We where burned a few years ago on a shipper from the USA whom paid us credit card for 3 loads from OH. We did the loads from a wedding tent, chair supplier, to a 3rd party warehouse. Accepted credit card payment and 2 months later, our credit card merchant reversed the charges as it was a stolen credit card. We tried recouping from the shipper but unfortunately, they extended 250K in credit to this scammer themselves and never got paid which almost bankrupted them.
We never considered going after the 3pl receiver and did not pursue that. When we questioned the credit card co. why they don't take on that liability, they said they do but we had to present a signed form with the agreement to bill the credit card (which we had) along with a valid i.d. front and back since we where processing off site.
We lost about $3,500 CAD on this but learned a tough lesson. All new credit payments we now send an authorization form along with request for the credit cards holders license front and back. We keep this on file for future transactions. it's good to be able to accept cc's for quick payment but you have to be aware of your limits of liability. A good, quick and reasonable service fee provider is Paypal if you doing low volume, once and awhile billing on cc's.
