PSA- The storeowner said the charge was declined TWICE!

amother

Rose

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 10:35 am

This week, I wanted to buy something for $40 at a store on 13th avenue. I used my credit card and I was told the charge was declined. I said there must be something wrong with your machine because I just used my card a few minutes ago. I asked if we can try my credit card at their other store a block away. They said yes. I walked with the owner to the store on the next block. My card was declined again! I asked the store-owner if Ill be charged. He said DEFINITELY NOT, it was declined (hahahahaha) . At that point I left the store and successfully used my card in another store, two blocks away. No problem! Not declined!

Lo and behold BOTH of the original store's $40 charges showed up on my account and I disputed them, and they were removed because I had never disputed a charge before, so they removed the charges even without waiting to hear the store's response.

PSA! Im not sure what went wrong, but moral of the story is-

Dont take what a store-owner tells you for granted. Check your charges online.

amother

Rose

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 10:59 am

sourstix wrote:

so I am really confused. why it wouldnt work there. they are a store open for so many years. must be they have a problem with the cc company

I have no idea, but the owner was annoyed with me that I even asked if there's a chance Ill be charged. He said "Dont you see? It says "declined"!

thunderstorm

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 11:33 am

Dont take it personally...I dont know what cc you have but lately , there has been a change with the credit cards people have, they started adding the "chip" which causes complications...some stores only work WITH the chip card and some dont work....I know that my Amex card does not work in Walmart, and Home Depot but on the same day a few minutes later it will work in The x-mas Tree Shop and Target...
Also, their machine could have been broken and it was just not "reading" your card properly...just leave it and dont get upset..not all store owners are friendly...just learn from your experience to treat others more politely

cnc

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 11:45 am

amother wrote:

This looks like pure loshon hora to me.
The owners at [removed] are nice people, and this does seem like a weird misunderstanding, but not a reason to PSA it.

I agree.
I don't think a store would do this on purpose when you would obviously just dispute the charge as soon as you see it.

If you want to make people aware that they should look at the statement maybe just delete the store name because it has no bearing on your story.

amother

Lemon

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 11:45 am

Computer glitches happen. As well as fraudulent charges. So everyone should check their bills very carefully. Not sure why you have to badmouth a particular store though. Do you believe they were trying to scam you? Doesn't seem like it to me.

smss

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 12:07 pm

amother wrote:

This.

Fox

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 12:35 pm

FYI, it has more to do with the credit card processor than the individual store. Several branches of a single operation will typically use the same processor.

Credit card processors are under increased pressure to put algorithms and protocols in place to prevent fraud, and increasingly, the rest of us get caught in the net from time to time.

My cc is declined about 50 percent of the time at Jewel/Osco, yet I can trot 20 feet to the ATM and take out cash. I think I've figured out the usual trigger (it seems to happen when the ledger balance is greater than the available balance), but I have no way of knowing whether it's launched by Jewel, their processing company, or my bank.

Rather than getting mad at the clerk, who has no way of knowing why a card was declined, just keep your bank/cc phone number handy and simply call them when a card is erroneously declined. They can usually sort out the situation.

BTW, this problem is likely to get worse before it gets better, so spend your energy making sure that you have ways to work around the problem whenever it occurs.

cnc

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 5:27 pm

trixx wrote:

Am I the only one thinking that the store owner was then never paid for your items?

I'm assuming she left the items there or paid cash...I'm sure he didn't give her the items for free.

groovy1224

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 5:40 pm

amother wrote:

This looks like pure loshon hora to me.
The owners at [removed] are nice people, and this does seem like a weird misunderstanding, but not a reason to PSA it.

Are you serious? I have no idea if the OP's post was l'h or not, but I didn't know what store she was taking about till YOU said it. Ever hear the thing abt people in glass houses...?

cnc

Thu, Dec 17 2015, 5:43 pm

groovy1224 wrote:

Are you serious? I have no idea if the OP's post was l'h or not, but I didn't know what store she was taking about till YOU said it. Ever hear the thing abt people in glass houses...?

Apparently the OP edited her post because the name of the store was originally in the post.

notshanarishona

Fri, Dec 18 2015, 5:24 am

As someone who has worked in sales I find it very not nice when people jump to decline with the cc company before first trying to contact the merchant. Generally you should contact the merchant and show there was a mistake and only if they don't give in do you decline. It causes business a lot of red tape problems and many times they end up getting fee's with cc companies if it happens too often.

Also, I would never be malshin a store without calling them first.

Maybe the owner thought it worked a certain way and made a mistake, that is not a reason to publicly denounce his business.

momX4

Fri, Dec 18 2015, 8:20 am

Twice I had the experience that my card was charged twice. The first time was in a speciality store and the cc reversed it right away. They saw the charges were seconds apart.
The second time was in the grocery I shop in. It was a large order. The charges were reversed but the store got upset and called me. They had to pay fees for the reversal. They said had I called them they would have given me credit. I was happy I didnt call them because I didnt want to prepay for my groceries. It wasnt my mistake, they swiped it twice thinking it didnt go through.