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Caveat Vendor
Jun. 26th, 2007 08:26 amI'm going to take a moment from my insane week of moving and beginning the big Pennsic Push to chat about stuff that merchants put up with.
I've been relatively lucky not to have had chargebacks, disputed credit charges, or bad checks that were not immediately reimbursed. The fellow who shares my booth space at Pennsic hasn't been so lucky. Last Pennsic, some fellow used a stolen credit card to buy a $300.00 gambeson. The credit card company gave the money back to the theft victim, but Gareth is out the $300.00. The person who had his wallet stolen waited until he got home from Pennsic to report it stolen. Perhaps he was hoping someone would turn it in to the constables, but had he called the card in, the authorization would not have gone through. Our procedures are going to require careful ID checks for everything this year.
[paragraph removed by request from Gareth. It can go back up if the bounced check situation is not resolved. ]
Gareth says that he talked to Gwen of Historic Enterprises, and her technique for dealing with this is to photocopy and enlarge the bounced check and laminate it for display in the booth with the person's SCA name on it. We may have our first one to post in the booth this year if these folks keep goofing around.
I heard last year that several merchants had some inventory disappear. I lost one ring. My booth helpers and I keep a pretty good eye on things, but I'm also planning to build a new display setup for the rings that allows them to be picked up and tried on but not stolen. This group is just too big to be complacent at events. I have been lucky. I need to reinforce that luck with some precautions.
On another note, if anyone here can suggest a more gentle way to say, "This is a fine jewelry store, not a swap meet" I'd appreciate it. rather than return an insult received, I kept my mouth shut this weekend, but I'd like to have a response ready should I need one like this again.
I've been relatively lucky not to have had chargebacks, disputed credit charges, or bad checks that were not immediately reimbursed. The fellow who shares my booth space at Pennsic hasn't been so lucky. Last Pennsic, some fellow used a stolen credit card to buy a $300.00 gambeson. The credit card company gave the money back to the theft victim, but Gareth is out the $300.00. The person who had his wallet stolen waited until he got home from Pennsic to report it stolen. Perhaps he was hoping someone would turn it in to the constables, but had he called the card in, the authorization would not have gone through. Our procedures are going to require careful ID checks for everything this year.
[paragraph removed by request from Gareth. It can go back up if the bounced check situation is not resolved. ]
Gareth says that he talked to Gwen of Historic Enterprises, and her technique for dealing with this is to photocopy and enlarge the bounced check and laminate it for display in the booth with the person's SCA name on it. We may have our first one to post in the booth this year if these folks keep goofing around.
I heard last year that several merchants had some inventory disappear. I lost one ring. My booth helpers and I keep a pretty good eye on things, but I'm also planning to build a new display setup for the rings that allows them to be picked up and tried on but not stolen. This group is just too big to be complacent at events. I have been lucky. I need to reinforce that luck with some precautions.
On another note, if anyone here can suggest a more gentle way to say, "This is a fine jewelry store, not a swap meet" I'd appreciate it. rather than return an insult received, I kept my mouth shut this weekend, but I'd like to have a response ready should I need one like this again.
