In this module, you will learn to place tickets on hold and sell tickets to a customer.

Transcription

1 POS MERCURY PROGRAM GUIDE In this module, you will learn to place tickets on hold and sell tickets to a customer.» Benefits of Joining the Mercury Program Get more money back when buying or selling via Mercury. This is based on the Mercury Sales Rate metric in your broker rating. Please refer to your broker rating guide for exactly how many points it translates to. Mercury shipping label usage does not affect your broker rating. Get guaranteed orders with up to 200% cash back or replacement cost if tickets do not arrive within 2 business days after the marked on-hand date. Please refer to the Broker Guidebook for more information. Save time, spend it elsewhere. No more phone calls and faxes. Buy tickets 24x7. Contents» Section 1: Mercury Requirements... 2» Section 2: Top Level Company Settings & Mercury User Interface... 2» Section 3: Mercury Transactions and Payment Flow... 9» Section 4: Viewing Purchase Orders on Mercury... 14» Section 5: Payments... 16» Section 6: Frequently Asked Questions Before a Transaction... 18» Section 7: Frequently Asked Questions After a Transaction

2 » Section 1: Mercury Requirements Buyers TicketNetwork Point-of-Sale users can become Mercury buyers by having a U.S. bank account and signing our ACH debit form. Canadian POS users may pay via PayPal. Sellers TicketNetwork Point-of-Sale users can become Mercury sellers by signing the selling agreement. All Mercury users must be both buyers and sellers. Steps to Enroll in the Program 1. Sign the forms at and fax them to Upon approval, you will receive an with the subject line Your Mercury status has changed. 3. Using the Mercury program does not require any installation other than the TicketNetwork POS.» Section 2: Top Level Company Settings & Mercury User Interface Credit Limits and Default Signature Requirements Navigating to the Settings > Top Level Company settings and clicking on the Mercury tab shows you the Company Information screen. You can view your credit limits (the amount you can purchase/sell), buy/sell status, and also set your default signature requirement for your Mercury purchases and sales type for Mercury invoices. 2

3 View Mercury Participants Click on the Participants tab and view all the Mercury participants. You can disallow buying from brokers you do not do business with and indicate if you wish to provide the flexibility to the buying broker to choose any shipping method. You will not see your company name in the top level company settings. As a policy, we do not allow you to block brokers from being able to buy from you. 3

4 Allow Buying Broker to Choose Any Shipping Method By default only the shipping methods that are allowed by the holding broker are shown for selection in the Complete Order window of Mercury checkout. To have the ability to choose any shipping method when a broker buys from you, you can change the following setting. Set Your Sell Order Preferences and Auto Fee Adjustment Next, click on the Mercury tab and select your sell order preferences and auto adjustment of the Mercury fee for such transactions. Ticket Group-specific order preferences can be set by editing the Ticket Group (TG) for the event as below. In the absence of such preferences, the above settings will be used. 4

5 Update Your Shipping Address in the POS Click on the Addresses tab in the bottom of the screen to update your shipping information. Mark Tickets as Not-on-Hand For previously existing tickets, to mark them as Not On-Hand, right-click the Event > click Edit Tickets > check Not On-Hand. 5

6 When adding tickets to inventory, the selling broker will have to list the tickets as Not On Hand using the check box as seen below: 6

7 Checking the box will lead to the following notes to be automatically generated: Please note if your tickets are sold via Mercury and are not shipped in the stipulated time period because they were not-on-hand, you can be charged a penalty. This penalty may vary depending on the event. Review the Mercury policies in the Broker Guidebook. Display Changes in the Ticket Grid 7

8 Please add the Near Term and Near Term View Options columns to the Ticket Grid. 8

9 » Section 3: Mercury Transactions and Payment Flow To initiate a Mercury order from the Ticket Request Grid, select Use Drop Sale. To initiate a Mercury order from the Ticket Grid, select Quick PO. Or select Drop Sale. Either selection will open a pop-up box indicating that the transaction is being handled via Mercury. 9

10 Click on Add Tickets in the following window: The tickets and seat numbers will appear in the Checkout Grid. 10

11 If doing a Quick PO, walk through the following windows and click Complete Order. Taxes and shipping costs may vary. The shipping methods shown in this checkout are the methods allowed by the holding broker. 11

12 If doing a Drop Sale, walk through the following windows and click Complete Order. Click Next. This will bring you to the next window, allowing you to click Complete Order. 12

13 Upon clicking Complete Order, if the FedEx label method is selected in Checkout, the Label Creator window will populate. The order is confirmed within seconds and the PO created on the buyer s end while the invoice is autocreated at the seller s end. The label is relayed automatically to the holding broker. 13

14 » Section 4: Viewing Purchase Orders on Mercury Buyer can view their purchase orders made on Mercury by clicking on Accounting > Purchase Orders (PO). Mercury Invoices Notification When the seller receives an order, they will be notified in the Mercury invoices count in the top right corner of their POS. Send the tickets out using the attached airbill and mark the order as Sent. Orders must be marked as Sent for the seller to be paid on time. Payment Status 14

15 The holding broker can view their order s payment status from within the Mercury Invoices window (CheckPayDate column) or in the Payments Portal in WebAdmin: In WebAdmin go to Billing > Mercury Remittance, and the Mercury Remittances window will open. To find the unpaid order, use the Unpaid orders tab. Updating Mercury Shipping Method/Label If the buying broker has mistakenly tied a different label to the Mercury transaction, they can update the label by right-clicking on the PO in the accounting module and choosing appropriately. A label can only be tied by the buyer from their POS, by right-clicking on the PO under Accounting > Purchase Orders. It is the buying broker s responsibility to provide the holding broker with the correct shipping method and tracking number. The holding broker can still mark the order as Sent and indicate they shipped using a different method in case the buyer could not successfully tie the right shipping method to the transaction. All labels are automatically relayed to the holding broker s POS. A separate label should never be created by the holding broker (Please see Mercury policies). 15

16 » Section 5: Payments Buyer: The buyer remits payment via ACH. TicketNetwork generates the invoice for the Mercury debit on Tuesdays for all transactions that occur by the Friday before. Depending on the buying broker s bank, the actual withdrawal will be made within a few days. Seller: The seller receives payment via direct deposit. TicketNetwork generates the remittance statement and sends payment on Tuesdays for transactions made by and shipped via FedEx the Friday before, transactions where the event has passed by Monday, or if the seller notifies TicketNetwork that they have sent the tickets by Monday. The buyer pays for the shipping costs based on the scanned labels per their volume discount rates. Both the buyer and seller can see their invoices/remittance statements in WebAdmin. Invoice statements for your purchases can be viewed from WebAdmin > Billing > Mercury Invoices. 16

17 Remittance statements for your sales can be viewed from WebAdmin > Billing > Mercury Remittance. 17

18 » Section 6: Frequently Asked Questions Before a Transaction Can I change the address where I want the tickets to be shipped in the final window of checkout? You can use the Drop Ship option from the Quick PO window as below or you can change the address in the Label Creator that is shown after clicking Complete Order. I want to fill an order with lower priced tickets bought from another Mercury broker but still charge the customer the original price. How do I do it using Mercury? You can use the Alternate TG menu while processing the ticket request. 18

19 Do I need to call the broker to get seat numbers? No, seat numbers are automatically pulled from the holding broker s POS after you select Add Tickets. I am filling an order on another exchange. How do I upload their label for use in Mercury? Click on the 3rd Party Label option and you will be prompted to put the tracking number and asked for the label s location on your computer. At this time, only non-pdf labels (such as JPG, PNG, GIF etc.) are supported. 19

20 How do I save labels I have in the POS in a format other than PDF? You can right-click on the label and save the picture as a PNG or a BMP file as below. 20

21 How do I fulfill a ticket request on my website for another broker s tickets by doing a Drop Sale using Mercury? Follow the selections shown below: Process Order > Use Drop Sale. Can I place a same-day order without calling the broker? Yes, but it is better to call the broker before buying the tickets for same day events to facilitate coordination. I want the holding broker to actually ship the tickets to me, but I want my customer to do a local pickup from my office. How do I do a Mercury drop sale for this? No, a Drop Sale is for when the holding broker to directly ship the tickets to your customer. First purchase the tickets using a Quick PO into your inventory where you choose the FedEx method and then sell them to your customer using Pickup option. What if a web order comes where the customer has specified local pickup/in-store pickup? How do I do a Mercury Drop Sale for this? Follow the steps below: Process Order > Use Alternate TG. 21

22 If the tickets are on hold, can they still be sold on Mercury? No. Can I see all inventory of a particular broker on Mercury? No, as a matter of policy, TicketNetwork does not allow any broker to view another broker s entire inventory. I receive the message that One or more parties are not connect when I add tickets in the Checkout. What is wrong? It means that the connection to the central server is not working properly. Please contact Technical Support at , Option 5. I cannot see the broker information. In the Ticket Grid, it only says Seller. Why is that and how do I purchase the tickets? Some brokers hide their information, resulting in the buying broker seeing the listing Seller. Non-Mercury brokers will not be able to see these brokers information and will not be able to buy from them. When trying to buy from the new broker, non-mercury brokers will receive the message, Please enroll in Mercury to buy from this broker. The transaction is not being processed via Mercury even though the buy via Mercury selection is marked. What do I do? Call Technical Support at , Option 5. I do not see the ability to choose the payment method in the Checkout window below. What might be wrong? This is because the credit card has already been charged at Checkout. 22

23 I received an order on my website for a Mercury broker s tickets, but on clicking on Add Tickets in the checkout window, I receive a message stating There are not enough tickets remaining to process this lock request. What should I be doing? You will receive this message if the other broker sells those tickets in the time between when your customer makes the request and when you attempt the transaction via Mercury or if the other broker has put the tickets on hold. You may want to check with the holding broker if they have held the tickets for you, in which case you should ask them to take them off hold. If the tickets have already been sold elsewhere, you can fill the order by Alternate Mercury TG as shown below: What if I need the tickets earlier than 2nd day FedEx? Please refer to Mercury Policies in the Broker Guidebook. 23

24 Would I have to incur the stated shipping cost when buying from brokers? No, you are charged the discounted rate, based on your volume shipping account and only when the label is scanned. What should I be choosing in the shipping options for E-Tickets or Local Pickup in the Checkout screen? Choose the appropriate method from the Other methods. What if I exceed the credit limits? If any transaction exceeds the available credit limit, the broker will be informed and provided alternative options. Credit limits will be based on the broker s payment history with TicketNetwork. To request a credit limit increase, please put in a support ticket. TicketNetwork usually makes credit adjustments the same day. 24

25 I received a phone order but would like to validate the credit card before I do the Mercury process. I do not want to commit to a Mercury transaction, when I do not have a valid credit card. How do I do that? Please note that your AVS/CVV level settings (visible in WebAdmin) determine if the card is charged based on the customer s supplied parameters. Please make sure that these are set correctly. Use the Drop Sale method in the Ticket Grid. Add your customer s credit card in the Checkout window and check the Process CC Online box. Upon selecting Complete Order, the credit card processing window appears. 25

26 Enter the details and select Process. If the card fails, you will receive the message below: Upon selecting OK, you will receive this message: Clicking Cancel takes you back to the Checkout window. You can then call your customer for the correct information and try again or simply close the checkout pane and the Mercury process is aborted completely. I am filling a retail order (TND, Fulfillment, orders from other exchanges) via Mercury. The credit card of the customer was charged before. How do I run the Mercury order without charging the customer again? Ensure that the Process CC Online check box is not checked when doing the drop sale. I am filling a TND order via Mercury. How do I make sure that my shipping rating is not impacted? For TND orders that have not been auto-processed, choose the appropriate shipping method in Mercury checkout and Mercury will update your TND order with that method. This will not impact your broker rating. In the event the order has already been auto-processed, you will have to use the 3rd Party Label option in Mercury to tie the TND order s label to the Mercury transaction. Can I substitute tickets when selling them via Mercury? No, since Mercury is in real time and instant, the tickets cannot be substituted. However, if the buying broker accepts your offer, you can send those substitutes. 26

27 » Section 7: Frequently Asked Questions After a Transaction Where can I go if I have a dispute? Please refer to the Broker Guidebook on this policy question. I double-sold a set of tickets somewhere else. The buyer is ok with the unfilled order. Can I void the transaction and payments by voiding the invoice at my end? No, voiding the invoice will not stop the payment process. Please refer to the Broker Guidebook for this policy as it will come under a mutual agreement for cancelation. I mispriced my tickets. What options do I have? It depends on the buying broker. If they enforce the penalty, then you will be charged a penalty based on the list price. So if you listed $100 tickets for $10, $10 is considered as the price. The penalty is proportional to the listed ticket price. If they want to cancel the order, please see above for the cancellation process. I have identified the set of alternate tickets that I will be providing to the buying broker. How do I reflect this change in my accounting? Here is what the holding broker should do to maintain accurate accounting: 1. Void the Mercury Invoice. The tickets will be listed on the Exchange again. 2. Create an invoice for the tickets selling them to the original buyer and indicate the Original Mercury transaction ID in the notes. You should deduct the expense of your fee to TicketNetwork. I have local sales tax for the Mercury sale. Would the buying broker be responsible for the sales tax? The sales tax is not included in the Mercury transaction. The buyer will usually be given a prompt indicating this. Is the buyer responsible for paying the seller for near-term shipping using non-label methods such as /courier? Please see Mercury policies in the Broker Guidebook. 27

28 I did a Mercury transaction today but the tickets do not ship until a couple of months from now. Would the label be good at that point? Yes, as the label becomes reinitiated when used after a long time, such as the below label which was used a few months late and has two entries in the tracking results. My Mercury shipping labels are being generated with a ship to TicketNetwork Customer instead of an actual name. What could be wrong? You have this name in your records. Update the records in your POS accordingly. Why are my Mercury invoices in the outstanding section of the accounting module? This is because the payment has not been sent to you. Once you receive the payment from us, you can mark the invoices as paid. 28

29 The broker is providing me different seat numbers/section/row for the Mercury purchase. Do I need to void the PO and create a new PO to reflect the actual inventory supplied? Yes, or, alternatively, right-click on the inventory and choose Edit Single Ticket Group, which will update the PO. However, if you did a Drop Sale, you will have to void the customer invoice and then reissue them an invoice from the new PO. We do not track the purchase orders for Mercury so you will still be debited the correct amount for the Mercury purchase. I made a Drop Sale via Mercury but the customer s credit card was not charged. Why would that have happened? You might not have checked the Process CC Online checkbox before clicking Complete Order. How do I know if a Purchase Order/Invoice has been completed via Mercury? You can find that from the above, and also from the PO/invoice, since every PO/invoice tied to Mercury will have Mercury Trans ID listed in it as below. You also receive an for every Mercury transaction. 29

30 How do I find my Mercury purchases history? You can find this in your Accounting Module > Purchase Orders section. The Purchase Orders tied with a Mercury transaction have a Mercury Transaction ID as below. I received an error message while conducting a Mercury transaction. How do I confirm that the transaction has gone through? I need this information to see if I have to fax the PO and air bill to the holding broker and pay them by an alternative method. If you did NOT receive an for the order, the transaction has NOT gone through. Additionally you could check your PO for a Mercury transaction ID. if it does NOT have a Mercury Transaction ID, the transaction has NOT gone through. What if the ACH debit from my checking account fails because of insufficient funds? In such cases, TicketNetwork s policy is to charge the credit card of the broker for 103% of the wholesale price of the tickets plus the ACH bounce charge. If we do not have the credit card of the broker on file, the broker will be informed that they have been suspended from the Mercury program for failure to pay their dues. Once removed from the program, there is a $50 charge plus 4% of the outstanding amount to rejoin the program. 30

31 How do I account for Mercury sales since I do not get a check for the full amount? Edit your company top level settings so that the invoices created adjust for the Mercury fee. 31

32 Also, you receive a weekly statement which lists your total revenue and fees. It can be retrieved from the WebAdmin > Invoices > Mercury Remittance. The Mercury remittance sample is below. 32

33 What if I have a pending TND ticket request from TicketNetwork and I receive a Mercury order for the same tickets. Would the tickets be sold by Mercury? This could lead to a reduction in my Fill rate. By default, a double sale should not occur in Mercury. If you still face such an issue, please create a Support Ticket. I was charged for FedEx when I should not have been, what do I do? Please go to the window below in WebAdmin (Billing > Shipping) and dispute the charge from the invoice. I received a web order and I processed it via Mercury. Now I need to cancel it. What do I do? Since you processed this via Mercury, and since we guarantee the sale to the holding broker if you chose to go via Mercury, you need to speak to the holding broker if they are ok with the cancellation and let us know per the mutually agreed cancelation policy in the Mercury section of the Broker Guidebook. Please create Support Tickets as below if you have questions on anything related to Mercury. NOTE: All clauses in the Broker Guidebook, except for clauses that are in explicit conflict with the above, will apply to Mercury. 33