Extreme Credit Card Chaos
Address Handcuffing

CCC Blog #2:

I was visiting a friend in NYC and found myself in his apartment on a rare Saturday morning with a few hours to spend. I turned on the TV, which I also rarely do, and came across an excellent public television fundraising campaign coupled with a presentation by Dr. Amen regarding brain health. This is another great topic and I highly recommend you check out Dr. Amen's work. He combined expertise as a medical doctor and psychiatrist to create a brand-new approach to brain scans and brain health.

Brain Heath a No-Brainer
Dr. Amen was offering all of his best work including books and courses in print and audio versions making it an absolute no-brainer (no pun intended) for a one time pledge of $240 or $20 per month especially considering the proceeds benefit public television. I eagerly called in to pledge my support and get started with the various programs and my commitment to long-term bring health. I proceeded to handover all my credit card information per the usual credit card checklist until I asked them to add a shipping address different from the credit card billing address.

Only ONE Address
The very friendly customer service lady, whom I’ll call Judy, said she didn't think it was possible. She was correct because their system allows ONE and only ONE address, the address tied to the credit card which also has to be used for shipping. The ONE address requirement is handcuffing the entire transaction. I immediately realized I was once again in the thick of Extreme Credit Card Chaos. I told Judy she would unfortunately have to cancel the order because ALL of my 6 business and personal debit cards have a shipping address different than the billing address.

Intentional Duel Addresses
In case you were wondering, it's an intentional strategy where the billing address is a virtual mailbox deployed to eliminate ALL paper mail. By default we must have a different shipping address to receive physical packages. We began to dialogue the reason why because she was unsure why their system is set up this way.

Customer Denial
I asked Judy for the logic behind the singular address requirement and she speculated that stolen credit cards could be used to ship goods to a different address for the fraudster. I suppose a bad actor could order Dr. Amen’s package and ship it to a customer on eBay while collecting the cash for a half price deal. Nonetheless, it appears there's no out other explanation as to why management will NOT ship the stuff to me at a different address. Of course I also asked Judy if she was familiar with bitcoin, which she was not, so I proceeded to educate her how this customer denial situation would NOT exist if they accepted bitcoin for payment. I even put in a plug for my book, The Ultimate Bitcoin Business Guide.

Lost Customers
I wonder if management considered the cost of lost customers in relation to the cost of fraud. In other words, is the revenue from lost customers like me more than the cost of fraud? If so, then management made the wrong decision, however they wouldn’t know because they don’t keep of record of denied customers. Once again I am left without being able to purchase an amazing product. A company that wants to take my money refuses to take my money.

Bitcoin Solves It
I love you bitcoin! Interestingly I solved this by using a bitcoin VISA debit card, one that allows you to spend bitcoin using the VISA network. I forgot this card has the same shipping and billing address because the company supplying the card has a compliance policy for using the address on your driver’s license for the card address. Here’s to bitcoin and brain health.

Kirk Phillips, The Bitcoin CPA