Can a site actually charge you, if you never hit 'submit order' or 'place order'??

IAmTheCheapestGamer

IAmTheCheapestGamer

Banned
OK, so maybe I'm too big of a cheapass, but I shopped around for an item for a while and finally found it super cheap. But, before that, I found a site which was supposedly part of the Google Checkout list of merchants, so I tried doing a sign up under one of my parents names to get the $10 off GCO discount.

I went to the final screen before the one where you place your order and the GCO heading showed up and all, but it wasn't discounting the item the $10 off, so I hit back on my browser, went into my cart and removed the item and closed out of the browser window.

I thought nothing of it until I checked my available balance earlier today, to find the charge as 'pending' for $18.90(plus $1 for GCO, which goes back to the card once the order is processed). So basically, I lost about $20 in value on my debit card(it's one of those pre-paid Visa cards) without ever having hit 'place order' or 'submit order'.

Anyone else ever have this happen and how was it resolved and how long did it take?

I'm more than a little perturbed right now, since I'd been very careful to make sure I didn't hit 'place order' or anything.

If anyone is wondering, it was a replacement battery for a cordless phone, which I finally found for UNDER $15 shipped(generic replacement) from another website.

Don't get me wrong, I NEED the replacement battery and I'd have rathered have the first party one, but I am still a cheapass who wanted it for $10-12 MAX shipped.
 
They shouldnt have charged you, since you didnt submit the final order, you were at the second to last screen, where its not supposed to charge you until you hit the final OK TO SUBMIT ORDER finalization page.

The refund should be in your bank within 3-4 days, depending on ur bank.
 
It's not from a bank though, it's one of those pre-paid cards you can buy at a convenience store, it has the Visa logo on it and all but it's not attached to any account of mine.

My one friend got me it for my b-day last month and I've watched how I've been using it, to make sure I'm not getting suckered into any hidden charges or fees or anything.

This still burns my ass though, since the site was the best location I found(at first) for the battery, but given the choice of $18.90(or $8.90 w/GCO) or $11.98 shipped with NO discount, I chose the latter, since as I said they weren't discounting the $10 off for signing up for GCO.

Admittedly, I've been a bit sneaky n used my one friends name and my address to sign up for a second acct and this was my third, using one of my parents names and our address to try and get the $10 off again.

So, maybe they finally caught on? LOL Either way, I'm still perturbed.
 
Regular credit cards let you dispute a charge...I wonder if you have the same ability w/ a visa gift card - it can't hurt to give them a call - should be an 800 number on the back of the card...

BTW - what website was it?
 
That could be, but if it's a different name, I don't see what the big deal would be. I guess it's impossible to believe that 3 people could live at the same address and share a credit/debit card, huh?

Honestly, once I found out that you could possibly do it that way, I figured I'd even use my dads name eventually for a GCO account. LOL But, I didn't wanna get TOO greedy, not like some I'd heard bout on here who used upwards of 10 diff emails to sign up for different GCO accounts.

I just laugh that you can get a new cordless phone for $20-30 and the fuckin battery for it costs almost as much as the damned phone. Ripoff city, if you ask me.
 
[quote name='chrisnsally']Regular credit cards let you dispute a charge...I wonder if you have the same ability w/ a visa gift card - it can't hurt to give them a call - should be an 800 number on the back of the card...

BTW - what website was it?[/quote]

I looked all over for the cordless phone battery and finally found it at totalvac.com. They had the regular brand one for about $11.95, which wasn't bad considering that Radio Shack wants $20 or so online(and off), plus shipping. It came out to the $18.90 total with shipping.

I plan on calling the card company on Monday to dispute it if possible, since this is still bs.
 
BY monday it should be back on the card, didnt know it wasnt an actual card. Did you get any email confirmation or anything saying you bought it?
 
That's another thing, I didn't receive any kind of email saying 'thanks for the order' or anything. I know, as I checked my email I used for the near order, to make sure I wasn't charged.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That's another thing, I didn't receive any kind of email saying 'thanks for the order' or anything. I know, as I checked my email I used for the near order, to make sure I wasn't charged.[/quote]

Um. then im pretty sure thats in some way fraud. You didnt actually purchase the item.

And you never confirmed you wanted to buy it..

So they charged you for an item, no confirmation you bought it, nothing..

Makes you wonder how many others have been screwed like you are getting lol...

I know everytime Ive used sites like Bestbuy, CC, Meijer, Target, Amazon, I always get email confirmation within an hour..
 
[quote name='ralph10']I can't believe i barely found this out.....:cold:[/quote]

I cant believe you asked that even after reading his post..
 
[quote name='Ice2Dragon']I cant believe you asked that even after reading his post..[/quote]"I can't believe it's not butter."
 
[quote name='ralph10']Wait...so you can use those pre paid visa cards to buy things online??[/quote]

Yeah you can, but some count them as debit cards and if they don't take debit cards, then it'll be denied. It happened to me with Family Video's site when I tried ordering Fire Pro Wrestling Returns.

So, there are some drawbacks.
 
OMG!I think I just found out my question with their "error" I get!I have a debit card which is visa and I guess they don't accept debit visa cards?I kept getting an error when i tried buying Jeanne D'arc.This happened with Familyvideo_OMG!
 
I think I know what happened isomewhere on the page maybe after typing something you accidently hit ENTER.Enter on most sites is the same as clicking on Finalize order.
 
I don't think I did, kingofthenet, but if I did, I guess I'm stuck then. I know I'm stuck until at LEAST Monday when their CS people are available, same thing for the prepaid Visa people.

I'm gonna call their 800 # and see if I can't dispute it at least.
 
Dude i use prepaid cc's all the time and ive always had the refund credit back by 7 days later. If it says pending you didnt get charged its just a hold. Unless they actaully charge you chill.

cheers,
Mike
 
I actually got mine as a gift from a friend, who bought it from a local gas station. They still charge you about $5-6 for the card itself on TOP of the value on the card, but it's worth it from this company, since they don't seem to charge you a monthly fee(which the others do).

If you want to check into it and possibly email them as to where to find their cards, here's the site to go to: www.vanillavisa.com

If there's no place around you that sells the cards, I'm sure the company could work out some arrangement.
 
I get mine for free with no fee but its a secret... no ill tell you this only applies to cags in the NE but if you have a commerce bank nearby and are an account holder...
 
OK.....

This is completely annoying me now. I have to wait 7 days for the charge to be reversed possibly and the money to go back on my card.

The people at the website have NO record of me or the transaction, so hopefully that means I'll get the $$$ back on the card.

If it doesn't go back on the card 7 days from now, then I'll have to call the card company again.

This is ridiculous though.
 
Actually it's called a 'Vanilla Visa' and there's no charge over the pending ones(unless using GCO, in which case there's a $1 charge) and NO monthly maintenance fees that I saw when I picked it out.

The only charge that was added to the card was a $5.95 charge for the card itself, which is cheaper than any of the other pre-paid ones I've seen.
 
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