[jgreco5]

I have had customers get angry with us because when their card declines it puts a hold on their funds anyway, sometimes 2 or 3 times depending on how many times they try the card. (We charge at time of sale).

Is there anyway to stop this from happening or clearing the authorization off for them? I have tried faxing the customer's bank, but they said it would take 3 days anyway to clear the charge. Is there anyway around this?

[Mayan Traditions]

I don't think there is any way around this. It is the customer's bank's policy that is causing the hold, not authorize.net.

[iverson27]

I'm having big problems with this as well. I try to explain to the customers that it's a problem with their bank and we don't have their money, but they continue to be angry ofcourse.

It seems there's no way around this though.......

[SteveK]

Originally Posted by iverson27

I'm having big problems with this as well. I try to explain to the customers that it's a problem with their bank and we don't have their money, but they continue to be angry ofcourse.

It seems there's no way around this though.......

Let them be angry, they are only "customers" if they give you money

Seriously, we have a nicely written standard email we send that always seems to calm them down.

[tp]

We had one woman who was threatening to sue us because we charged her 3 times and she got hit with hundreds of dollars in bank fees because the holds drained her account. I told her that if she could fax me written documentation from her bank stating that her bank received the funds from us 3 times (including charge authorization and transaction numbers) I would gladly refund her three times plus pay all the bank fees. After going back and forth with her bank for 2 weeks, they ended up taking the holds off her account and refunding all of the fees because they had no proof that it was anything other than their own policy that caused the false debiting of her account. In the end, she called back and thanked me and apologized profusely because I helped her get her money back from the bank.

[drhall]

It is the customers bank holding the money, not Authorizenet. Therefore it is always the customers banks fault.

[tp]

Yeah, but the banks always blame the merchant.

[iverson27]

Originally Posted by turtlepr

Yeah, but the banks always blame the merchant.

Exactly, the banks keep telling the customers we have their money and it's our fault, and the customers keep harrassing us because they ofcourse believe their bank over us.

[drhall]

Put it right back on their bank by simply stating that this how it has always been done and the bank representative would know this if they were properly qualified and trained.

[PPM....]

Originally Posted by drhall

Put it right back on their bank by simply stating that this how it has always been done and the bank representative would know this if they were properly qualified and trained.

Though the customer (probably) still may not believe you, this is the proper way to handle it.