taking payments online, security?

[rtbcomp]

small businesses can go exactly the same way though and the md made bankrupt still no one gets paid

Apart from the Administrator and possibly the taxman.

Normally directors are not at risk unless they have offerred their house as colateral against a bank loan, for example, or as said above broken the law.

 

[brightspark]

I agree scott... there should be a cut off point, beyond which directors are liable... or at least a point at which the courts can make them liable for misrepresentation, fraud, obtaining goods by deception etc....As for businesses that rack up millions in debt the directors and management should be personally liable down to the clothes they are in court in.... hacks me off no end when companies buy all they can then go bankrupt over the weekend, then next week they are back... same tossers at the top in "different jobs" & everyone else in the crap.

WITH YOUR MONEY AND ALL THE STOCK they filtered away

 

[mike os]

Escrow is Ok and wont cost any more that PP but means you dont actually get paid until teh job is completed ... no good if you need the deposit to cover materials.

PP for me is just a means of acepting card payments wthout the grief that is merchant services, but I rarely take a deposit

 

[the snooper]

look what happened to woolworths didnt zavvi take them under due to the amout they owed to woollies

 

[scott0031]

Apart from the Administrator and possibly the taxman.

Normally directors are not at risk unless they have offered their house as colateral against a bank loan, for example, or as said above broken the law.

I know this is going a bit off topic( sorry mods) but all the same its an interesting subject and one i hope many can learn something from so they don't get caught.

The administrators! HA HA HA HA is my view of them what a total joke of monumental proportions, government regulated and all that what a load of bull. The things these set of greedy jokers have said to me over the years. They really do think people are total Muppet's.

when i actually realised what was going on in one case i phoned them up and put some questions to them. I did not get one answer other than the quote from them, 'that's liable we could take you to court for that'. So i invited them to do so. I said my accusations will be in writing to you in 2 days, and it was! Never another word.

A word of advice for anyone out there, never take what administrators do or say as true, My proof showed they were in it as thick as thieves. The whole system of this legalised fraud and the aftermath of administrators is a joke in law that's there to serve the few and not the many.


Never be afraid to challenge these people who are so called regulated and abide by the law with the utmost integrity. Its an absolute load of testicles.


Kind regards,


Scott (ward eng)

 

[tigler]

Administrators are only interested in one thing, their fee and how big they can make it !!
In business never trust anybody, ESPECIALLY the professionals !! That even means solicitors and accountants.
We engaged a purportedly highly respected firm of accountants at one time in our family business and the foundation of our initial agreement when we engaged them was fixed fee accounting to avoid the stupid bills we had been blighted with previously.
Our books were straight forward enough and required no complex work. Within a few months, we started to get 'exception' fees due 'unforeseen' issues.
This was questioned and they gave a seemingly plausible response, however the fee's began to escalate and before we knew it we were in dispute.
We had a meeting with one of the firms directors and realised there something dodgy going on but couldn't establish what.
During the time they had worked on our accounts they appointed an account manager to us who was regularly working at our office and we had become quite friendly with him.
One day he dropped in unexpectedly and asked to see me. What he told me made me feel quite sick and absolutely outraged.
His firm had been fined by the accountancy regulatory body for 'irregularities' in submitting the accounts for a large local company 2 years previous us engaging them.
The 'irregularities' turned out to be corporation tax evasion in which the accountancy firm had been implicated in falsifying accounts for a financial reward ! The fine they received was £1.2M !! They either paid it or the directors would have been taken to court for fraud with obviously extreme consequences.
Now we get to why our fee's were hiked. The firm was recovering the fine by virtue of over billing any client they could could get away with ! The account manager that told us said he could no longer tolerate the personal guilt he felt by virtue of having to knowingly exploit respectable, honest and hardworking clients of the firm he represented so was leaving and letting all the companies on his client list know the truth.

About a week later, after this guy had left, I arranged a personal meeting with the MD of this accountancy firm and made him aware I knew his filthy secret ! The bastard cold faced denied it, trying to bluff it out by threatening me with a liable suit !! I said fine, go ahead with that, but you won't be paid for the last quarters fee's and we will be demanding a credit note to bring the fee's we have paid back to our original fixed fee agreement. Either that or I go to the accountancy regulatory body and report my suspicions which is certain to ring alarm bells given your firms history !!
Guess what, he capitulated !!
After that we engaged a one man band accountant who really cherished our account and gave us a load of brilliant advice which saved us a huge amount.

 

[rtbcomp]

That even means solicitors and accountants. You're being grossly unfair - you've missed off bank managers.

Don't be be bothered by threats of being sued for "liable" - libel only applies if you're wrong and you make your accusations public.

I told my accountants to get stuffed after they missed out the fact I was claiming VAT back for postage. They threatened to sue me, I asked for a refund of the extra VAT I suddenly had to fined and for details of their professional body so I could make a formal complaint. Never heard from them again.

 

[tigler]

What, bank managers still exist ??!! Where, where, show me one ! LOL !!

I'm rarely concerned at any legal action threats, mainly because I would never be a position to make that possible, and also because it's mostly posturing from the person delivering the threat !!

 

[rtbcomp]

............, mainly because I would never be a position to make that possible

Famous last words!

 

[tigler]

OK, well I never knowingly do anything illegal

 

[chunkolini]

Hi Guys
I figured this one would get a response.
I went to my bank this morning, their advice? Use paypal.
He did say I could have a business account but it would cost me about £20.00 per month. That adds up over a year.
I figure if he is not happy with this then I dont need his business. I can see why he might be wary of sending me a four figure sum not knowing me. But nobody else has ever had a problem with me.

I always take payment up front or a deposit if it is a larger sum of money, never had a difficult customer but I have watched a mate of mine almost get wiped out after half completing a job without taking a down payment, and being told to clear off by the customer.

I will get back when I hear back from my punter.

Cheers all, Chunko'.

 

[rtbcomp]

and being told to clear off by the customer. Perhaps that's this guy's intention?

 

[chunkolini]

It did cross my mind.
I very occasionally get people who enjoy ging through the process, all the design stages etc etc, then lose interest.
Drives me mad, but you can never tell. A kind of financial version of internet trolls.

Eg one blokey got in touch regards a ridiculous idea, did not seem too bothered. I gave him a daft quote to get rid of him. He said yes and paid up promptly. Other times I will get a 'cert' somebody who asks all the right questions and carries on asking them for ever and ever and ever.
I figure if this guy wants his stuff he will accept my terms. In 5 years at this full time this is a first.

Chunko'.

 

[shenion]

I figure if this guy wants his stuff he will accept my terms. In 5 years at this full time this is a first.
Chunko'.

Its your biz, you set the terms.

In my biz, always 1/2 up front. Usually covers my costs. The more important point is it proves they can pay. Nothing like some flunkie requiesting some work then to find his boss says he was not authorized to order it.

That and I don't accept "It takes 6-8 weeks to process an invoice." I see more of these delayed payments become policy. My invoices have "10% added each month late".

I mentioned Propay, it is a merchant account but does not cost the $20/mo with a minimum number of transactions/mo or another fee. Just $69 to $129/year for me then a percentage like paypal. I can have propay send an email with a one-time payment the client can make online through their secure site.

There might be similar CC processors there.

 

[SC_BK]

What about having a contact info page on your site with a postal address?

 

[rtbcomp]

What about having a contact info page on your site with a postal address?

That's always a good idea. When I ran a mail-order business I displayed my address and landline phone number. Also a sentence to the effect "callers welcome, but by appointment preferred", this was to cover myself if someone turned up out of the blue whilst I was at the Post Office, if you remember what they were.

 

[chunkolini]

That seems a good idea, Maybe this evening I will put up a contact page.
I have been going to do that for about a year ................

Chunko'.

 

[rtbcomp]

Add your VAT and company registration numbers as well, if appropiate.

 

[Chipper]

It'd cost more than 20pm, to do proper card transactions: You need a biz account (charges) and Internet Merchant Status added to it. The bank will stiff you some charges for that.
Then you'd need a service to validate credit cards and effect the transactions, a PSP / Payment Services Provider. Their charges vary but expect another £20pm poss with 20p per transaction or a %.

To get merchant status used to be a right faff, the banks were so archaic. You need to tell them your volumes, amount per transaction, etc - bank and PSP charges are based on that. I'm doing one with £100k pa initial, and charges are nearly 3%. No monthly. Then there's the PSP costs.

Overall this is notalot. But you would need secure hosting, SSL cert, and an ecommerce enabled website.

So.... PayPal's dead easy...
Their support can suck mightily, but there's lots of pluses.
There's also Google checkout.

If you're taking payments you have to display contact details and/or registered address by law. I think also company and VAT nos if applicable.

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

I've been smiling at some of the posts where you take some guy on verbally ..they don't like it and say I'll do you for liable.
Gents this is the mark of a total numpty.

If someone says the above sort of thing , just laugh at them and grin like a Cheshire cat and tell then to go right a head.


I was given this little gem years ago to remind me what is what.

Liable is legible in other words written down stuff.

Slander is slagging off otherwise known as spoken words.