Richard Steinfeldt Photography |
For many people, ordering something on the Internet is a frightening prospect. If you send a check or money order, what happens if you never receive your product? Is there a safe way to purchase on the Web? Yes! Ordering with a credit card? It's much safer, since the credit card company will help if you don't receive your order, or have a problem.
We --along with more than 50,000 other online merchants--use a service called "CCNow" to handle our shopping cart functions, including secure checkout and credit card ordering. Here are answers to some of the commonly asked questions about this service:
A. Yes. CCNow shopping-cart software runs in Secure Mode on the Online Shopper's browser, using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt sensitive data such as credit card numbers. While selecting products and adding them to the Shopping Cart, the Online Shopper is in Non-Secure Mode. After he/she presses the Checkout button, we switch to Secure Mode in order to collect the billing and shipping information.
All modern Web browsers support the SSL standard, but the Online Shopper can choose to checkout using Non-Secure Mode if necessary.
A. CCNow accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover/Novus cards, Diner's Club and JCB credit cards. Online Shoppers who want to pay for merchandise from their checking account can use a Visa or MasterCard check card or debit card. CCNow also accepts PayPal.
A. No. Unlike some online services which require the online shopper to register and become a member, anyone can use CCNow for an online credit card purchase.
A. After an Online Shopper places an order, CCNow sends an Order Confirmation to the Online Shopper's E-mail address. This can also be used as an invoice or receipt, if the Online Shopper chooses to print the E-mail message.
CCNow's system processes a batch of orders every four to six hours, depending on sales volume. Batch processing takes place continuously, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Occasionally, an order will take longer than four to six hours to process, depending on the issuing bank's computer systems, and whether the issuing bank requests special authorization procedures.
CCNow then emails the order to us for shipping.
A. You will see a chargefrom "CCNow," not from Richard Steinfeldt Photography.
A. No, unless you live in Minnesota. Any order that is placed with CCNow carries no U.S. sales tax because CCNow is located in Delaware. CCNow acts as a retail reseller of their clients' products. As their client, we sell our products to CCNow and they re-sell those products to Online Shoppers.
In the U.S. it is the responsibility of the retail merchant, not the drop-shipper or supplier, to collect any sales tax that is due. This is true even if we are shipping products to an Online Shopper in our own state (NY), because the Online Shopper is buying the products from CCNow, not from Richard Steinfeldt Photography.
With the exception of the state of Minnesota, U.S. sales tax is only collected when the Online Shopper is located in the same state as the retail merchant. This means that any CCNow Online Shopper who is outside of Delaware will not owe sales tax. Any Online Shopper who happens to be located in Delaware would not owe sales tax either, because Delaware has no sales tax.
Please keep in mind that this applies only to Online Shoppers who place their order with CCNow using a credit card. If an Online Shopper pays Richard Steinfeldt Photography directly by check or money order, and that Online Shopper lives in New York State, then Richard Steinfeldt Photography must collect sales tax from that Online Shopper.
A. You have 30 days to return any part of your order for a full refund, including the shipping charge. (You need to pay the return shipping charge on any items you ship back to us). Richard Steinfeldt Photography should be contacted regarding a return (info@steinfeldt.com), and we will handle the return as well as seeing to it that CCNow issues you a full refund for any items returned to us. (You should know, however, that we have been doing business on the Internet for over five years and have not yet had any images returned for refunds!)