| What is claimed is :
1) A method for a merchant to handle a booking, comprising the steps of : receiving an authorization of a deposit, for a booking made by a customer without said deposit being paid; saving information related to said booking, including the date and time for the booked item to be received by said customer ; thereafter, determining said booking request as being abandoned, basing on said information saved ;
If said determination result is positive, effecting actual payment of said deposit.
2) A method as claimed by claim 1, wherein said information including a serial number of said booking.
3) A method as claimed by claim 1, wherein said information including identity of said customer.
4) A method for a merchant to handle a booking, comprising the steps of : receiving an authorization of a deposit, for a booking made by a customer, without said deposit being paid; saving information related to said booking ; thereafter, receiving a payment request, for a payment from said customer to said merchant ; associating said payment request with said booking, basing on said information saved ; canceling the actually payment of said deposit.
5) A method for an apparatus of a third party to assist a merchant to handle a booking, comprising the steps of : receiving an authorization of deposit, for a booking made by a customer; saving information related to said booking in a first record ; thereafter, determining said booking as being abandoned by said customer, basing on said first record ; saving the determined result in a second record, which may be m a part of said first record; wherein said first and second record being used for a purpose related to charging fee by said third party, from at least one of said merchant and said customer
6) A method for an apparatus of a third party to assist a merchant to handle a booking, comprising the steps of : receiving a an authorization of payment for a deposit, for a booking made by a customer; saving first information related to said booking in a first record ; thereafter, receiving a payment request, for a payment from said customer to said merchant ; associating said payment request with said booking request, basing on said first information. saving second information related to said requested payment in a second record, which may be a part of said first record; wherein said first and second record being used for purpose related to charging fee by said third party, from at least one of said merchant and said customer.
7) A method as claimed by claim 6, wherein said first information including a customer account number of said customer and, date and time for the booked item to be received by said customer.
8) A method as claimed by claim 6, wherein said first information including an identity number of said merchant.
9) A method as claimed by claim 6, wherein said authorization of payment for said deposit and said payment request being for transfer of payment from a same financial service account of said customer, and said service account being a service provided by said apparatus. 10) A method as claimed by claim 6, wherein at least one of said payments is being authorized by means of a phone; and further comprising steps of : sending messages formed by means of a voice synthesizer to said customer, through said phone, to request said customer to authorize said at least one of said payments, in a repeated manner ; wherein said messages including the payment amount, purpose and the identity of the payment recipient.
11) A method as claimed by claim 6, wherein further comprising steps of : assigning a telephone number for said booking ; providing said telephone number to said customer, for said customer to make a telephone call to said apparatus, to authorize at least one of said payments; receiving a telephone call ; determining from the incoming telephone call number and the telephone number being called, said telephone call received being related to said booking.
12) A method as claimed by claim 6, wherein at least one of said payments is authorized by said customer by means of a short message signal including a password; and further comprising steps of : receiving said short message signal ; scanning for the correct password inside said short message signal; modifying said short message signal by replacing said correct password with another piece of information; sending said modified short message signal to human attention. 13) A method for an apparatus of a third party to assist a merchant to handle a booking, comprising the steps of : accepting a deposit from a customer's account, by said party, for a booking request from said customer; saving by said party, information related to said booking in a record, including a piece of information useful for identifying said booking, and an identity of said merchant ; thereafter, receiving said piece of information from a person claimed to be a representative of said customer and receiving from said representative, the full payment for the booked item with said deposit being deducted there from ; recording the identity of said person and said merchant in a second record; if the number of times said person representing other parties in receiving booked items from said merchant exceeding a predetermined number, preventing said person from further representing other party to receive booked item from said merchant.
14) A method as claimed by claim 13, wherein said piece of information being an account number of said customer.
15) A method as claimed by claim 13, wherein said piece of information being a serial number of said booking. 16) A method for an apparatus of a third party to assist a merchant to handle a booking, comprising the steps of : accepting a deposit from a customer's account, by said party, for a booking request from said customer; saving by said party, information related to said booking, including a piece of information useful for identifying said booking ; thereafter, receiving said piece of information from a person claimed to be a representative of said customer and receiving from said representative, the full payment for the booked item with said deposit being deducted there from, through an operation on an electronic account of said person, in which said identity of said person being authenticated; saving information of said verified identity for future reference.
17) A method for a merchant to handle a booking, comprising the steps of : accepting a deposit from a customer's account, by said party, for a booking request from said customer; thereafter, receiving and authenticating information for authorization of said account, from a person ; allowing said deposit to be used for fulfilling said booking, by said person. |
Apparatus for remote booking management and method therefor
Field of the invention
The present invention relates to remote bookings, and particularly, to handling of deposits and full payments.
Background of the invention
Conventionally, in order to make a booking, it involves a customer contacting a merchant by means of telephone, Internet to indicate a desire of a service/product, and then make a deposit.
Nowadays, people increasingly realize mobile phones can also be a means for payment authorization. However, the use of mobile phones or Internet computers in remote bookings is still very rare. Occasionally, individual merchants may provide individual booking services on their owns, resulting in inconsistent user experience.
The present invention provides a single booking service system for booking services for different merchants.
Brief Description of the Drawings
FIG.l is a timing diagram summarizing, a booking request procedure according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG.2 is a sample monthly statement showing details of a customer's expenditure.
Detailed description of the preferred embodiments
1) Booking
According to a first embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a booking service system for different shops.
Such a shop may be any kind of entertainment centers or shopping POS's, such as Karaoke, restaurant, sauna, theatre as well as car park etc. And, the booking services may also be provided for booking goods or a service.
To make a booking, a customer has to remotely authorize deposit payment to the booking service system, through his mobile phone and then, fulfill the booking, that is, come to the shop at the right time to collect the goods/receive the service and make full payment, otherwise at least a part of the deposit, if not all, will become revenue to the booking service system. Also, commission may be received from merchants by the booking service system for each full payment made.
Referring to Fig.l, to make a booking, the customer (10) will call, by means of his portable phone, a telephone center of the booking service system (11). A telephone operator will answer the call to obtain details of the booking from the customer, for e.g., the service/product wanted, the shop location and name, the time the customer will go to the shop etc. The incoming call number of the customer is also obtained automatically by well known techniques. The telephone operator will look up on his computer to retrieve price information, availability of the requested goods/receive, telephone number and an identity number of the shop assigned by the booking service system, opening hours of the shop, so as to do a preliminary check to the greatest extent to see if the customer's request can be entertained by the shop and provide immediate answers to the customer. Then, the call will be terminated.
The telephone operator will further contact the shop (12) by means of telephone
or the like, informing of the request.
If it is found that the shop cannot accept the request, the telephone operator will call the customer, at the above-mentioned incoming mobile phone call number of the customer, to inform him of other alternatives.
Otherwise, the telephone operator will instruct the central computer to send a short message signal (SMS) to the portable phone of the customer. The SMS includes a specified telephone number XXXXXXX and given by way of example, it may be in the form of "Thank you for using OUR booking service, your booking request for a 4 seated dinner desk at 7:00 pm on December 14, 2007 at Restaurant A is OK. Please rely us with a SMS containing your customer password for authorizing 1 dollar deposit or call us back at XXXXXXX to authorize the payment."
The customer can know, from the incoming call number, that the SMS is from the booking service system and authentic.
When the central computer of the booking service system receive the call from the customer, the central computer can determine from the incoming call number that the call is from that customer. Further, from the specified telephone number being called by the customer, the central computer can know the call is for that booking request. As the customer may have other booking requests for the booking service system to handle at a same time, each of the booking requests of the same customer, within a predetermined time period, say, 2 hours, has to be assigned a different "specified telephone number" for discrimination.
Then, it will check if the customer has registered an account, basing on his mobile phone number, if not, it will request, by means of a voice synthesizer, the customer to enter his credit card information such as an account number, expiration date, password. Then, the central computer will receive the deposit through the credit card account and provide the customer a customer account number as well as a
customer password for use as a substitute of the credit card information for authorizing future payment and also store the credit card information received, as well as the customer account number, the customer password and customer mobile phone number on file for future reference. If the customer wishes, he may submit information of more than one credit card accounts, and of course debit accounts are equally acceptable, such that in a future purchase, he may select any one of the accounts for payment and with one of them as the default one.
If the central computer determined that the incoming call number is a mobile phone number of a registered customer, it will, by means of a voice synthesizer and in a repeatedly manner, request the customer to pay deposit, says, 1 dollar to Restaurant A 5 and enter the customer password on the mobile phone keypad. The message will be as such- "Thank you for using OUR booking service, please enter your customer password to authorize deposit payment of 1 dollar to Restaurant A, please enter your customer password to authorize deposit payment of 1 dollar to Restaurant A....", until the customer password is received. Note that the payment amount, purpose and recipient identity is repeatedly delivered to the customer, this ensures the customer will not miss any important part of the payment request before entering the customer password.
On the other hand, if the customer sends an SMS containing a number which may be the customer password as well as other texts unparseable or understandable by machine, for e.g., "my password is 123456", then the central computer will scan the SMS for the correct customer password, which in this case is "123456" and replace it with, says, a phrase "CORRECT CUSTOMER PASSWORD" so that the SMS become "my password is CORRECT CUSTOMER PASSWORD" and send the modified SMS for human attention. If a human determines the SMS is acceptable, the central computer will proceed to next step for payment. Otherwise, another SMS will
be sent out to the customer for a correct customer password, by the central computer. In this way, a human can assist the handling of the SMS, without getting known of the customer password. On the other hand, if no correct customer password is found inside the SMS in the scanning, the central computer will automatically send another SMS to the customer for a correct customer password.
After receiving the correct customer password, the central computer will charge the deposit by use of the credit card information on file.
Further then, the central computer will inform the customer a serial number for identification of the booking by means of a SMS.
The central computer will also send to a terminal of the shop, details of the booking, including the service/product booked, amount of deposit received, date and time of the customer will visit the shop, so as to enable a shopkeeper to be informed of the booking. Note that according to the first embodiment, serial number of the booking and customer account number of the customer are not being sent.
Also note that the customer account number may be same as the mobile phone number of the customer for convenience.
A photo of the customer may be sent to the terminal by the central computer for visual identification of the customer by a shopkeeper.
On the other hand, if the central computer receives no correct password within a predetermined time period, says, 2 hours, from the SMS requesting for password, it will deny the booking request by sending another SMS to the customer.
This finishes the booking procedures of the first embodiment.
According to a second embodiment of the present invention, the shop itself receives booking requests from Internet through a terminal, which is also an Internet computer, or by telephone.
The terminal will then submit, either on its own or under control of a human
operator, details of the booking request including the shop identity number, the date and time the customer will visit the shop as well as the service/goods requested, amount of deposit to be received and finally, the customer account number θ# obtained from the customer, to the central computer of the booking service system, through Internet.
Once the central computer received the customer account number of the customer, it will search in its internal database for the corresponding mobile phone number of that user. Then, the central computer will send a SMS message to the user at the mobile phone number, requesting the user to authorize deposit payment by entering customer password and get the deposit in the manner as mentioned above.
It should be noted that the customer may use an Internet computer to pay for the deposit instead.
According to a third embodiment of the present invention, the booking service system may only receive the authorization of payment from the customer, that is, the above-mentioned customer password, but does not actually receive the deposit from the user credit account, details will be explained herein below.
2) Purchasing
The central computer of booking service system keeps a record of all bookings successfully made, including the shop identity number, the amount of deposit received, customer account number and mobile phone number, the serial number of the booking, the date and time the customer will visit a shop as well as the service/goods requested, for each booking.
And, when in future, a customer comes to a shop to receive a booked service/goods, outstanding payment of the booked service/goods should desirably be paid through the booking service system as it will deduct the deposit from the total
cost automatically. The central computer will also store the outstanding payment information into an outstanding payment record which may be a part of the booking record, for future reference such as when printing monthly statement to the customer/shop.
Specifically, the terminal of the shop will receive the customer account information, including customer account number, of the customer from a payment card which preferably contactless type, and supply the customer account information together with the booking serial number informed by the customer, and total cost of the offered service/goods to the central computer. The central computer will search from its record, basing on the serial number, to get the amount of deposit received and after deducting the deposit from the total cost, charges the user credit account by credit information on file, the outstanding amount. If the central computer cannot find from its record any information about the booking, or the serial number is invalid, it will inform the terminal of this fact and the customer will have to pay for the total cost.
Alternatively, the terminal may do the deduction work and inform the central computer to charge the outstanding amount from the customer account.
It may also be possible that, the central computer receives the shop identity number and the customer account information including the customer account number through the terminal, and determine from the shop identity number and the customer account number received as well as from the date and time the purchasing takes place, that there is a booking already made and deduct the deposit automatically.
Note that for the present invention, the payment card being for authorizing outstanding payment should be on the same customer account of the booking service system," as that of the mobile phone responsible for the authorization of the deposit. Or, if two different customer accounts are being used, the two different customer accounts
should belong to a same customer.
If the central computer finds that the accounts for paying deposit and for paying the outstanding amount belong to two different persons, it will refuse to deduct the deposit from the total cost and alert the shop to demand the customer to pay for the total cost.
Further, it is also possible for the central computer to send a SMS message to the customer mobile phone to request for authorizing the outstanding payment, as the mobile phone is a more reliable and trustworthy means for payment authorization, although less convenient.
In the authorization of payment process, the payment card or the mobile phone will send confidential information for verification of identity of the customer to the central computer, by techniques well known to those in the art. For the latter, it is the above-mentioned customer password. If, it happens that the customer does come to the shop to receive a booked service/goods, at the right date and time, but he elects other payment method such as by cash, then, even though it will not necessary for further payment through the customer account, the central computer will still verify the user identity by means of the payment card or the mobile phone, by way of a simple customer password verification as mentioned above or the like, in order to allow the deposit to be used as part of the purchase payment.
In the third embodiment, the deduction of deposit is not necessary as no deposit is actually being paid by the customer. An indication will be made in the booking record that full payment being received, to prevent the actual payment of the deposit.
In case an original customer asks a representative to come to the shop to receive the booked service/product, the terminal will receive the customer account information of the representative from his payment card and, and, either one of the serial number of the booking and customer account number of the original customer,
from the representative, who got the serial number/original customer account number from the original customer. Then, the terminal will supply the customer account information of the representative and booking serial number/original customer account number together with the total cost and shop identity number to the central computer, Further then, the central computer will find information of the booking from its record and charge the representative's account in the manner as mentioned above.
Since the representative used his own account, under the same present booking service system as the original customer, for payment of the outstanding amount, and in the payment process, the representative's identity being verified by the central computer of the booking service system, so even if thereafter the original customer may dispute the transaction, it is possible for the booking system to contact the representative for a resolution.
The central computer will keep a record of such transactions by representatives, including identities of the representative and the shop identity number. There has to be a limit for a person to represent another person to receive a booked service/products in a same shop, says, 3 times within 30 days, in order to eliminate incentive for a shop trying to deceive the booking service system that an abandoned booking is not abandoned so as to claim the deposit.
If the central computer discovers from its record that such transactions exceed the limit for that representative and for that shop, it will automatically stop further such transactions or generate an alert to call for human attention. Note that this is not necessary for the first embodiment as the shop does not have the serial number/customer account number of a booking, until the customer come to the shop.
3) Booking Abandoned
If after a predetermined time period, says, 24 hours, from the recorded date and time, full payment or outstanding amount payment of the booked service/goods is not being shown in its record, the central computer will presume the customer has abandoned the booking and take the total amount of the deposit as its revenue for the booking service or share a part thereof with the shop. The central computer will then update the booking record accordingly.
In this way, the central computer can have full information of all the customers' payments, from the booking records and outstanding payment records it creates from time to time, which are essential for printing statements to the customers and shops on a monthly or quarterly basis. A sample statements for a customer is illustrated in Fig. 2.
In the third embodiment, the booking service system will do the actual receiving of the deposit payment after the customer has abandoned the booking, and as mentioned herein above, the customer has already given his authorization for deposit, therefore the central computer need not contact the customer again for this and will directly charge the customer credit account by use of his credit information on its file. The booking service system may do this after the total of deposits for abandoned bookings of the same customer accumulated to a certain amount or on a monthly basis, so as to save service fee paid to transaction clearinghouse.
It should be noted that the above embodiments are given by way of example only, and it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.