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Why I only accept cash

10/17/2022

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I used to allow my customers to check out through my website if they wanted to. However, back in August of this year, a family figured out a way to steal money from me. 
I had a link on my home page. It said, "Click here to reserve your kitten". It would lead my customers to a payment screen, where they could enter their credit card information and pay a $100 deposit. This transaction was processed through Square.
One Sunday morning, I started receiving email notifications that someone had  reserved a kitten. The notifications kept coming. After 11 emails notifying me that I had just received $100, I began to figure out that they are using this "reserve link" to pay for their kitten in full. Sure enough, I received a text message that they wanted to come pick up their kitten that afternoon, and wanted to confirm that I received the payment in full. I replied, "Yes",  but I thought... what a weird way to go about about things. No customer had ever done that before, but "Oh Well. It cost me a lot more in fees, but Oh well."
The lady came and picked up her kitten. She seemed very friendly. My husband translated for us, because she only spoke Spanish. I only know how to count to six in Spanish, and that's about it. Little did I know that she had a grand scheme going on, which involved other members of her family. It was all planned. 
Anyways, the long of the short of it is, the family used three different credit cards to purchase the kitten through the $100 reserve link. They then went to their banks and claimed that they didn't recognize the charges. This generated a dispute email from Square, which is my credit card processing company. Square started sending me email after email that a customer is disputing charges, and so I faithfully filled out several lengthy dispute forms, providing text messages, security cam footage, even a case number from the Bastrop Co. Sheriff's office. (Because my husband had called them to report this cyber crime). Nevertheless, Square didn't have my back. Money started being sucked out of my bank account, until I had to eventually close it. The police put it off on Square to fix it, and then Square put it off on the customer's bank to fix it, and the bank of course.. sided with their customer because they didn't want to lose money. So basically the theives got away scott free with a stolen kitten.  It was such a nightmare. The anger I felt was the worse part. I had to pray for God to take away the anger. But I vowed never to let anyone do this to me again. Therefore, I no longer accept credit card payments on my website, or in person. I despise Square, who is also the owner of this website platform called Weebly. So I manage to do a little work around, and I list my kittens for $1.00, to be able to showcase them to you with their own little profile pages. In reality, they cost more, of course, but anyways, maybe this story helps you to understand why the website is set up in this manner.
As for deposits: About two years ago, I used to accept paypal, and charge $200 to $250 for a deposit to reserve a kitten. Then if someone decided at the last minute that they didn't want the kitten, they would file a dispute with paypal and money would get sucked right out of my bank account. I always state and have stated that deposits are non refundable. Reason being.. if a kitten sits on my website reserved for a whole month, then I miss out on the true sale. I'm left scrambling to find it a home at the last minute. So I stopped taking Paypal, because... same thing ... their dispute forms do not work unless maybe you have a tracking number. (which of course, I didn't). 
​
Now, I just use Venmo and Cash App to take deposits. Then when you pick up your kitten, I only take cash as payment for the remaining balance.

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I was stolen by credit card fraud.
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This lady is a theif. Beware of her.

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    Amy

    My name is Amy and I raise kittens.

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