faster than my old method.

[megan]

Thanks for the input! Seems like I heard something about 3d sending a capture command when an order is marked as shipped. That would make auth only easier!

As for the shipping, we ship usually within 24 hours and when I was setting up the merchant account they said it was OK to capture if I shipped within 24.

Have a great night!

[Ben]

Being that we ship about 95% of what we sell, and we generally ship everything within 24 hours, I auth & capture at the same time.
Happy Selling,
Ben