Bastard credits cards. Bastard John Lewis

I placed an order with John Lewis last night via their website. Got a confirmation email and all looked fine. Even got a 10 pound discount as it was my first online order with them.

This morning I find

We have been unable to obtain the necessary authorisation from your payment card issuing company. This could be because we have an incorrect account number or expiry date for your card. We now need to confirm that the account details we hold are correct.

To update your payment details for the above order please telephone our customer service team on 08456 049 049 between 7am and midnight, 7 days a week. Once you have updated your payment details we will continue to process your order.

Odd. Maybe I’ve given the wrong postcode or something. Anyway, I ring them and get “Your credit card company declined the payment. I’ll try again after checking your details – it was probably a typo”. Fair enough.

Declined again.

So he tries again (why he thought it would work this time I don’t know). Declined again. “Sorry sir, you’ll have to ring your card company to ask why they are declining it”. Sigh.

I ring the credit card company who (once I finally get to talk to a person) check the obvious before passing me to their fraud dept. “Ah yes, sir, we have blocked your card for fraudulant activity”. Pause. “Well, suspected fraudulant activity”. Sigh again. I ask what suspect activity and get told “it appears that someone was using your card details last night to buy an item from an online retailer”. I reply with “yep, that was me”. “Ah. I’ll authorize that then sir. Sorry about that. You will have to contact the retailer to get them to put the transaction through again”. Sigh.

Back on the phone to John Lewis (at least they answer the phone within a couple of rings). Get through to another guy who finds my order and tells me it has been declined. I explain and finally he says “ah, I see. Ok then I’ll put the charge back to your card company”. Declined. Computer says no. This time it isn’t my card company causing the rejection – this is the John Lewis system refusing the order “as it is on a card that has been marked as involved in fruadulant activity with John Lewis recently”. Sigh. I explain again and can almost hear the penny dropping.

“I’ll have to set up a new order for you and get a supervisor to ok it”. “Fine”

He goes through the process of copying from the original order to a new order. All works fine until he enters the code to give me my 10 quid “first order” discount.

“Ah, thats only valid on your first order sir. You’ve already placed an order with us so unfortunately you can’t use that”. I start to explain that he had cancelled the first order when again, the penny drops. “Ah. Yes. That doesn’t seem fair. Errrrr….I’ll have to get someone to look at that and make an adjustment afterwards”. Sigh.

Order is placed, I hang up. 1.5 hours on the phone so far. I check my email.

Your order has been held as a result of a random security check. To enable us to complete your order, may I ask you to call our Customer Service team on 08456 049 049 between 7am and midnight, 7 days a week to confirm your date of birth.
If we do not receive a response within 48 hours we will cancel your order and you will not be charged.

Sigh.

I ring them *again*. “Ah, I can see why. This appears to be an order to an address that has been involved in fraudulant orders. I can’t authorize that sir” (random security check eh?). I give her the full story. “Ah. hmmmm. That doesn’t sound right. Ok, give me you date of birth and I’ll ensure the order goes through.” Finally! We head out for the afternoon.

I’ve just got in and for some reason thought I’d log in and check my credit card online. Suspiciously, I’ve got listed authorized payments of exactly twice the value of the order with John Lewis. Sigh. I ring them again.

I go through the story again, she tells me my address is flagged as involved in suspicious activity. I explain again. Finally, she twigs. “Ah yes sir. We appear to have authorized it twice. Not sure why sir. I’ll check that out”. I raise the fact that the 10 quid discount has vanished again. “Ah. thats only on your first order sir”… I don’t have to explain to her this time – I think the tone of my voice gave her a clue that that was not the correct answer.

“I’ll put that 10 pounds back on your card for you sir. I’ll do it now. Personally. Sorry for the inconvenience. I’m also sure we won’t charge you twice for the one item”.

I’ll await the credit card bill and see if the item actually arrives when promised. I can’t say I’m convinced!

I understand the fraud detection idea – and yes, it’s good. BUT – if I have to ring to clear the payment then why does it take 45 mins to get a person on the phone who can clear it. That’s hardly going to work if you are standing in a queue in a shop! Also, John Lewis could do with tweaking their systems a little – they really don’t seem to handle this sort of case all that well . Roll on Tuesday…