Card payment problem.

fedupwiththeworry

Hi Everyone,

Previously had a problem using a Solo card at our local shop whereby Natwest/Streamline took a duplicate payment sometime after the original payment had gone through. The threads here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2134661

Anyhow that was resolved in that we got the money & charges repaid by the shop out of goodwill because the manager couldn't get to the bottom of who was a fault. There have also been problems with the card payment being rejected by the till machine even though we knew the money was there and upon trying again the payment went through but upon checking online upon returning home sometimes the bank would have taken 2 payments, one for the rejected and one for the authorised payment. The rejected payment would then be credited back into the account a one to two days later, unless it was a weekend when it would take longer.

Anyway the bank card has since been upgraded to a Visa Debit and there's been no further problems until today when we had very limited funds available so were VERY careful with what we were buying. Lo and behold the payment was rejected on 1st try and we had a horrible feeling it would have taken the spare money we had and yes upon trying again it was rejected yet again. We then had the embarresement of having to call the manager who basically stated we were the only one's with this issue and we should draw cash and use that etc etc. Basically as you have to draw out on £10's and we only had £12.00 odd available and needed £11.00 odd in shopping it couldn't be done.

What I'm interested in knowing is from anyone techie is to how this could actually happen, the card machine must check your balance, so if it rejects it wrongly how can it take the money anyway ?

The broadband the card machine connects on has a pretty slow connection I'm told and I'm wondering if it's possible that it checks the funds are there so takes the money, then there's some sort of slow down/interuption on the line and it declines on the machine but has already taken the money from the bank.

Does that sound feasible or if someone else has any ideas it would be appreciated so we can go back to the manager and have a word. At the moment he thinks it just us and something to do with our account :mad: I think it could be happening to others but unless you're on a tight budget and/or check your account on a regular basis maybe it goes un-noticed because the money is back in the account again and as far as Natwests online banking system goes you wouldn't have even known it had come out because the original transaction vanishes.

Sorry for the waffle, but hoping someone will have some ideas. :T

PNPSUKNET

I would say its possible, like a timeout issue. maybe best to complain to natpest but dont hold out

fedupwiththeworry

Thanks for your reply.
Spoke to Natwest yesterday and they said there was nothing wrong with the card and confirmed the funds were there so should have gone through OK.
It's got to be something to do with the machine/connection in the shop, would just like to understand from "someone in the know" what is happening so we can approach the shop manager with facts rather than guesswork.
Still not be re-credited by the way.