Credit card query - 2

[Lucy]

Sorry if you've seen this before - not showing up on my newsreader so
I just figured out how to post via google.....


Can anyone tell me how a credit card payment goes through the system
please?
I have been charged twice for the same thing by an online retailer.
They
say it is not their fault they only asked for the payment once. The
credit
card company say they requested payment on the 8th and again on the
21st
for the same amount. The card company retail dispute section are
sorting it
out, so I know I'm going to get the money back, but I am curious as to
how
the system works.

The card company say they don't make a payment unless payment is
requested,
the retailer say they definately did not request the payment a second
time -
to know how to argue my case if it happens again I'd just like to know
the
in' and outs of how card payments work when used online.

Thanks

Lulu

 

[Tumbleweed]

Sorry if you've seen this before - not showing up on my newsreader so
I just figured out how to post via google.....


Can anyone tell me how a credit card payment goes through the system
please?
I have been charged twice for the same thing by an online retailer.
They
say it is not their fault they only asked for the payment once. The
credit
card company say they requested payment on the 8th and again on the
21st
for the same amount. The card company retail dispute section are
sorting it
out, so I know I'm going to get the money back, but I am curious as to
how
the system works.

The card company say they don't make a payment unless payment is
requested,
the retailer say they definately did not request the payment a second
time -
to know how to argue my case if it happens again I'd just like to know
the
in' and outs of how card payments work when used online.

Thanks

Lulu

FWIW you cant generalise about what happens when a payment is made 'online'
, since there may well be intermediate companies in the way, and the CC
verification may happen when you make your purchase, or it may happen some
time later, and the data may pass though at least one intermediary...so one
of those people in the chain has mistakenly reused the same data twice..or
there is an attempted fraud going on by an employee at one of those
companies.

A mistake has been made and therefore someone is wrong about what happened
so knowing what _should_ happen wont help you understand what actually went
wrong since what they are telling you is what normally happens rather than
what actually happened in this instance.

Either the retailer did put through a request wrongly a second time, or the
CC company or a proxy for them reused the same input data twice. The former
may have been done by their computer systems rather than by someone actually
running your card details through again. And its more likely that's what
happened, but its always possible the CC co cocked up their IT instead. The
CC co should be able to tell you, but its not going to help you fix a future
dispute either way. And if its a low volume transaction they might not even
bother investigating it in detail anyway if its cheaper just to cancel the
transaction and forget about it.

 

[Alex]

At 14:00:13 on 24/02/2005, Lucy delighted uk.finance by announcing:

Sorry if you've seen this before - not showing up on my newsreader so
I just figured out how to post via google.....


Can anyone tell me how a credit card payment goes through the system
please?
I have been charged twice for the same thing by an online retailer.
They
say it is not their fault they only asked for the payment once. The
credit
card company say they requested payment on the 8th and again on the
21st
for the same amount. The card company retail dispute section are
sorting it
out, so I know I'm going to get the money back, but I am curious as to
how
the system works.

Offline terminal:
1. Card is presented
2. Decision is taken to (a) approve offline, (b) approve online or (c) refer to acquirer
2a. Receipt is printed (and signed if applicable)
2b. Bank is electronically informed of the transaction amount and may allocate the funds
2c. Bank is manually informed and may allocate the funds
3. Transaction details are sent to the bank normally at the end of the day
4. Banks settle the amounts appropriately. Merchant is paid. Your account's debited.

Online terminal is basically the same, except that offline approval only happens when there's
a network problem. Also, the funds are allocated and can be debited at the time of the
transaction rather than several days later.

Duplicated transactions are not unheard of, especially when there have been connection/transmission
problems, but if they are 2 weeks apart then it's more likely to be a 'clerical error' by the
retailer.

 

[Alex]

At 16:04:53 on 24/02/2005, Alex delighted uk.finance by announcing:

Offline terminal:
....

Online terminal

I should just clarify that these terms refer to the authorisation process between merchant
and bank and not whether or not the purchase was made over the Internet.