DH unhappy with add on payment error

[mrsminniemouse]

We added on 120 points at SSR during the current promotion. We live in England.

We paid 50% up front as deposit and last week called to say we were ready to pay the remainder. Our guide called on Tuesday night, took my credit card details and said it would be processed on Wednesday.

On Thursday morning our bank calls to say the transaction has failed as Disney did not follow the correct procedures. It seems that Disney should have called ahead to get authorisation on the amount before putting it through. They did not.

So, the bank refuses it and calls us. We say it is ok and contact Disney to re-submit the transaction. Disney put the whole thing through again instead. Because of this the amount (over $5000) is subject to a different exchange rate and it has cost us an extra $140. They should have re-submitted the first transaction which had already had the exchange calculated.

I am not sure if any of this makes sense, I have no knowledge of banking or anything. DH is just annoyed because we lost $140 due to Disney not following the correct procedure in the first place. He is going to contact our guide to see if she will credit us the loss. I doubt they will. Who knows...

Just wanted to vent! BUT I was very excited to get my VWL confirmation today!!

Mandy

 

[CarolMN]

Sorry that happened to you. Seems to me that since Disney made the mistake, they need to make it right. Sounds reasonable to me that Disney should bear any negative impact of their mistake. I think it will all turnout OK.

Best wishes -

 

[Cricket2]

I believe Disney does all their "in country" transactions by ACH. I don't know how they do overseas transactions. All new U.S. ACH transactions are supposed to have what is called a "prenote" item sent at least one day before the actual transaction occurs. It is not required, but it is expected by the financial institution. What that does is allows the institution to check for errors in things like account numbers and to let the sender know if the account really exists or not. Most institutions allow transactions to go through without a prenote if all of the information is correct and the account is in good standing (in this case it sounds like it is).

Without knowing how ACH is handled, or even if they use an ACH transaction system in the UK I don't know who you should blame in this case. If this was a U.S. bank, the bank would be wrong in returning the item in question, but they would be within their rights to do so.

 

[TimmyP]

It sounds like the procedure you're referring to may be that of the credit card company's - not DVCs. I don't know how DVC would have knowledge of this procedure unless you told them prior to processing the charge that they had to call and get authorization first.

Are you sure it was DVC who didn't follow the procedure?

 

[Doctor P]

Cricket,

I don't think that applies to a credit card transaction, though. Credit cards are not processed by ACH typically unless you pay your bill itself electronically. To be perfectly honest, this sounds like it may be partially/wholly the CREDIT CARD company's fault. If it is a question of whether they got a credit card authorization before submitting, then it may be Disney's fault. If it is a question of the amount being a large amount and requiring some special type of authorization due to the credit card company's rules, then the issue is with the credit card company--in this case they should have called the card holder for the authorization (which mine has done several times since we did our basement remodeling via credit card payments to the contractor).

 

[JimMIA]

I would just dispute the $5,000 charge with your credit card company. It is an improper, unauthorized charge, period (or as you would say, full stop!). The issue is not the exchange rate (although you suffered unjustly from that); the issue is not your bank's policies; the issue is not the methodology DVC uses in processing international credit card payments.

The issue is that an unauthorized transaction was processed by DVC in error.

DVC should quickly, and without question, reverse that improper charge...and I'm sure they will.

If they don't, there is a procedure called charge-back for improper transactions. Your credit card company should charge back the improper transaction to Disney and then they can process the correct charge.

There should be zero controversy over this mistake.

 

[Cricket2]

Cricket,

I don't think that applies to a credit card transaction, though.

Correct! I didn't see that part (it's still early for me)

I've never heard of someone having to "authorize" a charge on a card if the funds were available unless it was a debit card or one of the new "Verified By VISA" transactions. We have had numerous people complain about the VBV transactions because they are such a pain for both the merchant and the customer. The fraud intervention system used by your home network could have refused the transaction, but they should have tried to get ahold of you first.

 

[JimMIA]

I think some of you guys are not seeing the forest for the trees.

This is not a system problem. This is a simple screwup. Somebody at Disney made a mistake and double-charged them. The OP just needs to notify Disney of their mistake, and I'm sure they will fall all over themselves fixing it.

If not, she can always dispute the charge - which was improper and NEVER authorized by the cardholder - but I'm sure that will not be necessary.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

Jim,

Seems to be a exchange rate flutuation thing between the failed change due to improper procedure and the later completed charge. I guess the exchange rate would have stayed the same if DVC had re-submitted the charge instead of putting through a new transaction.

It is not a double charge situation.

Mandy,

Good luck. Hope this work out for you. Would DVC be able to reverse the second charge and then re-submit the first?

 

[NJDVCFan]

Sleepy is right. It is an exchange situation, not a double charge. What appears to have happened is that between the initial charge request and the re-submitted charge, the exchange rate changed and it now cost the buyer $140 more than when it was first put through. And actually, from what the OP said, all Disney was to do was re-submit the original information properly, but instead did it as a new transaction with a different exchange rate. That's how I understand this.

 

[CarolA]

I don't see this "double charge" issue. It sounds like only one charge appeared on the CC but was at a higher exchange rate.

I don't know how it works with the OPs bank, but I have recently processed several charges in Europe on my Bank One Visa. To be sure that I did not have problems with "authorization" or "fraud" alerts, I have called Bank One before each of them and informed them that a charge of several thousand Euros, Swiss Francs and or British Pounds was coming and that it was authorized. They can notate your account to make sure the charge processes without error. So far so good.....

 

[BigTigger]

I see this in a different light.

Banks have large credit card frauds happen daily. They can and will refuse a large transaction if they can't verify it. It is the banks right and is in your credit card regulations you agreed to when opening the account. The onus is on the card holder to call and note a large purchase is forthcoming so it can be noted on the account. Did you use the same credit card for the deposit? If so, I'd say the credit card company shares some blame then as they "know" your history with the vendor.

As far as exchange rate, you're buying a USD denominated investment with DVC. DVC needs to get paid in dollars and you bear the brunt of the foreign exchange gain or loss. If you had made $140, i doubt you'd be giving it back to DVC or complaining. Given the pound to dollar rate has strengthened by 15% in the last year, I can't feel that you haven't received value for the investment.

Just my 2 cents (or pence in this case ).

 

[mrsminniemouse]

Hi, OP here.

Sleepy is right, as far as I understand it. We will see what the guide says to DH later.

Yes, bigtigger we have done very well out of the exchange rate recently. It played a major part in our decision to buy DVC. When the rate goes against us a little after a big purchase, we say oh well that happens. You cannot time your purchases on CC to be processed at the optimum rate, it is out of your control. However, in this instance the loss isn't down to the rate changing at the wrong time, it is down to an error I believe.

The card is a Mastercard, we paid the same amount as deposit a couple of weeks before and it went through fine. Disney did something different this time....not sure what. As we only recently got this card (we like it due to good rewards) DH called the company to tell them that the purchase was coming. Plus he has been paying off big purchases immediately so there was credit for this to go through.

Thanks for all the replies. If we dont get the money back, we won't whine, it is a small sum in relation to our purchase of 450 + 120 points. And we have done well with the exchange rate.

Have a great day everyone
Mandy

 

[wtpclc]

I htink kI see Jim MIA's point. The second charge was not authorized. The first one. DVC was authorized to submit the first one and re-submit the first one until it got paid. However, they were not authorized for teh 2nd transaction, which was new. In my mind it's very close to the same thing, but it seems as though Jim is more in the financial world and there is a difference. Seems like a bigger fight than it's worth though and DVC should just be contacted tos ee if they can fix it.

 

[mrsminniemouse]

Hi, OP here again.

Just a quick update to let you all know that DVC are refunding us the money that we paid extra because of their error. It is being credited against our dues next year. We are very pleased with this solution. Good old Disney!

Thanks for all your replies and suggestions.

Mandy

 

[CarolMN]

Thanks for letting us know what happened after you contacted Disney. Good to hear they made it right!

Best wishes -

 

[rocketriter]

A couple of years ago I made an umpteen thousand dollar purchase in Europe on a US VISA. The credit card company simply called me to verify that the charge was legit. When I said it was, they processed it. No fuss. No resubmission. I'm mystified as to why your credit card company didn't do the same for you.

 

[cymomtx]

I don't see this as being a DVC problem. This was a problem between the buyer and their credit card company. How is DVC to know that the credit card company was to require preauthorizaiton? The buyer should know the ins and outs of their credit cards. Also, the buyer is at the mercy of the banking world as to what the exchange rate is on the transaction day, it is not DVC's responsibility to know that one day will be cheaper then the next day as far as rate exchange. That is a risk the buyer takes anytime doing international business exchanges.

 

[mrsminniemouse]

Actually it was Disneys fault and they have admitted it. When they put the transaction through, the machine/ terminal whatever it is called asked then to contact the card issuer for authorisation. Disney did not do this so it was rejected. By the time our bank contacted us and we contacted Disney the exchange rate had changed and we had to pay more. If Disney had done as requested in the first place we would have paid the lower rate.

We have no problem accepting the exchange rate fluctuations, we understand how it works. But it was Disneys error that caused us to pay a higher rate.

Disney have accepted their error and are crediting us the difference.

Thanks for your replies.
Mandy

 

[Dean]

While I see the point and that Disney has reimbursed the difference, I don't see how any business could be responsible for the timing of business charges. Disney frequently does things they don't have to do for customer service and this sounds like one of those times. This happens all the time when the exchange rate comes into the picture. Say you pay for a hotel overseas, train or plane trips, etc. Whether they put it through that day, the next or even several days later will affect the actual cost to the person. In this case the customer knew the difference because it was communicated to them by the CC company.

I don't know how often the business gets the instructions to contact the CC company or what usually happens if they don't. If may be they get it all the time and never contact them and things usually work fine, I just don't know. I'm wonder what would have happened if they had simply resubmitted it on the different day under the old reference number. I am doubting it would have been the old exchange rate on a different day.