I rarely use a credit card to make online purchases. Purchasing my 20D is the first really big online purchase I've made. Thanks to a combination of an idiotic credit card customer service rep and moronic Costco.com customer service rep., I've spent the last 4 hours trying to clean up this crazy mess over a mere $214!
Oh, the camera purchase went thru with a breeze, THANK GOD. That didn't go thru until 9pm this evening, central time. At that time, I was on the phone with the credit card company and he verified that for me.
Anyhow, here's what happened,...
I got home and checked my email to find that Costco.com had cancelled my order for the 2 memory cards I ordered thru them Monday nite. Why they cancel? They didn't say on the email but suggested I call to find out. I called and was told that they weren't sure why the credit card company didn't allow the purchase. They told me to call the CC company.
Fine. I did that. I called the CC company and was told by that customer service that the purchase was denied because I was being required to do a "random identity verification required by VISA" where I had to "...go to a store, make a purchase, any purchase,...any store,...and show my driver's license so that we will know you are the original owner of the card."
Um,....WHAT? Is this because I tried to make a purchase online? They told me it wasn't, this was just a "random identity verification check required by VISA."
Now, I know that credit card companies and payment processors these days are trying to be more preventive towards identity theft these days but this "procedure" sounded like crap to me. First, they wanted me to leave NOW and make a purchase, with this credit card, so it would show up on their system that I am who I say I am. Excuse me but THAT IS INCONVIENCING ME if I'm making an online purchase! The whole point to online purchasing is to either save money or NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE TO MAKE THE PURCHASE!
The rep was pretty firm about this and I hung up in disgust. I then, called VISA themselves and talked to a rep there to find out if this was, in fact, a requirement they made of their customers who use their service. The first rep transferred me to her supervisor because she had never heard of this procedure. Her supervisor told me he had never heard of this procedure. He explained that there are other ways for the credit card processors to verify your identity. I know this because,...I work for a payment processor (Visa is actually our competition in some areas) and I'm familiar with the procedures he described. He suggested I call the CC company back and ask for a supervisor to clarify what was really going on.
I called back again and got a supervisor (after much arguing over the phone with another rep,...grrrrrrr!). I was given the SAME BULLSHIT PROCEDURE and when I mentioned that I called VISA themselves and they said they have NO SUCH PROCEDURE for a customer's identity, I was put on hold while the supervisor went to speak to someone else about this.
Well, after 3 minutes, they now tell me that it's Costco.com's processor that is requiring this identity check, not USBank (the CC bank). At that point, I didn't bother asking them to tell me who the processor was, I was so disgusted with their way of handling this mess. I said I would call Costco.com and find out. I also would definitely reconsider cancelling this account I have with USBank since they weren't doing their job of helping me with this transaction. They have all my information, which matches the information I gave Costco.com. Did they bother to call me to verify that I had made these purchases online when Costco's processor had a problem with it? NO.
By the time I called Costco.com's customer service again, it was closed for the day. Tomorrow, when I get to work, I am going to find out if Costco.com is a client of ours. Then I am going to call our Risk Management department and ask them if this type of identity verification procedure is something that we do, as a processor. VISA had said that another way an online merchant can verify that you are the cardholder is to ask for the CVV#. Those are the last 3 digits on the back of the credit card, usually on the signature strip,...it will list your credit card number, then 3 additional numbers. With a lot of these online phishing scams, they generally only have just the credit card number, cardholder name and experation date. I'm sure that phishing scammers are also trying to get the CVV#'s now and I highly suggest you NEVER EVER GIVE THOSE 3 NUMBERS to anyone that asks you in an email, especially if it's to verify your credit card,...it should only be asked of you at the time of purchase. When I ordered my camera, Dell.com required I give the CVV# before I could put the purchase thru. Costco.com did not. This is probably why the camera purchase went thru,...and it's a $1600 purchase.
So why am I going thru all this trouble for a mere $214? Why don't I put it on another credit card? Because, this is a stupid Northwest Worldperks credit card and I get frequent flyer mileage outta it. With this purchase, I'm close to getting another free domestic roundtrip ticket. Every dollar counts and I want those damn miles!
When I call Costco.com tomorrow to find out who their processor is,
Posted by nikita at September 28, 2004 10:51 PM