3V.ie - Barclays - failed security check

Amalgam

I tried to purchase thermal printing equipment from an established UK retailer this morning.

Barclays handles the E Commerce side of things for their site. I ordered.. then was told the order had not gone through, to quote a Ref. number to the retailer and that my card had not been charged.

When I logged into my 3V account, my card had been charged.

I contacted the Retailer and we had a chat online. He requested a manual security check from Barclays, where they charge you a penny\cent to check the account, that went through, I told the Retailer that, but the test was still seen as a failure by Barclays.

If I am sent an email stating that my card has not been charged, but that in fact it has, where does that leave me, who do I approach, 3V, Barclays, the Retailer..

I am just flabbergasted at the situation, trying to contact 3V is like shouting down a well lately, they now state it takes up 48 hours for s response.

Has anyone else been in a situation where a perfectly valid 3V card has failed a 'security' check by the likes of Barclays?

Can a 3V be refunded or restocked, is there a charge for doing so?

jor el

What's probably happened, is they issued a check on your account, which put a hold on the funds, this is what's showing up when you checked it online. This usually takes about 3 days to clear off your account, which is little short of a con by the banks as they're perfectly capable of applying the amount immediately, but somehow it takes 3 days to take it off. Anyway, that's probably the case.

If the credit check went through, there's no real reason why they shouldn't have gone through with the sale, so that's a strange one.

Contact 3V, and ask if they have any detail on why it failed. Sometimes it's because of a tiny detail missing, or incorrect (like postcode). They should be able to tell you if they were the ones who declined it or not.

If 3V didn't decline, then Barclays are doing something strange, and there's probably not a lot you can do about that. Maybe try an alternate means of paying, like Paypal, or post a Bank draft.

Amalgam

Hey jor el, you were spot on, the funds are blocked, with maybe 7 or 10 days to go..

Here's the 3V reply, edited to keep some details private.

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Dear -,


I believe you are referring to the transaction with the merchant ***
from the **/06/09 to the amount of EUR **.** and the authorization code ***.

The merchant has requested authorization for this amount, and as such
the funds are blocked. However, the merchant has not - as of yet - settled to the amount.

Here some general information to explain the difference between blocked
funds and settled funds:
Merchants reserve funds on credit or debit cards so that, while the
merchant prepares the order for dispatch,
the funds are not available to the cardholder to spend. Normally, the
transaction is settled when the order is
dispatched. However, if an order is cancelled, the funds are
automatically released within 7 to 10 days of the
original transaction and the available balance on your 3V Voucher
increases accordingly. This is standard
procedure for all VISA credit and debit cards.

In order for us to reverse this authorization requests before this 7 to
10 day period, we need a letter from this
merchant confirming that they will not request payment for this
transaction. If they fax us a signed letter,
with the company's letterhead, stating that the company will not be
requesting payment for this transaction,
quoting the authorization code, customer VISA number, and a telephone
and a name of a person we can
contact to confirm details, we can arrange for the authorization
requests to be canceled, and the available
balance on your VISA number will increase accordingly.

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