Vince authorizing cc's without info??

Robyn Loraine

Member
Jan 14, 2010
1,254
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So I tried to place an order on Vince.com to get the $125 off $500 deal. When I first tried to place it I had accidentally typed in my cc's expiration date wrong so it didn't go through and the site said "card not authorized" but low and behold they DID authorize my card so when I went to try again it didn't work because I didn't have the funds on my card. Now I have $409 held up on my cc for nothing!! I sent them an email because now this means I not only have this pending charge but I can't get my items with the deal because it ends tonight! Has anyone else ever had anything like this happen??
 
They may just have a merchant hold on your funds that will clear up in 5 business days or so; it happens when a card is tried, but then declined. You can try calling your CC company to see what they say about releasing the hold, but your CC company may tell you to call the merchant and get them to release the hold.
 
I think the merchant needs to fix this but I'm not sure if front line CS people can do it. I had a similar problem with an online merchant who was able to help me with it. Basically what happened was their cc processor ok'd the charge - creating the first authorization - but the gateway for the website rejected it because of wrong zip code. They were able to call the processor and get them to manually reverse the first authorization and it showed up in minutes. The person I was talking to was essentially the head of their IT so you'd need to get to someone upper level to get it fixed.
 
UPDATE: I was able to get my bank to drop the charge, since there was no order made and I would not be receiving any merchandise. HOWEVER, Vince.com got back to my message (which I just reread to see if I'd been particularly rude) and they are being VERY unhelpful. I feel like because it was their system sending out an erroneous pending charge (since they did not even have my correct expiration date! I've never had a company actually AUTHORIZE the card if I typed something in wrong) that made it so I couldn't complete my order they should do something about it. Does that sound unfair? I'm not even demanding anything special, I just want to be able to have the order I should have been able to place last night if their system hadn't sent out an erroneous charge.
 
UPDATE: I was able to get my bank to drop the charge, since there was no order made and I would not be receiving any merchandise. HOWEVER, Vince.com got back to my message (which I just reread to see if I'd been particularly rude) and they are being VERY unhelpful. I feel like because it was their system sending out an erroneous pending charge (since they did not even have my correct expiration date! I've never had a company actually AUTHORIZE the card if I typed something in wrong) that made it so I couldn't complete my order they should do something about it. Does that sound unfair? I'm not even demanding anything special, I just want to be able to have the order I should have been able to place last night if their system hadn't sent out an erroneous charge.

This happens a lot more than you think though. Oftentimes, if the card number is right but something else is off, billing zip code, CID, exp. date, the charge will act like it went through, but really didn't. It creates a temporary hold on the funds (which is annoying), but since you never ultimately get charged for it, it's not really "authorized." This is why a lot of retailers warn you not to shop with debit cards because a hold will act as if the funds are not available, even if they really are.
 
This happens a lot more than you think though. Oftentimes, if the card number is right but something else is off, billing zip code, CID, exp. date, the charge will act like it went through, but really didn't. It creates a temporary hold on the funds (which is annoying), but since you never ultimately get charged for it, it's not really "authorized." This is why a lot of retailers warn you not to shop with debit cards because a hold will act as if the funds are not available, even if they really are.
That's weird because when I called my bank they said it had been authorized. And I used a cc, not a debit card. :s When I spoke with my bank they were really surprised that Vince was able to put the charge through like that without the information, or that they even would have. However, the thing that bothers me is that I couldn't complete my order and now I can't use the promo because they were holding my funds all night.
 
That's weird because when I called my bank they said it had been authorized. And I used a cc, not a debit card. :s When I spoke with my bank they were really surprised that Vince was able to put the charge through like that without the information, or that they even would have. However, the thing that bothers me is that I couldn't complete my order and now I can't use the promo because they were holding my funds all night.

Were you really close to your CC's limit then? Otherwise, I don't understand why having one $500 charge pending would affect whether you could have a second charge go through, unless you were near your credit limit or something...
 
Were you really close to your CC's limit then? Otherwise, I don't understand why having one $500 charge pending would affect whether you could have a second charge go through, unless you were near your credit limit or something...

I agree...

Vince's system is electronic... Things will get authorized but it doesn't mean that funds were taken until they can confirm this which often takes another day to process. If you weren't sure, a tip for the future is to just call your credit card company and ask about the transaction. Especially if you don't shop online frequently, your CC company often will decline the transaction automatically. So whether it was for fraud protection or your mistake of typing in the wrong info, you MUST call them either way to release the hold. It takes just a few minutes, and then you just re-purchase the items online which would've allowed you to get your 125$ :yes:
 
I agree...

Vince's system is electronic... Things will get authorized but it doesn't mean that funds were taken until they can confirm this which often takes another day to process. If you weren't sure, a tip for the future is to just call your credit card company and ask about the transaction. Especially if you don't shop online frequently, your CC company often will decline the transaction automatically. So whether it was for fraud protection or your mistake of typing in the wrong info, you MUST call them either way to release the hold. It takes just a few minutes, and then you just re-purchase the items online which would've allowed you to get your 125$ :yes:
Unfortunately for me it was after 8pm when I went to make the purchase so I couldn't have contacted my cc company or Vince. :C That's why I'd hoped Vince would have at least tried to work with me with the error but they have not responded past the first snarky email. I may try calling them but I really love this brand and am not sure I want to have a bad impression of them haha.

Btw in regards to what Morisa said, I have a pretty low limit cc because I like to just use it to make a couple big purchases and then pay them off. So with another couple charges I had on it two charges of $409 put it over the limit.
 
The credit card company is available 24 hours I think, so maybe they would be able to have released the hold.

And Vince's computer would have no way to know you put the wrong number in. They just run it through, and it automatically puts the hold on the funds. It was then rejected from the bank when the numbers didn't match up. Vince can only run it through with the info you give them.

Maybe Vince will honor the sale if you call or email their corporate. The hold isn't their fault, as it's all automated instantly but if you are a frequent customer, hopefully they'll work with you.
 
The credit card company is available 24 hours I think, so maybe they would be able to have released the hold.

And Vince's computer would have no way to know you put the wrong number in. They just run it through, and it automatically puts the hold on the funds. It was then rejected from the bank when the numbers didn't match up. Vince can only run it through with the info you give them.

Maybe Vince will honor the sale if you call or email their corporate. The hold isn't their fault, as it's all automated instantly but if you are a frequent customer, hopefully they'll work with you.
My credit card company is not 24 hours except in the case where a card is stolen. I have a military cc company, not a big bank.

I understand the system wouldn't know, but then I don't know how they were able to actually put the hold on the funds if the bank rejected them (oddly my debit card has never had this issue!). My bank was equally confused as to how they did that when I called them today. It was just a strange glitch I think.

I'm trying to ask them but they are being fairly unresponsive over email so I may need to call. It's just they happen to have an item I want that is sold out everywhere else in my size in the color I want so I really wanted to use that promo on it. I'm a frequent customer of their brand (I have tons of Vince clothing) but I've only ordered from their official site a couple of times. So who knows what will happen!
 
My credit card company is not 24 hours except in the case where a card is stolen. I have a military cc company, not a big bank.

I understand the system wouldn't know, but then I don't know how they were able to actually put the hold on the funds if the bank rejected them (oddly my debit card has never had this issue!). My bank was equally confused as to how they did that when I called them today. It was just a strange glitch I think.

I'm trying to ask them but they are being fairly unresponsive over email so I may need to call. It's just they happen to have an item I want that is sold out everywhere else in my size in the color I want so I really wanted to use that promo on it. I'm a frequent customer of their brand (I have tons of Vince clothing) but I've only ordered from their official site a couple of times. So who knows what will happen!

I'm not sure what you mean here, but it's because your bank rejected the transaction or held your money that caused Vince's system to put a hold on theirs as well. Not the other way around...
 
Btw in regards to what Morisa said, I have a pretty low limit cc because I like to just use it to make a couple big purchases and then pay them off. So with another couple charges I had on it two charges of $409 put it over the limit.

OP i'm sorry that you are being questioned. You don't have to defend yourself, your credit card limits, bank limits, and/or financial info. It isn't any of our business. But to get to the point of your posts, i think a company with good customer service would and should honor the same deal. I like Vince and know it was an error on your end but it was a simple mistake and will it kill them to honor the order a day later? No. And by not doing it they risk losing a good customer. Seriously what would it matter to them... They can see your entire order in their system and can see on the back end that the expiration was entered incorrectly. There is no need for them to be snarky in their emails to you either. I think a good company would fix it. This happened once to me with NM. I ordered DH a Gucci wallet. They asked for a daytime phone number separately from the billing info so i put it my work number. Well my order was cancelled because it wasn't my billing phone number. But they didn't cancel it until the next day and it was a one day sale. I finally got them to honor it but only after pitching a total fit...
 
OP i'm sorry that you are being questioned. You don't have to defend yourself, your credit card limits, bank limits, and/or financial info. It isn't any of our business. But to get to the point of your posts, i think a company with good customer service would and should honor the same deal. I like Vince and know it was an error on your end but it was a simple mistake and will it kill them to honor the order a day later? No. And by not doing it they risk losing a good customer. Seriously what would it matter to them... They can see your entire order in their system and can see on the back end that the expiration was entered incorrectly. There is no need for them to be snarky in their emails to you either. I think a good company would fix it. This happened once to me with NM. I ordered DH a Gucci wallet. They asked for a daytime phone number separately from the billing info so i put it my work number. Well my order was cancelled because it wasn't my billing phone number. But they didn't cancel it until the next day and it was a one day sale. I finally got them to honor it but only after pitching a total fit...
Thank you for your kind and thoughtful message! I'm glad you were able to get NM to work with you in a similar situation. However, with Vince they are not responding to me at all. I'm considering calling them but since they have been ignoring all of my emails I'm starting to wonder if they will ever listen to me. And the longer I wait I think the less likely they will match it, which seems crazy to me because who wouldn't someone to buy $409 worth of their merchandise?? As a loyal fan of Vince's clothing line this whole mess has made me kind of upset at the brand. I love Vince but I wish their cs was more responsive. Even if they absolutely could not match the promo for me I'd at least like them to tell me that rather than getting the silent treatment...
 
Thank you for your kind and thoughtful message! I'm glad you were able to get NM to work with you in a similar situation. However, with Vince they are not responding to me at all. I'm considering calling them but since they have been ignoring all of my emails I'm starting to wonder if they will ever listen to me. And the longer I wait I think the less likely they will match it, which seems crazy to me because who wouldn't someone to buy $409 worth of their merchandise?? As a loyal fan of Vince's clothing line this whole mess has made me kind of upset at the brand. I love Vince but I wish their cs was more responsive. Even if they absolutely could not match the promo for me I'd at least like them to tell me that rather than getting the silent treatment...

i totally would call them.