@ MikeD
If you want to PM me your email address so I can check the system, I can verify 100% for you, but most likely, I can say with 99.99999% confidence that your account was not charge, it was only authorized.
Basically, and a lot of people don't know this, when you place an order with any merchant online or offline there are 2 things that happen. Either the merchant charges you direct (which is called a sale), or the merchant authorizes the card only, which is what we do. Authorization basically means that we send your info to a credit card processing company, the verify your address and that they can charge the card for the amount of the order and they send us a status depending on the outcome. If your transaction is approved, you we receive a success status, the order goes to our warehouse for shipment and once it ships (tracking is in the system) we turn the PreAuthorized transaction into a PostAuthorization, which is another name for sale. This all happens automatically, there is no human involved, so your card really can never be actually charged without an order being shipped. The only exception is pre-paid debit cards, since they work differently.
Now you stated that your order was declined because of an address error. In such cases there is still a declined authorization on your card for a few days for the amount of the order. This is not for us, but for every single merchant out there, since this is the only way the credit card system works. Basically this is because every credit card processing company is required to check fund availability and hold it, before they go through the other anti fraud verifications such as checking the address. Also it is a security percussion, since if someone actually did steal your card and tried to use it with their own address, that declined amount would not be available to them for a few days, enough time for you or your bank to realize that the card is being mis-used.
Now in Canada there is only 1 way to get the declined pre-auth off your card by the merchant. And that requires you to call your bank, they will send you a release form, you would have to send that form to us, we would sign it and fax back to your bank. It a time consuming process, but as of right now this is the only way to release a pre-auth from a credit card in Canada. In the USA its much easier, but in Canada this is the only way.
As far as your phone time goes, we are working on eliminating the phone completely. We've had the phone on our website for many,many years and more on more we've come to realize that it is simply not a working form of communication. You will still be able to speak to us, but only after you request it through the other forms of communications that we offer.
Right now we offer live only chat, which is a fantastic way to communicate. Not only do you get a live agent, you also have a complete record of the whole conversation, and so do we, and that conversation is attached to your account for any agent to see in full details. We also have email, with an average response time ( I just checked) of 1 hour 32 minutes. Plus you have a Feedback link twice on every page of the website that goes directly to management. Try sending any email where you are not satisfied with something and you'll have more than one person calling you in minutes.
Lastly you may ask why phone doesn't work. Well let me start by saying that we don't outsource our customer service to any call centers. We keep everything our own and in North America. However 92% of the calls that we get are from people that have no intention of buying anything from us, they are basically calling for any of the following reasons:
1. Get free mechanic advice to see if their mechanic is telling them the truth
2. Diagnose their car hoping we tell them what they need so when they go to a mechanic they have an idea of cost
3. Confirm that the mechanic gave them the right diagnosis
Plus on top of that many conversations start like "I have this noise in my car, its banging when I accelerate". So we ask what vehicle is it? The response "Its a Jetta". After that we'll usually get the year of the vehicle, but further details like the engine, trim, sub-model, suspension type people have no idea about. And the above is really 92% of all calls that we get. So that leaves 8% of actual customers that are calling to make a purchase of for legitimate customer service reasons.
This is really one of the reasons why most e-commerce companies are eliminating the phone. So you're thinking this will make communication with us more difficult and we don't believe so. Here is why:
1. If you contact us by chat or email and you state you want to speak to someone, we will generate a phone number for you to call. The number will be unique and valid for a short time frame, like 90 minutes or something. You will call that number and speak to an agent right away. If you publish that number, it will no longer work after the short time fram. This means we can have less reps on phones, but no hold time for customers.
2. 7 days after you place an order, you will receive a follow-up email (we've already implemented this last month). The email will be from one of our agents asking if everything is with your order as it should be. If yes, great. If no, you can reply to that email with the issue, and that agent then becomes dedicated to your account and fixing any problem you may have. So instead of you having to reach out to us, we actually reach out to you.
I hope that addresses your questions.
Sorry about the long post. One of my duties is to create openness between our company and our customers and to get feedback and ideas so that we can always adjust our services to customers needs. It is my intention to participate in these forums on a daily basis.
