When do I get funds from a transaction? Hot Connect®, operates much in the same manner as a standard point of sale terminal. When your customer makes a purchase the funds will be transfered to your merchant account by the processing company, usually within 1-2 business days.

Does that happen automatically? No, all shopping cart transactions will be separated into three catagories. "Authorized", "Review", or "Bad". Authorized sales carry all necessary information to process (a-code and good address verification). Sales in "Review" also carry an a-code, but have partial or complete address verification failure. Sales in "Bad" have been denied.

Why not automatic? All sales in the "Authorized" state may be processed. You may click "process all", and they will go immediately to the daily batch run. But you may also hold back transactions that are connected to a back ordered item. In this manner, you may cancel their order if it becomes necessary, while being charged no transactions fees. If these sales were processed, you would have to pay for the initial sale transaction fees AND then the return fees as well.

What do I do with the sales in "Review" ? These transactions may be typographical errors, causing a bad address verification. This allows you to make contact with your customer for further information, and since they carry a valid a-code, you may also add them to your daily batch run*** saving many lost customers.

Why even keep bad transactions? Many times this is a typographical error or mistake in the credit card information area. This assures you the information to contact a valued customer. These records can also be valuable in alerting a business to fraud.

Can it be that easy? It is. On Hot Connect®, we supply you with an entire e-commerce operating system. You move your domain to our server and add your products to your own shopping cart and begin selling (Licensing and set up required)

You are even supplied with our own HC Verify® to track your transactions real time.

Can't your system be added to my current site? No, we're sorry, our server is configured specifically for this system. Complete server packages are available with all necessary licensing and software.

Can we do our own design work? Yes, but some restrictions apply to secure areas.

Will I have a Secure Server? Yes, as part of the initial set up, we will file your application for a secure server license. You'll have a secure server and be displaying the padlock during credit card transactions. If you aren't planning to sell on the Web right away, you won't need one.

Do my secure transactions happen on hotconnect.net? No, your secure transaction will stay in your domain. Your customers will see http://www.(yourdomain) switch to https://secure.(yourdomain) and never see an address change away from your domain, as it should be. All secure areas will display the padlock insuring your customer that it is safe.

Does my company use a shared shopping cart with other companies on your server? No, you will have your own shopping cart. Hot Connect™ supplies each domain with the frame work of a complete e-commerce store. A stand alone shopping cart, licensed secure area, Hot Connect™ transaction processing interface and shopping cart administrator! All for one price.

Do you host basic sites (non e-commerce) as well? Yes, we do and if you're planning to become an e-commerce site in the future, then using Hot Connect is an excellent idea. Making the change over will be quite easy.

What makes your process better? Your money is deposited directly into your bank account. NO MIDDLE MAN!

Sites that use something like PayPal, are always at the mercy of another site. If they go down, your customer can't finish his transaction and leaves. These sites increase the processing time substantially, as well as the cost of transactions!

Also, your money is going into another companies bank account! Many of these companies even require you to prove your customer received his order before you get paid. With our Hot Connect® system, your money is deposited directly into your bank account. There are no compounded charges, and endless hours of work for your accounting department are saved as well.

Our system is on our own local server and all transactions are completed within one home site. Making all transactions much faster.

Remember, the processing company is charging you a transaction fee as well as a percentage of every transaction. Other companies are ALSO charging you another transaction fee and percentage on top of that. With Hot Connect™ you only pay for e-commerce hosting. We don't take a fee for every transaction.

Are these transactions safe? Yes they are. All information regarding credit card transactions is encrypted within a secure server.

Where do I get a Merchant account? If you already have a business account, contact your banking representative. Most banks can handle your needs.

How do I get MY orders from the server safely? All orders and information are encrypted. You will receive an e-mail that is encrypted with PGP encryption. Your orders are only viewable with your secret personal key. We advise keeping ALL encrypted information, encrypted, on your hard drive. One step better, save all vital information on a removable drive ie: ZIP or CD(While Still Encrypted).

How hard is your shopping cart to understand? Our cart is very flexible and can do almost anything you want it to. You will be able to change your own products, prices, images etc with very little time in training (approx five hours). Again, we will help you with as much or as little as you require.

How do I get started? You contact your Hot Connect® representative, and they will start your registration process. You will also be contacted directly from a local Global Payments representative (nationwide) to begin your approval process.

Do you only use Global Payments ? Yes we do, we have taken great effort to locate the best available service for ALL your credit card processing needs.