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Visa
Mastercard
Discover
Amex
Buy Now, Pay Later with Klarna
Visa Gift Card
Apple Pay
PayPal
Bluemercury Gift Card
Bluemercury System will only allow payment methods with a United States Billing Address and a United States Shipping Address to purchase online orders.
Customer must be signed into their Apple Pay account prior to checkout, and must be checking out on an Apple device.
Online shoppers can purchase with:
Bluemercury Gift Card + Credit Card [Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/Discover] = ✔
Bluemercury Gift Card + Visa Gift Card = ✔
Bluemercury Gift Card + Discount Code = ✔
Bluemercury Gift Card + Discount Code + Credit Card [Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/Discover] = ✔
Bluemercury Gift Card + Bluemercury Gift Card = ✔
Bluemercury Gift Cards are treated as "Cash" in our system, so they can be used in combination with any other form of payment method. Bluemercury Gift Cards include Physical Bluemercury Gift Cards and Bluemercury E-Gift Cards.
During checkout, enter in the Gift Card first, then enter in Credit Card for remaining balance.
Visa Gift Cards are not the same as Bluemercury Gift Cards, they are treated as a Credit Card.
Bluemercury Gift Card + Visa Gift Card + Credit Card [Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/Discover] = ❌
Visa Gift Card + Credit Card [Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/Discover] = ❌
Credit Card + Credit Card = ❌
Cannot Split payments with two payment methods.
Bluemercury Gift Cards are the one exception to this.
*CC means Credit Card
*GC means Gift Card
*EGC means E-Gift Card
Bluemercury System will not allow payment methods with an international billing addresses or shipping addresses, to purchase on Bluemercury.com.
PayPal has to be connected to an account that has a United States billing address.
Apple Pay has to be connected to an account that has a United States billing address.
System will not allow Private Courier or Freight Forwarder to purchase on Bluemercury.com.
Bluemercury.com does not offer Pickup by Private Shippers service or freight forwarding.
Bluemercury operates within a charge-upon-shipment process for online orders purchased on Bluemercury.com.
After an order has been purchased, the system creates a temporary Pre-Authorization hold. A Pre-Authorization hold helps to make sure the payment method used to purchase the order, has enough funds to pay for the order.
Once the order has been shipped (and a shipping confirmation email has been sent) the pre-authorization holds deactivates (aka drops off) and then the system charges the payment method one time for the order total amount.
A Pre-Authorization or Preauthorization is a temporary hold that to allow the system to check and make sure the payment method used to purchase the order, has enough funds to pay for the order.
Pre-authorizations can only remain active for 5 days, so the order has to be charged (and shipped) before it deactivates after 5 days.
When a customer receives an order confirmation email - a pre-authorization is created
When a customer receives a shipping confirmation email - a full authorization charge is issued for the order total
Preauthorizations release their hold after 24-72 business hours after the order has been shipped and have been charged for.
Gift Cards can take up to 3-5 business days to release their preauthorization holds.
Preauthorizations will not negatively affect the customer’s bank account. Bank
When they drop off, the bank corrects the account to show the one-time charge and the time of update is dependent on the bank.
When an order is cancelled, the pre-authorization deactivates, and the payment method will not be charged; because the order did not ship out.
If a client says that they have been charged twice for one order:
Please advise the following:
▶ The first charge they are seeing is the pre-authorization that was created when the order was first purchased (not an actual charge)
▶The second charge is the actual charge for the shipped order.
The first charge (pre-authorization) will fall off the bank account within 72 business hours. Fall off means removed from.
Advise for them to contact their bank for further details on this process and confirmation.
Reps can always advise the client to contact their bank, as they will have access to all information.
Payment information can only be communicated with the verified customer who purchased an order or who is connected to the payment method.
How to search for an unauthorized charge in Shopify:
Confirm with the customer:
Last 4 digits of payment method
Charge amount $
Date of Charge
First and Last name on the payment method
Shipping Address
Email address
Ask what the bank statement shows
Step 1.) Customer purchased Order online
Step 2.) System created a Pre-authorization to hold funds until shipped
Step 3.) Order confirmation email sent to the CS email address who purchased order
Step 4.) Warehouse received order and has begun processing and packaging for shipment
Step 5.) Warehouse finished packing and processing order. Preparing to Ship out
Step 6.) Warehouse has shipped out Order & sent shipping confirmation email to CS email
Step 7.) System has charged payment method for order total $
Step 8.) System has marked this order as completed and archived
Customers are refunded in the same currency they used for the purchase.
The refund will appear in their account in 5 to 10 business days.
Banks will usually allow refunds to process successfully regardless if a card's been deactivated or the account's been closed. Refunds take 5-10 business days to reflect in the account. Refunds can't be applied to an alternate payment method and will be returned to the card used for the original transaction.
If 5+ business days have passed since your refund was initiated, we will be happy to review your refund to confirm it was successful. However, unsuccessful refunds are rare, and you can typically expect the following behavior:
Refunds issued to a closed bank account: If the customer’s bank account has closed an issued card due to: expired/lost/stolen, then the funds may be held up awaiting payment at the bank level. Advise customer to contact their bank.
Refund is issued to an invalid/expired credit card: If the customer has the same card issuer and bank account, funds will be successfully credited to that account. If they don't see a refund in their account balance within at least 5 business days, advise customer to contact their bank.
Refunds can't be applied to an alternate payment method.
It can only be returned to the card used for the original transaction. If the refund fails (or shows unable to refund) and the purchasing card is no longer valid, the payment system will not allow the funds to be redirected. Therefore our only available options would be to provide the refund as a physical certified check or as a bluemercury gift card.
If the customer is not able to easily find the refund on their bank statement:
The original charge will be reduced by the refund on a single line in the bank statement, as charges and refunds can be consolidated on a bank statement back on the time/date of purchase.
Charges and refunds may be consolidated on a bank statement if they were transacted within a short period of time.
In these cases, the original charge will be reduced by the refund on a single line in the bank statement.
If a refund is issued to a deactivated or expired payment method, then the system will show "Unable to refund"
Refunds can only be returned to the card used for the original transaction. If the refund fails (or shows unable to refund) and the purchasing card is no longer valid, the payment system will not allow the funds to be redirected. Therefore our only available options would be to provide the refund as a physical certified check or as a bluemercury gift card.
If the payment method is still active and not expired, a different system error may have occurred
▶ Ask Sups to look further into.
If the customer has initiated a chargeback on their end for an online order:
After the client has initiated a charge back with their bank, we will be limited in what we have access to assist with.
We cannot refund them due to the cs initiating a chargeback with their bank. If they lift the chargeback with their bank and the bank removes it, then we will be able to refund. Otherwise they can just go forth with the chargeback since it has been initiated.
We do not accept or offer tax exemption online.
We do not accommodate tax exemptions online due to system limitations.
Reps should advise customers to try contacting store location to ask if this is offered at that store.
Does bluemercury charge sales tax?
State law requires Bluemercury to charge sales tax to customers that ship to:
AZ, CT, CA, DC, FL, IL, NJ, NY, MA, MI, MD, MN, OH, PA,SC, and VA.
Residents of other states are not subject to taxes at this time.
Applicable sales tax will be applied to your Bluemercury.com order in accordance with state and local laws, and an estimated tax amount will be reflected in the order summary before checkout. The tax rate is determined by several factors including, and not limited to, the items purchased, the ship-to destination and the ship-from location. Gift wrap and delivery charges may also be subject to tax in some states.
Physical Certified Checks are used in cases where Shopify no longer has access to a payment method used to purchase an order, and is no longer able to successfully issue a refund back to a payment method. (example: credit card has expired, lost, stolen etc.)
These can take up to 4-6 weeks to receive by postage mail. Unable to provide USPS tracking and will require the customer's confirmed shipping address as this will be where the check is mailed to.
Send Email to ER to request a check be sent.
BLUE CHECK REQ *INSERT ORDER # *INSERT CUSTOMER NAME