Digital Art Zone

Hey, every webstore has it’s issues.  To help keep things in perspective, this thread is for “fun” web stories from OTHER sites. 

For example, I spent ten minutes at Smith Micro this morning, entering and re-entering the serial number of my old Poser Pro 2010 so I could get the upgrade while the 60% off coupon was still in effect.  I finally realized that the problem seemed to be that I had started the transaction at Content Paradise, but it had switched me to Smith-Micro but hadn’t turned off the original input on the CP screen, so the one store had locked the other up by running two identical transactions with the same serial… which obviously was triggering a WRONG button somewhere in the system.  Dumb!

But that’s nothing compared to last year, when Amazon somehow reactivated an old internet store I used to have through them using the credit card for my regular account, despite that account having been completely shuttered AND using a different e-mail address and CC. It had been pulling $40 a month out of my account for several months before my wife asked what it was that I kept buying from Amazon every month.  Needless to say, as soon as I called Amazon, they got it fixed in a jiff, but with as much as we buy on Amazon in a month, it could have slipped through for a lot longer…

Anyone else?

I had the same issue with SM.

Okay… I mostly clicked on this when I saw BDSM,,, only problem I had lately was when i ordered Filter Forge and not sure if they double billed me or I had a heavy finger and ordered twice but I got 2 charges on my credit card. When i noticed it the first thing I did was notify my credit card company so they immediately issued me a credit. I then notified Filter Forge (or actually a European company that does their billing). No US telephone contact and just the computer generated response emails but they eventually sent me a credit for one of the charges. So then I re-contacted my credit card company and they billed me to reverse their earlier credit…. so I ended up with 2 billings and 1 credit from Filter Forge and 1 credit and 1 billing from my credit card….. I think it worked out when the smoke cleared.

Okay, my stories really have nothing to do with online purchases or billing, but they may still be somewhat on-topic.

Many moons ago, my ex-wife & I had a store, and we used several distributors for our merchandise (we were carrying role-playing games and related things). Most of our orders were sent C.O.D. One time, after opening an order we had just paid for, I was looking at the invoice, and noticed a rather large charge that I couldn’t identify. So I called the distributor. I was informed that the charge was the balance for the previous order, which they insisted we hadn’t paid. I pointed out that the order had been C.O.D., so if I hadn’t paid the driver, I wouldn’t have been handed the order. They admitted that it was C.O.D., but still insisted that I hadn’t paid, that was why the charge was on the current order. Sigh. I could see it was going to turn out like the Monty Python Argument Sketch, so I quit arguing and hung up. I never ordered more through that distributor, either.

Another time, a few years ago, I got a call from the regional office of a place I had a loan with to inform me that my check had been returned by the bank. The trouble was, I had paid cash, and had the receipt in my hand. The woman informed me that yes, her screen showed that I had paid cash, but it also was showing that it was returned by the bank. What the…? I told her I’d go to the local office and take care of it. The guy at the local office got it straightened out, but it was funny (or frightening, depends on how you look at it) how someone could be looking at the information on their screen and not have it register that there’s a huge contradiction in front of them.