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I operate a Dry Cleaning & Laundry delivery business. When client's place an order for Laundry, the customers are charged on a per pound basis AFTER their laundry has been cleaned. As a result, this creates a payment processing issue for me as the payment processors I have been in touch with tell me that I need to pre-authorize a set amount for each client when they place an order and then invoice them if they go over that amount after the cleaning has been done. From your experience, is there a way to do the following:

  1. Have a customer fill out a registration/sign up form on your website (e.g. collect customer name, address, credit card information). Please note that I do not need to see the credit card information, I just need to be able to charge it later on.
  2. Facilitate a customer order (e.g. pick-up my laundry tomorrow at 6pm from my house).
  3. Charge the customer the full amount they owe you AFTER you drop off their clean laundry

A similar company, Washio, is using the exact same process I described above, but I don't know how they're doing it.

Can anyone please provide an answer to my dilemma?

Giacomo1968
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Shane Larosa
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  • “Please note that I am a non-technical person, so ideally, the solution you provide would not involve a developer.” This site is for developers who code & have code issues, so not much else to say on that. Washio most likely hired developers to do that work. Perhaps you need to create a budget to hire developers as well? – Giacomo1968 May 12 '14 at 20:52

2 Answers2

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You do a AUTH_ONLY (Authorization Only) for the maximum amount you think the payment will be. This will freeze that amount on the customer's credit card (note, this means those funds are not available to the customer until you capture them or release them so do not do an arbitrary large amount).

When it is time to make a payment you would do a CAPTURE the sale by sending an a mount less than or equal to the amount secured using the AUTH_ONLY. If the amount is less than the amount initialing frozen the remaining funds would be released.

John Conde
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  • Thanks John! Would the customer have to approve the authorization amount? The problem is that customers don't specify the weight of their laundry when they place an order, so there's really no way to calculate a maximum possible fee--unless I create an arbitrary number for each customer. Is the answer provided by "Set Sail Media" the right solution? Thanks! – Shane Larosa May 12 '14 at 23:09
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Stripe has a great in-built system for capturing data as a "customer" and a "card", which can then be processed at any time after the fact.

There's no guarantee your customer will have available credit on their card, but you can capture & verify their information without charging any amount.

This happens on Stripe's servers (and not stored on your own) so you're PCI-compliant out of the box, as long as your transaction occurs behind an SSL secured connection.

Patrick Moore
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  • Perfect! Thanks Set Sail Media! Just to clarify my understanding: 1. I can capture the customer's credit information in Stripe without charging anything upfront, pre-authorizing a set amount etc. 2. I can charge the client the appropriate amount owed once I finish the cleaning process and drop off clean clothes. Question on this: couldn't a business owner technically abuse this power? I mean, what if someone charged an absurd sum of money to the client? 3. I am assuming that I can perform recurring billing through Stripe as well correct? – Shane Larosa May 12 '14 at 21:40
  • 1. Absolutely correct; you capture the information without initiating any sort of transaction or authorization of any sum. 2. Yes, you're right, a business owner could – the customer is placing a lot of trust in the business. I'm sure Stripe would be swift to reverse the charges and shut down the merchant in this scenario. 3. Yes, correct. Once the card is on file, you could continue to charge it until it expires (or the transaction is declined, like due to insufficient funds) – Patrick Moore May 12 '14 at 22:13
  • I should also point out that you needn't even use Stripe's API to do any of this – you can login to your account at stripe.com and use their dashboard to create customers, create cards, and execute charges. If, for example, your internet terminal is at the location where the card is presented, or, you take the card information by phone (vs. automated through a website). – Patrick Moore May 12 '14 at 22:15
  • Amazing! You really, really helped me with that last response! Two final questions: 1. Since I'm not a developer, is there a service I can use that integrates with Stripe, creates a customized sign up/registration form for clients, stores the credit card information with Stripe, and allows me to charge the client's credit card once I complete the cleaning? 2. Can BrainTree accomplish the same tasks that I require? (based on my previous posting that you responded to). I ask this because I live in Canada and Stripe holds funds for 7 days vs. 2 days for BrainTree. Thanks! – Shane Larosa May 12 '14 at 22:42
  • Happy to help! Stripe recently started upgrading accounts to 2-day hold. I own three separate accounts for three separate businesses and all were put on 2-day hold. Maybe just because I'm U.S. based though. Stripe does offer a "widget" called Checkout, which could be configured to collect all that info, save to your account, but not process. Learn more [here](https://stripe.com/docs/checkout#integration-custom). I haven't used BrainTree so I can't speculate about if they offer the same. – Patrick Moore May 13 '14 at 02:18
  • On second glance, BrainTree does appear to offer the same capabilities. They have a mechanism called "Vault a card" which seems to do everything that Stripe can related to capturing the information for future charges. Would require some development to implement, but not much. You could find somebody on oDesk to take care of it for you in a couple hours time. Check out "Customer with Credit Card and Billing Address" on [this page](https://www.braintreepayments.com/docs/ruby/customers/create) – Patrick Moore May 13 '14 at 02:21
  • Thanks again for the follow-up! How much would you charge to setup BrainTree for me? – Shane Larosa May 13 '14 at 02:54
  • Sure thing! Let's take this offline - www.setsailmedia.com send me a message on my Contact page I'll reply :} – Patrick Moore May 13 '14 at 13:41