Things Not to Do during the Holiday Season Chapter 3 (this one gets a whole chapter to itself). DO NOT EVER order gifts online with the last of what you have on your debit card.. Wednesday evening, I ordered gifts from Walmart.. (it may come as a surprise to many of you that I do not roll in money, I struggle very hard for what I have) Apparently, Walmarts computer decided to have a hairy flipout, and after it approved my purchase, and removed the money from my debit card.. it cancelled the purchase ten minutes later... This was their email response to my inquiry.. (I omitted the signature of the representative, as it is not their fault and they deserve their privacy) Response email (12/19/2014 04:28 PM) Hi Nancy, Thank you for contacting us. We’re sorry your order was canceled. Unfortunately, your order did not pass some of our security checks during processing. These checks prevent unauthorized use of your credit or debit card. We cannot accept your online order at this time, but you may purchase this product at your local Walmart store if it is available. Please reach out to your store to confirm if inventory is available. Because your order was canceled, your bank will remove the authorization hold on your card. If it is not removed within 7 days, please contact your financial institution about their authorization policy as Walmart does not control the actual removal on your card. If you have additional questions, please reply to this email or call us at 1-800-966-6546. __________________________________________________________________ In actuality.. the policy for a hold on my debit card is 10 days.. not 7.. which means ALL of my money is locked up, and no gifts are being delivered... THIS was my response to the above email: Vixen 10:40 PM (14 hours ago) to Walmart Good Evening, I just received your response and thank you for the attention paid to this, however, I find it totally and completely unacceptable, not to mention unethical. Today, I spent 8 hours on the phone between Walmart and my bank, trying to fix this, as it was NOT an error on my part.. this cancellation was initiated by Walmart, and NO contact was attempted to see if it was a security breach, OR if it was indeed me (which it was). As a result of this fiasco, my kids are not going to have a Christmas, and I am BEYOND livid at this point. My card company keeps the pending hold until it expires (10 days).. they cannot release the hold without written permission from Walmart itself. (which I spent more then half of that 8 hours on the phone with today.) They literally have to hand enter the information from the vendor in order to release the hold. After sitting on hold with Walmart not once, not twice, but SIX times for over an hour ONLY to be disconnected on two of those calls, I finally reached a young woman who was concerned enough to forward the information to billing to have the hold released. I am completely serious when I say that IF this money is not back on my card before Christmas, my family, are not getting gifts, as that was ALL I had.. I am a single mother with very limited resources.. and honestly, I have reached out to local news for help with this matter, to at least do an article warning consumers that this can happen. I Hope you have a great holiday, and this is nothing personal, but again, if this is not rectified quickly, I have no issues bringing the wrath of hard working people through utilization of the press. Nancy A Planeta ____________________________________________________________________ This was the response I received back: Response email (12/19/2014 04:54 PM) Hi Nancy, Thank you for contacting us. We are so sorry for this. We are going to consider your case. Please forgive us for this. We want to improve a lot and provide the customer the best service. Again we apologize for all the bad experiences you had. We do hope you get your money back on time. Thank you for your understanding and your patient with us. If you have additional questions, please reply to this email and well be happy to assist. ____________________________________________________________________ My response again: Customer email (12/19/2014 07:22 PM) Again, thank you for the response, but actions speak MUCH louder then words. ____________________________________________________________________ Merry Christmas??? Or How to ruin someones Christmas with an overzealous security checking computer that doesnt have a system to even attempt to verify with the purchaser if it is a breach at all.. BE warned everyone.. When a vendor cancels an order, it LOCKS the money up for up to ten days...even if the error is on their end... Between Walmart and my card company, you are talking two HUGE corporations who have no problems with money.. yet between the two of them, NO one could figure out how to get MY money back to me before the ten day expiration...
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 13:20:57 +0000