Recent Billing Problems - SOLVED.
As all of the orders from the season are now processed, I am catching up on all of the paperwork. This includes making sure that all transactions which have been billed (afterall, we do want to be paid for our work! :)
However, unbeknownst to us at the time, a problem occurred during the billing. This problem has now been solved and no action is required on the part of any customer, but I am posting this to be sure the full information on exactly what happened is availble.
This is a copy of an email I sent to all Festival customers this afternoon.
Hi Everyone!
This is Micheal Hall, your volleyball photographer from the Festival in Reno. I am sending this email out to inform you of a glitch we experienced recently in regards to billing of customers who purchased on the last day of the Festival. There's a decent amount of information below, but to sum it up quickly: everyone that purchased on the last day of the Festival was accidentally double billed on the 30th of July. However, refunds are being processed as we speak and should all be completed in a day or so. So, if you see a transaction from us on the 30th that is a REPEAT of a transaction from the Festival, don't worry, it will be refunded.
If you would like more information about what exactly happened, read on ...
SITUATION:
It was recently brought to my attention that a customer who had purchased on the last day of the Festival was double billed. Investigation into the charge on the customer's statement revealed that it was not just that customer, but all of those of you who made purchases on the final day of Festival were been double billed due to a technical problem we had with our credit card machine on the final day of the tournament.
BACKGROUND DATA:
This was the result of a technical error we were having with our credit card processing machine on that final day of the tournamment. It turns out the wireless network providing the cellular service was having a problem which corrupted a bit of data in our batch of transactions. I spent about an hour and a half on the phone with a technician getting it sorted out and the transactions were all billed/settled at that time. However, what I wasn't told was that the next time I tried to use the machine, it would bill you AGAIN (apparently we were supposed to clear the memory on the terminal, but I wasn't instructed to do this so it didn't happen - lesson learned!). On the 30 of July, before I could run a few manually imprinted transactions from the tournament the machine instructed me to Batch/Settle before I could proceed. At that point it resubmitted all of the transactions still in memory for that last day. Because I was told it would be no problem to settle that batch later, I didn't think anything of it at the time.
However, a sharp eyed customer brought to my attention that she had indeed been charged again, and I immediately got on the phone with the processing company. The good news is that problem was discovered and is being addressed as I write this.
It may take a day or two to get all of the charges reversed, but I wanted to let you know that it IS being handled and that you don't need to do anything about it.
SOLUTION:
You don't have to do anything. This is already being taken care of by our Merchant Card processing company. It may take a day or so because they have to manually key every tranasaction from that last dad, but it is being started immediately.
Again, this only affects customers who paid via credit card on the LAST day of the tournament (3 July 2007) and whose credit card was actually swiped that day (for those of you who paid via credit card, but of which we took an imprint - because of the problem with the terminal - this does not affect you, your billing only went through once on the 30th of July).
I apologize for any inconvenience, we're getting this sorted out immediately.
Sincerely,
Micheal
PS - I recently sent out a status email for our Volleyball Festival customers, but I'm not sure if it arrived (usually some emails bounce back which lets me know they are actually being sent, but this time nothing bounced back, so I'm not sure it really went out. I've posted the email on our website at: http://www.vbpics.com)
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Micheal Hall Photography
www.michealhallphotography.com (portraits)
www.vbpics.com (volleyball)
(916) 344-8512 (phone & fax)
Order Status Email.
Recently I sent an email out to all of the Volleyball Festival customers giving a status update. However, when I send emails out to all customers from an event, I invariably get a number of emails bounced back due to bad addresses, spam protection software, etc.
However this time I got zero emails back. Which leads me to suspect my email didn't really go out. So I'm posting it here.
Hi there,
You are receiving this email because you purchased enlargements, a collage or a CD (or all three!) at the recently Volleyball Festival tournament in Reno, Nevada.
I am sending this email as a courtesy update.
I am happy to say that all order processing for the tournament has been completed and we will be submitting all orders to our lab for printing as of tomorrow. I expect another 1 - 2 weeks of time needed for printing, packaging and delivery of all the orders, depending on where you are located (our lab is in Wisconsin and orders are shipped from there UPS Ground or USPS First Class, so it takes about four to five days in transit to get them to California or further West).
Please keep an eye out for your packages starting early to mid next week - and feel free to email me your opinion - we've worked very hard on them and would love to get your feedback.
NOTE FOR THOSE WHO PURCHASED A CD.
If you purchased a CD from the event, please note that it will arrive SEPARATELY from your prints. John is working on those now and hopefully he will have them completed by the end of the week. CDs are mailed from our office (Sacramento, CA). So don't be surprised when your print arrives without your CD or vice versa - they're both coming, but in separate envelopes.
If, while you wait for your packages to arrive, you would like to learn more about our photography, feel free to do so at http://www.michealhallphotography.com (portraits and weddings) or http://www.vbpics.com (volleyball).
Thank you very much for your support - we're glad to be your photographer, and hope that we can continue to be in the years to come.
Sincerely,
Micheal
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Micheal Hall Photography
2008 Volleyball Festival Orders COMPLETED!
OK, great news.
We've officially set a record. Each year, Festival marks our large, end of season tournament. We typically come back to the office after Festival backlogged with prior tournaments worth of orders to complete and - in our first years of doing Festival - it has taken us up to 12 weeks to get the orders completed.
This year, I am THRILLED to report that we have completed all of our Festival orders in record time - only 3 1/2 weeks!
This is the result of greatly streamlined processes (and not a few LONG days) which allowed us to keep up with most of our work this season (where it wasn't delayed by extended travel, back to back to back to back tournaments, unplanned office remodels, etc.) Because we were caught up with our work, we were able to dive right into processing the orders after we returned (well, almost right in - there were the weddings we had to photograph and the school picture shoot ... but we got going after that!).
Not only is this the fastest we've ever been able to deliver Festival, but it's our highest quality as well. So I'm sure you're wondering when they'll arrive. Well, we're done with OUR part. Next our lab has to do theirs. We send them fully adjusted, print-ready files. They simply print, package and ship them. However, they are located in Wisonsin, so it will take approximately 1 1/2 weeks more before the orders actually start arriving.
In the meantime, I've included a few samples from the tournament below. I really hope you enjoy them and look forward to photographing for you again in the future!
2008 Volleyball Festival ONLINE Requests closed.
To make sure that we don't miss out on any sign ups while we are away from the office, we are closing the online request capability for the 2008 Volleyball Festival.
However, there is still room in the schedule, so be sure to come by the photography booth in the Reno/Sparks Convention Center to sign up!
Photography Requests Open
We are currently taking photography requests for this tournament.
Be sure to place your request prior to the tournament to guarantee your photographs and save $10!
We look forward to helping you. If you have any questions contact us and we'll be happy to assist you.