Interactive Radio--credit-card bounce

[Dan Strassberg]

Somebody asked how the interactive radio system that I described in a
previous posting could handle a credit-card "bounce" (failure of the system
to charge the specified credit card and thus failure to successfully place
an order). I think that when the customer set up an interactive-radio
account with a merchant, the customer would have to provide quite a bit of
information: Name, Street Address, Phone number, E-mail address or
Instant-messaging address, etc. The need to provide this information would
likely force the customer to use a computer for the registration process,
although some cell phones with instant-messaging capability would probably
also work. I doubt that an automobile radio would have a keyboard with the
necessary functions, although it is presumed that the radio has BlueTooth
capabilities, so the customer might use a PDA to communicate with the radio
and the radio, rather than the PDA, might then store the customer's account
information.

As I said, the whole scheme has an Orwellian Brave New World feel to it. Now
when you car is stolen, do you have to also report the theft of your credit
cards? Presumably, you wouldn't have to do so because--unless there was a
simple way for the thief to change the address to which the account was
registered--all of the merchandise the thief ordered via your interactive
car radio would be shipped to your address, not the thief's. So instead of
cancelling your credit cards, you could spend all of your spare time arguing
with the merchants about returning goods that were ordered without your
authorization. Isn't technology wonderful?

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367