We’re always on the lookout for new products and services that can help retailers improve their business and just this week, we got a press release from a site that definitely fits the bill. Not to mention,their name is really catchy!
BadCustomer.com runs a database that assists retailers in combating customer chargebacks—a process by which consumers go through credit card companies for purchase refunds, rather than following proper return and credit protocols with retailers directly. Customer chargebacks are a major drain on retailers’ bottom lines, costing them more than $11.8 billion in the U.S. last year according to datafrom the National Retail Federation.
BadCustomer’s data base works almost like a blacklist of sorts, listing frequent and known chargeback customers which retailers can rely on to make sure they don’t get duped.
“In an attempt to appease their customers, credit card companies are making it easier for them to use chargebacks, often sticking the retailer with hefty fines and fees, not to mention the loss of the merchandise, which is usually not returned,” says Brien Heideman, founder and CEO of BadCustomer.com. “We help prevent that nightmare before it even starts by running the customer against our database during the purchase process to make sure they’re not a known chargeback risk.”
Participating retailers contribute to the BadCustomer.com database, providing the details of known chargeback risks encountered in their individual operations.
When a customer attempts to make a purchase from a participating BadCustomer.com retailer, the customer’s contact data is automatically scrubbed against the list during the order processing procedure. If found on the database, the customer receives a notification, along with instructions on how to rectify the situation, and the purchase is declined.
Customers can contest their inclusion on the list. To do so, a consumer needs to contact BadCustomer.com and the company will mediate the issue between customer and merchant. Once removed, they are free to shop as they choose, even by returning immediately to the original retailer to complete the purchase process. BadCustomer.com also operates a fully-staffed remediation department to help resolve disputes; representatives will even call the credit card companies and/or retailers to settle any misunderstandings.
This sounds like a really cool service to us, especially since we weren’t aware that customer chargebacks were as big of a problem as they are. For you retailers who are interested in learning more, head on over to BadCustomer’s website.
Leave us your thoughts and comments and happy Easter!
It’s a shame. There is nothing we can do as online retailers to fight the bad guys. Credit card companies do very little to support businesses who are clearly in the right most of the time.
Perhaps the way to go is not just blacklisting customers, but blacklisting the banks who allow the fraud to continue. I know I will start denying certain bin numbers of credit cards with a disclaimer on my payment page stating that we do not accept “Company X’s” credit cards due to unreliable fraud prevention measures. If all online retailers did this and shared the list, you can be sure the banks would take notice!
Whatever happened to badcustomer.com? They don’t seem to exist anymore.
I would love to report bad customers and have a database that I could compare orders against. It would be nice to screw over these scamsters that are stealing money from us!
We just checked out their link to find what you already told us so we’re not really sure. Seemed like they had a good thing going there.
[...] readers will remember that we featured BadCustomer.com a little over a month ago, highlighting how their database service assists retailers in combating [...]