Trainworld seem to accept credit cards…
Further to my trauma with Watt’s, over a two day period I attempted nine times to use my credit card to pay an account, as their site only accepts credit card payments. Each time the payment attempt was declined due address mismatch on the card (16 years on the card at my current address) or the merchant site was down (for maintenance, presumably).
Well each attempt to access their site has resulted in a total amount pending on my card for $2700.00 for a $306.00 invoice amount. My card is now well over its limit due the nine ‘pending’ charges and the card has been declined for me to use due the overlimit. I received an invoice from Deborah Watt for the required amount and paid with my bank account. Even so there are still nine pending charges, each for $300, against my credit card. If the company does not attempt to access the payment for each charge then the charges will expire in around eight working days.
Has this been an enjoyable buying experience with my credit card now declined and an amount nine times the original amount being billed as pending against my card, well you be the judge? If I had known that each declined attempt was being billed against my card then I would have shopped elsewhere.
Funny i use credit cards online darn near everyday…
Bart,
I live in Australia. Watt’s site does not accept credit cards from ‘foreign’ countries online, as their merchant service will not accept them. Funny though, that even though the service will not accept the card payment, it still issues a pending charge on the credit card for the amount, each time the person outside the States attempts to use his card. Each card decline is registered as a sale and the store software tries to obtain the money from the credit card.
In each case, of the three LGB items purchased, the store only had one item in stock (they were used items so could hardly have been placed on backorder) and yet the store's site still issued nine pending charges on my card for the same items each time, causing it to go overlimit and be effectively cancelled so that I cannot use it until the problem is resolved.That certainly is a grim state of affairs Tim and one, which none of us living outside of North America, would wish to arise.
If there is a lesson here: I am sure there is, it is that non US residents should make robust enquiries, with the dealer, when purchasing from the States. When I buy I pass details over the 'phone, I do not buy ‘online’ as it were but, as we all know, banks frequently change their systems to protect themselves (though they try to kid us it is in our interest).
I hope, Tim, that this is quickly sorted out and the longer term effects are not to you disadvantage.
Alan,
there is a saying, “once bitten, twice shy.” I cannot express my true feelings on this abysmal state of affairs as I am still awaiting shipping info on the items purchased ($2700.00 billed against my card for a $306.63 purchase!!!). The goods that I purchased are still showing as available on their online store. I paid for those items almost five full days ago. If I go to the site then I can still add them to my cart. Other sites immediately withdraw the items from sale once payment has been received.
The reason I shopped there was that their online store showed two difficult to find items. They do have several other interesting items available, but would I run the gauntlet a second time? I need to get my credit card cleaned up first so that I can use it. The charges are only pending so no money has actually changed hands, but what it does do is make my card totally unusable as my card supplier has put a stop on the card until the $2700.00 in charges pending are cleaned up. I am awaiting a response from the store.
The store has been selling trains for around forty years and is one of the most highly respected in the industry. Makes you realise the trouble that you would be really in if someone unscrupulous got hold of your card details.Final issue on this saga, hopefully. Store has posted my items, but denies making any claim on my card and cannot see why my card has been suspended by my bank. However, the facts are that a merchant, presumably the main operating company for the train store, has placed nine pending charges against my card for a total of $2700.00. These charges are ‘pending’, i.e., the store is not demanding the money be paid but has informed the card company of the pending charges. My card company treats these as ‘real’ purchases and so places the pending charges against my account, awaiting ‘paperwork’ from the merchant site. The effect of this is that the amount is debited against my card resulting in my card going way over its limit. My card company has then suspended my card until the issue may be resolved.
Now if the store denies any claim on my credit card, where did the nine pending claims on my card, from their main merchant site, originate from. I had never heard of their main merchant site, believing that I was dealing with the train store. The card processing site declined my card and yet the merchant site placed pending charges on my card for nine separate transactions, all for the same three items. Store says it never happened. My bank has nine pending charges totalling $2700.00 from the merchant on my card and my card is suspended. Is it a case of “Ripley’s Believe it or not”.
The store has confirmed that they have no outstanding payment claim against me. However, until the nine pending claims time expire, around eight working days, my card is suspended and I am unable to use the funds on the card for other purchases. Until my card was declined at the post office, I had no idea that the nine pending charges, totalling $2700.00 even existed. This whole saga is not an indictment on the staff at the store, but a computer issue, but in the end, it is me the customer inconvenienced until I regain access to my credit card.
I’ve had this happen to me. It can happen with any online merchant if you get to the point of entering the order for purchase and their system goes out to check on whether there are funds available. This puts a pending transaction on the account. The mess-up can occur at any number of places if a acknowledgement of receipt does not take place between all the computers. You have the exchange that the shop uses, you have the bank’s exchange (can be the same or different), you have the exchange between the processor networks (if the first exchange hand;es MC and you use a Visa, it is passed over to Visa). etc. etc. Not really the shops fault. I can tell you that networks have been experiencing issues the past week.
As Shults use to say “I know nothing!”