> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.telzino.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Taking Payments over the Phone

## Overview

With Stripe Connect payments, your merchants can collect card payments over the phone. During a call, the merchant's voice agent texts the caller a secure Stripe payment link; the caller pays on Stripe's hosted page, and the funds settle **directly into the merchant's own Stripe account**.

You offer the feature under your own brand. Merchants set it up without ever leaving your portal, and you support them from your Telzino Dashboard. Two things are worth knowing up front:

* **You don't need your own Stripe account.** Each merchant gets their own; you are not in the flow of funds.

* **Card details never touch the call.** The caller enters their card only on Stripe's page, so your systems and the voice pipeline stay out of PCI scope.

## How it fits together

There are three parties. Telzino runs the platform and the Stripe integration; you resell it under your brand and support your merchants; each merchant runs on their own Stripe account and receives their own money.

\| **Telzino** | Runs the platform, the voice agent, and the Stripe Connect integration. |

\| **You (reseller)** | Offer payments under your brand, onboard merchants, and provide first-line support. |

\| **Merchant** | Owns a Stripe account, receives the funds, manages payouts and refunds. |

\> **Good to know:** Stripe only ever sees **two** parties — Telzino (the platform) and each merchant (a connected account beneath it). Your relationship with the merchant lives inside Telzino and your portal branding; there is no separate "reseller" account in Stripe.

## Before your merchant starts

Onboarding is quick, but Stripe must verify the business. Make sure your merchant has these ready:

* An eligible business (and its details — legal name, address, website or description).

* The **owner or representative's identity**: legal name, date of birth, government ID or SSN/EIN, and address.

* A **bank account** for payouts.

\> **Important:** Only the merchant can complete verification — Stripe legally requires the account holder to provide their own identity and bank details. You can guide them or share the setup link, but you cannot complete this step on their behalf.

## Enabling payments for a merchant

The whole flow happens inside your portal. The merchant never visits a Telzino- or Stripe-branded site.

1. **Open Payments for the merchant.** Once you've provisioned their voice agent, the payments app in your portal shows a *"Set up payments"* state. Nothing can be charged yet.

2. **Merchant selects "Set up payments."** Telzino creates the merchant's Stripe account behind the scenes and opens Stripe's secure onboarding form *inline*, inside your portal.

3. **Merchant enters business, identity, and bank details.** This information goes straight to Stripe — it never passes through your systems or Telzino's. Stripe runs verification automatically.

4. **Any extra verification appears inline.** If Stripe needs a document or more information, the form asks for it. The merchant can stop and return later to the same screen, and pick up where they left off.

5. **Payments activate automatically.** As soon as Stripe confirms the account can accept charges and receive payouts, the app switches from "Set up payments" to the live view. Until then, the agent will not attempt to take a payment.

6. **Confirm the display settings.** Business name on receipts, statement descriptor, and default currency. The agent can now collect payments on calls.

\> **Tip — Reseller-assisted setup:** Prefer to help a merchant directly? Instead of having them self-serve in your portal, you can send them a branded setup link, or walk them through it on a call. Either way, the merchant completes their own identity and bank verification.

## The merchant payments app

The payments app is an embeddable component you place inside your own portal. It carries your branding, not Telzino's, and shows a single merchant only their own activity.

### Adding it to your portal

You can embed the app directly in a page of your portal, or link merchants to a hosted version. In both cases it inherits your brand color and shows a minimal "Powered by Telzino" attribution. Embedding is a one-time integration per portal; after that, every merchant you provision sees their own scoped view automatically.

### What the merchant can do

* See their own phone payments, with amounts, status, and monthly totals.

* Resend a receipt to a customer.

* Finish onboarding, if it isn't complete yet.

* Open **Manage on Stripe** to reach their payouts, statements, and refunds in Stripe.

## Your support console

You support merchants from the **Payments** area of your Telzino Dashboard. Unlike the merchant app, the console spans *all* of your merchants and carries the detail you need to resolve a support question.

* **Find any transaction** across your merchants by phone number, amount, or Stripe reference.

* **See exactly what happened** — a status timeline (link sent, opened, paid, abandoned, or failed), the related call, the masked card, and the Stripe IDs to copy or escalate with.

* **Check a merchant's health** — whether their account is active and able to take payments, so you can answer "why can't we accept a payment?" immediately.

* **Take safe actions** — resend the payment link or receipt, open the call, or jump to the charge in Stripe.

\> **Refunds:** The support console does not issue refunds. Refunds are always handled by the merchant in Stripe — see below.

## How the money moves

Each payment is a **direct charge** on the merchant's own Stripe account. The customer's money goes to the merchant, and Stripe pays it out to the merchant's bank on their payout schedule. Telzino never holds the funds.

Here's how a **\$100.00** payment breaks down when a **1.5%** platform fee applies:

| Portion          | Amount                                 | Goes to                   |
| ---------------- | -------------------------------------- | ------------------------- |
| Merchant's share | \$98.50 (less Stripe's processing fee) | Merchant's Stripe balance |
| Platform fee     | \$1.50                                 | Telzino                   |

Two details to keep in mind:

* **Stripe's processing fee** (its standard per-transaction cost) is charged to the merchant's account, the same as any Stripe merchant.

* **The platform fee**, when enabled, is deducted automatically at the time of payment and settled to Telzino. How you're compensated as a reseller is governed by your agreement with Telzino, not configured per payment here.

## Refunds & payouts

Because each merchant holds their own funds, **refunds and payouts are managed in Stripe**, not in Telzino or in your portal. A merchant issues a refund from their Stripe dashboard, reachable through the **Manage on Stripe** button in the payments app. Payout timing, bank details, statements, and tax forms live there too. This keeps money movement — and its liability — with the party that holds the money.

## Who does what

| Task                                          | Owner                                         |
| --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- |
| Identity & bank verification (KYC)            | Stripe, completed by the merchant             |
| Holding funds, payouts, statements, tax forms | Stripe / the merchant                         |
| Refunds & dispute responses                   | The merchant, in Stripe                       |
| Card data & PCI                               | Stripe — never on the call or in your systems |
| Voice agent, payment orchestration, records   | Telzino                                       |

\| Onboarding merchants, branding, first-line support | You (reseller) |

## Supporting your merchants

Common situations and where to resolve them in your support console:

### "My customer didn't get the payment link."

Open the transaction and check the delivery status, then use **Resend payment link** — you can confirm or correct the customer's number.

### "My customer says they paid, but I don't see it."

Open the transaction and read the status timeline. If it shows the link was opened but not completed, the payment was abandoned. Payments that complete just after a call ends are reconciled automatically and will appear shortly.

### "We can't take a payment at all."

Check the merchant's account health on any of their records. If setup is incomplete, have the merchant finish onboarding in the payments app; the agent won't attempt a charge until Stripe confirms the account is ready.

### "How do I refund a customer?"

Refunds are done by the merchant in Stripe, via **Manage on Stripe** in the payments app.

## FAQ

### Do I need my own Stripe account?

No. Each merchant has their own Stripe account, and you are never in the flow of funds.

### Who receives the money?

The merchant. Payments settle directly into the merchant's Stripe balance and pay out to their bank.

### What if a merchant interrupts onboarding?

Nothing is lost. They return to the same "finish setting up payments" screen in your portal and continue from where they stopped.

### How long does approval take?

For a straightforward business it's often just a few minutes, with instant activation. If Stripe flags something for review, it can take longer, and the merchant sees a "pending verification" state rather than a hard error.

### Is card data ever exposed to the agent or in call recordings?

No. The caller enters their card only on Stripe's hosted page. Card details never reach the agent, the transcript, or the recording.

### Can a merchant use an existing Stripe account?

Onboarding creates a connected account managed through Telzino. If a merchant asks about connecting an account they already run, contact Telzino support to confirm the options for your setup.

***

*Last updated: June 2026*