I have a Visa card that I use only when I am on business. The idea being that all charges on that card are business related and are therefore re-paid by clients. As such I am forced to on a regular basis walk through all the transactions, ensure I have the appropriate documentation, submit it to the appropriate parties so that I get the money back. I say forced because I really hate doing expenses, so much so that I will avoid it as much as humanly possible.
I have been traveling for work a fair bit lately, and two months of expenses have piled up. Begrudgingly, I sit down to do my expenses. All the transactions are fine, except for two, one on each month for $6.79 cents from a company called clickandbuy.com. Not a company I have dealt with. I go to the clickandbuy.com website. In the FAQ section I find an entry describing my problem. In order to contact them electronically, I have to register first, giving them a bunch of information I don’t want to give them. The fact is they probably already have the information from whatever method they obtained my credit card information, but I don’t want to confirm it, I don’t want to be their customer. There is a long distance number I can call if I want a person directly, no toll free number.
Next, I call my Visa company. I get the standard series of endless automated prompts. Eventually I get an option for customers that wish to discuss specific charges on their account. Selecting that option the first thing the recording system tells me is (paraphrased): If the charge in question is related to an internet transaction, please contact the vendor to resolve the charge. If I still have trouble, I can work with them because after 45 days the transaction is my responsibility. I wait on the line. Next I receive a message that they are not open right now and to call back during ‘normal business hours’, which they don’t provide.
At this point I have spent approximately 30 minutes, dealing with two transactions worth $13.58 on my weekend. I am mad at clickandbuy.com and I am furious with my Visa company. How dare they waste my time. How dare they permit a charge to be placed on my card, then make it inconvenient for me to discuss and dispute the charge they put on a card I did not authorize (at least not knowingly). The question becomes, how do I save my time? I call my Visa company back up select the ‘report a lost or stolen Visa’ option. I immediately get a person, who is very helpful and I have a new card coming to me in a few days.
Why did I do this? Well this happened to my wife about a year ago and experience is a good teacher. Different financial institution, different scummy vendor. We spent hours of time and frustration on the phone, email, filling out forms, responding to voice mails, waiting on the phone in queues. Not worth it. And since the Visa companies value the merchant and their time more than their customers and my time (this is obvious by their actions), I can play that game too. In five days it will be all fixed, minimal time lost and stress induced for me.
End result is that scummy ClickandBuy.com, obtained $13.58 from me due to the despicable and scummy business practices they employ — you are welcome Clickandbuy.com. $13.58 vs. calling my Visa company repeatedly, having to fight with them, then having them send me forms via snail mail, which I have to fill out, return via snail mail or fax, then wait for the to investigate and decide, easy choice.
As for the company who provides me the Visa, I will receive a new one next week. I may not activate it however. I am going to look around, maybe select a new provider. Sure they will probably be the similar with rules as my current Visa company when it comes to despicable companies like clickandbuy.com. My Visa company is big and I am just a tiny little single customer. But I will do it on principle. I highly recommend that everyone that has a problem like this to just call in and report your card lost. They have to terminate the card, they have no choice. They are obviously trying to push the Internet purchasing problem off to their customers rather than come up with a solution. This makes it their problem again, which is where the problem is and should be.
