Holds disappear without any effort. A charge takes effort, which is a PITA when your time is valuable, like Alan’s. So there is a difference.
I think the holds appear with online orders as part of the automated process. That is my experience anyway.
Dead wrong. I would cut them slack (and probably not order again) on just the email. No way on the charge - they should be outed for this
I’m confused, was the CC charge put through then refunded, or was the charge just pending after the order was placed?
per the credit card company, the charge was put through. I had spoken w them (on the telephone that Jeff thinks I don’t know about) that day since I had had some trouble w the SL site and put the charge through twice–so they assured me one had gone through and the second one did not. So,
yes, the charge went through. No question.
It was a case of 06 Perrot-Minot Chambertin 06.
yes and they should use that phone thing–I tried and got an answering machine that accepted no messages–and, yes, the card was charged. Comments now?
Welcome to being an asian in a wine store
This.
fify
Ironic.
Absolutely. They’re paying the processing fee on the charge (3-5% plus/minus based on the type of card and negotiated rates with the processor) plus whatever the processing fee is for the refund.
I’ve never heard of a retailer actually passing along those charges to a customer, but many retailers have a ‘cancellation/restocking fee’ if the customer cancels the order voluntarily.
So there you have it. Not only do they suck, but they’re stupid.
Yes. How much depends on the Retailer’s agreement with their credit card merchant, but once a CC charge is finalized, the merchant takes their cut (usually between 2 and 6%), which cannot be recouped if the customer returns the item at a later date. Depending on the set-up, a charge reversal or void can be done on the same day if there is a mistake, but once the charge is finalized (usually that night), the retailer is SOL on that charge if the customer wants a return/refund.
Are you sure they didn’t call your wife for permission?
Mike, that whole system sounds wonderful. People I’ve talked to, and this includes the store where I work, have updates that run daily since the website and POS inventory are two separate systems. I know that even a lot of people who say “real time” don’t mean it the way you do. We could sell some wine that we don’t have in inventory, and it happens sometimes. I will say, as it relates to the OP, that a card doesn’t get charged until we’ve physically confirmed inventory. The wording of their “confirmation” is very similar to the way ours was automatically set up by the company that handled that, but I had it changed immediately (to something almost exactly like the OP suggested) to avoid confusion. Those little details are important. I will say that I understand being a little frustrated, but I don’t think the story in the OP is really a big deal or relates to what I would consider lousy service. They do seem to have some kinks in their system and processing protocol that need to be worked out, though.
When you call the credit card company to check on a charge and they say it “went through,” sometimes it only means a hold or pending charge “went through.” I can see both online with my card and it sometimes takes 2 or 3 days for these pending charges to either move to the confirmed category or disappear. I would guess the store puts in a pending charge or hold at the time of order receipt, and confirms it at the time they actually allocate the bottles to that transaction. I suspect you might have trouble proving existence of a contract during that interim period.
The store could improve in two ways here:
First, make the confirmation of receipt of order language clearer, stating that it is not a confirmation of purchase. Give a time frame for when the purchase confirmation should be expected.
Second, don’t process the credit card at all until confirming the purchase. I can see where that might be more work for the merchant depending on their workflow, but they should consider a change.
I guess the answer was no. ![[oops.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/1/1f129ddad071ffe5db6c99817c3cab666035a70a.gif "oops"){kind=small}
I would assume they had the wine when you ordered, however a better customer called the secret bat phone number and told them they wanted the wine and they cancelled your order and sold your case to someone else. Shit happens.
Do you really need the wine?
DISCLOSURE: I didn’t buy it…
Yeah - we avoid the entire situation by not sending any automated confirmation until we are absolutely sure that the stock is available. When we have any pre-arrival / ‘orders subject to final confirmation’ type offer, our sales team will send a 1-on-1 acknowledgement via standard email to the customer at the time the order is placed, and then we will generate the real confirmation when availability is confirmed and the order is placed in our system.
Every retailer has their own way of doing things - we just found that any type of automated confirmation from our POS is just too confusing.
Interesting. Just went through some iPhone voice mails I hadn’t listened to and there is one from salesperson of SL saying they had received my order and it had gone through twice. Did I want one or both orders and that she would have no trouble holding it for cooler weather?
So confirmation by phone, email, and credit card.
And then an email telling me no wine.
Obviously a bigger fish scored.
A billionaire helicoptered in to pick it up before they confirmed your purchase.