Ordering on Amazon?

[donna723]

I'm so proud of myself! For the first time ever I'm almost completely done with my Christmas shopping and did almost all of it online! I made my one and only trip to a department store yesterday to get the remaining few things. And I'm probably the last one on earth to discover Amazon! I've bought a ton of stuff from them and, for the most part, it's gone very well. I've bought cell phone acessories for my sister in law, clothes and movies for my son and a gift card for his Kindle, movies and books for my grandson, a gorgeous photography book for my cousin. My sister in law is a movie freak so last night, not knowing what else to get him, I bought him an Amazon gift card so he can pick his own movies or books or whatever.

I am also fanatical about keeping track of my bank account and I checked it this morning. The charge for the Amazon gift card is there as expected and the shipping was free. But right below that is a separate charge to Amazon for $1! What the heck is that? It's not included as part of the gift card, it's a separate charge! I know it's only a dollar but it's MY dollar and it's a little creepy to have money taken from my bank account and not know why! Had I not noticed, I would have driven myself up the wall looking for that darned dollar that I was off in my account! Has anybody else had anything like this happen? I did send an email to their customer service department but because it's the holiday rush, I'm not holding my breath waiting to hear from them.

 

[TeDo]

My entire family does Amazon religiously. None of us have ever had this happen so I don't know what to tell you. Hopefully they can answer your email quickly. I know what it's like to have that question looming overhead without an explanation.

 

[donna723]

Wow! That was fast! I already got a "canned" email response back from them. This must happen a lot!

It says:

"Hello,

I'm sorry for any misunderstanding about the unknown charge of $1.00.

When you place an order with us, we authorize your credit card for $1.00 to confirm your card has a valid number and hasn't been reported lost or stolen. If you have a seller account on our website, we also periodically authorize your card to ensure your account information is up-to-date.

We don't actually proceed with the $1.00 charge--we'll charge you when the order ships. The authorization should drop off of your credit card within 7-10 business days, depending on how long your bank holds authorizations."

When I ordered the gift card, I did have to re-enter my card number as validation although I've never been asked to do that before. But this wasn't a credit card, it was a debit card, and the charge is already showing as "pending" on my checking account statement! Can they withdraw the charge when it's already showing on my account? Seeing as how this was about the 20th thing I ordered from them in the last few weeks, I wouldn't think my account had to be "verified".

 

[TeDo]

I have no idea but now that you've had that issue, I'd better check my bank account. I just got my package yesterday from them and I paid by debit card. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[DammitJanet]

Im so bad I never check my bank account until the end of the month when I look to see how much money I have left. Thats really sad isnt it? I know how much I get at the beginning of the month and how much I use during the month...I figure to have about 20 bucks left over. Can we say paycheck to paycheck? If anything hits me unannounced Im in trouble.

 

[donna723]

lol, Janet, you sound like my son! But at least you sort of keep track of it. He uses a debit card but he doesn't keep track of what he spends, he just goes by what his online statement says which isn't always right. I keep trying to tell him, some things appear right away, others stay in a "pending" status and don't show for a few days. And he uses his debit card A LOT ... $10 worth of gas here, a Pepsi and a pack of cigarettes there. No wonder he can't keep track of it!

When I was married, our finances were always in chaos, so I am a total control freak over it now. I keep track down to the penny and check it at least once a day, sometimes more. The way my son does his, if something goes wrong, he doesn't know until he runs out of money. Almost two weeks ago, a couple days before his payday, his bank tried to run someone else's big check through HIS account ... twice! They charged him two $35 returned check fees and put him into the minuses right away, leaving him with no gas money to get to work the rest of the week. He had to take off work and went storming in to the bank and they saw right away what had happened and said they would credit the $70 back in to his account. BUT ... they said it would take 7 to 10 business days to get the money credited back to his account! Said it had to go all through their corporate offices and get all kinds of approvals before he could get his money back! The same money that was instantly taken from his account when they thought it was his fault! Total BS! As soon as the dust settles, he's closing that account and opening a new one at my bank.

 

[DammitJanet]

Oh that would tick me off no end! I use a state credit union..I am betting you do too...lol. One of the perks of working for state government. I will never leave this credit union if I can help it. I like owning a piece of the pie because while it I dont have branches in 49 other states, I do have other perks. If I should happen to overdraft, I get two per year free. Any more are only 12 bucks. No atm fees. And they didnt do what the big banks just did...or are going to do.

 

[donna723]

I don't have a credit union but I use the small local bank that's a block from my house and I've never had a problem. They are all very nice and everybody knows my name and you have to gossip for a few minutes if nobody is in line behind you! They didn't tack on all the extra fees like the big banks did either and they even sent out a letter to their customers saying that they were not going to do it! I never use it but they have a 24-hour ATM and they don't charge any fees to use your debit card. The only thing I pay is a $7 a month service charge, and for my checks, but if I ever go in and change it over to a senior account I won't even pay that. And now that I have the debit card, I write so few checks that the ones I still have left will last me forever! I write exactly three paper checks a month (only two in the winter ) ... I pay my rent by check, my city utility bill (because we're so primitive here we don't have a system to do it online) and I write a check to the guys who do my lawn in the summer. For everything else I use the debit card or pay the bills online right out of my checking account.

And they also have a branch in the town where my son works, so he's opening an account there.

 

[buddy]

I got that too and I have also gotten that when I shop at Holiday for gas. I figured it was a credit card online fee instead of shipping and handling... I got it when I bought an online warranty that wont actually come in the mail. I will be interested to see what you find out.

 

[DammitJanet]

You need to change it over to save those 7 bucks...lol. I hated BOA because even though my mom was obviously a senior they charged her out the behind. Every little thing was a charge and she just used it to run her SS check through at the end. I couldnt even get them to cancel a company that was debiting her account every month for a cable bill that she was no longer using.

I will give the story. My mom left her home in 4/2001. I cut off all her utilities when she left, including her cable. I turned in everything that I could find that went with it. They claimed that there was some sort of extra remote that I failed to turn in. I doubt it. She had one box and one tv with the cable on it. They continued to bill her through her checking account until she went into the nursing home because I couldnt produce that extra remote. To the tune of $57 a month. I called, I complained, I wrote corporate. Nothing. I was afraid to change her checking account because of the fact that her SS was direct deposited. Messing with them is a pita.

 

[donna723]

Janet, I wonder if that was the same cable company that my brother and sister in law were dealing with years ago? When they moved from Orlando to Gainesville, Fla they cancelled their cable service at the old house. They were told to just put the box and remotes in a drop box at the cable company office which they did. The cable company insisted that they didn't get the equipment back and kept billing them and billing them, and threatening and threatening. They tried to be civil but there was just no reasoning with those people! My sister in law, who is from England, can be quite feisty if you get her riled up! She finally got so exasperated with them, she told them, "Lady, you can take your bloody cable box and shove it up your knicker leg"! Then she hung up! And they never heard from the cable company again! Never got another bill either!

Moral of the story is: Never get a red-headed Englishwoman mad at you!

 

[DammitJanet]

LOL...I am betting they didnt quite understand her comment correctly!

 

[skeeter]

We will never ever have a debit card again. They can put these "hold" fees on (gas stations are notorious for doing that). And even if you use it as a credit card instead of debit card, if it gets compromised, like ours did, the money comes out of your account instantly. Ours was compromised over a Memorial Day weekend and I luckily decided to look at our account and caught $4000 already debited!!!!! While we got it all back (some up to a month later), we dropped the card and went to a straight credit card. I pay it off monthly, so there's no finance charges, but at least if it get compromised, my account isn't getting drained.

 

[JJJ]

The dollar isn't really gone. I do a lot of online shopping and that "pending $1" is very common. It is still in your account and when Amazon doesn't finalize the transaction against it, the "pending" notice will just go away. They may have done the $1 on your other orders but if you didn't look quickly enough at your account, it may have already been there and gone.

 

[buddy]

I check my account often now, I never do the balancing my checkbook thing...since there are very very few checks I write, but I do double check their math online. skeeter, how does the $1 compromise things anymore than any other charge, is it that it stays open? We recently had a story here about a girl in a mcDonalds who had a device at belt level and if she noticed you drove a nice car she swiped the numbers, somehow recorded it and she took tens of thousands of dollars. When I give my card now I watch it the whole time.... watch them swipe it and ask for it right away. One time a guy put it down and walked away and I about threw a fit from the drivers lane, honked and knocked on the window. I told him if he has a question or something to always give a person their card back before checking on the fries. lol It was a really nice suburb where this girl did this, she was part of a ring. Makes sense to do it there, people are less suspicious and have more bucks.

 

[donna723]

JJJ, I check my bank account at least once a day and out of all the transactions I've done with Amazon, this was the only time they tacked on the $1.00 charge. But this was also the only transaction where they had asked me to re-enter my card number for "verification" of my account when I was placing the order.

This has been a good discussion though and has me re-thinking about our Christmas trip to South Carolina. I always just took enough cash with me to pay for the gas and other expenses but I thought this year I might just leave most of it in the bank and use the debit card. But now I think it might be a lot safer just to use cash!

 

[AnnieO]

Gift cards are like cash, so they do double-check.

Pending means only that... Pending. It will be reversed. I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened to you before!

I have 4 sets of $1 "pending" from my online shopping. They'll go away; if they don't by the end of the week, I'll raise holy heck. But - I've never had one not vanish.

Weird, huh?!

 

[TerryJ2]

I've had that happen before on other payments, but it has been clearly spelled out.

Congrats on finished early! Now you can party.

 

[DammitJanet]

I had that happen when I went to Myrtle Beach to see Terry. Freaked me out too! What really freaked me out was the put a hold for a weird amount. I bought $10 in gas and they put a hold on my account for $16. What sense does that make? I was really upset because I didnt get a receipt too because the machine was on the blink that day...lol. I watched my bank for days and days to see if it would get right when it finally went through and finally when the gas amount was posted to my account it was the correct $10...I was so relieved. Whew.

I have never had a problem with my debit card though. Good thing because I dont think I can get a credit card unless I get a secured one. Its not like anyone could get me for much anyway. I use all my money every month!

 

[Lothlorien]

I've had that happen on several occasions...I always get that "pending" listed on my acct. It' pretty normal. Congrats on getting all your shopping done already. I haven't really started....no extra funds this month. I'm really, really hoping husband gets his bonus and raise this year. I'm sick of being poor.