Online Payments to O2

Snowedunder

Can anyone help with information on how payments are processed.


If you make an online payment giving your card and the 3 digit security number, which is then 'verified by Visa' and marked as payment successful, how is this then processed.


For instance I made the payment, received a payment reference number, and there was on this date and forward plenty of available credit in my bank account, however the payment was not made.


O2 are blaming my bank, but my bank are saying that at a later date when the payment was being processed by O2 the 3 digit security number was entered (by o2) incorrectly and the payment was therefore refused.


I am being told that as all this is now automated and 'untouched by human hand' it is I and not O2 who entered the number incorrectly, despite it being 'verified by Visa'.


Has anyone any knowledge of the actual process that happens when an online payment is made which may throw light on this problem.


Because I was away from home and internet contact during this period O2 have terminated my Contract and are requiring full payment of the balance. Online payment was made on 9th December (due date). Phone was suspended for 2 weeks, then Terminated over this last weekend.


I have never had problems previously when making the types of payments, and no previous problems or outstanding payments to O2.


O2 Forum seem to be going along the lines that this is all my fault, and I would therefore be interested if anyone has actual knowledge of procedures and if it is truly 'untouched by human hand'.

Collabora

normally these can be done automatically, but that's depending on who and which payment processor is being used. I have online businesses and i the processors i use deal with all payments so i never get to see or store card numbers, but you can have payment providers where after you ad the card details they are sent securely to the retailer who manually processes the payment. I dont think a company of o2 size would manually process payments online

[Deleted User]

Snowedunder - I can't understand the O2 forum users suggesting that it is your fault if as you say you entered all the details correctly and got as far as the Verified by Visa pane (which checks that the transaction is genuine at your end).

If the 3 digit security number is entered incorrectly the transaction should not proceed any further and you would not then get the transaction successful message by VBV or the merchant concerned, unless there was something very seriously wrong online and that would be beyond your control.

Snowedunder

Thank you.


I actually have it in an e-mail from 02 that the process was confirmed by 'Verified by Visa' and I had a payment receipt number. Their e mail goes on to state that the error must be with me or my bank.


Oh well, it was indeed a quiet Christmas, with 3 children, 12 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren who I was NOT able to speak to................ thanks O2 - whoevers' fault it was I can never get those days back again!

[Deleted User]

Clearly - someone at O2 does not know what they are talking about - I wonder where they get them from, certainly not the school of common sense!

Techhead_2

Deleted_User wrote: »

Clearly - someone at O2 does not know what they are talking about - I wonder where they get them from, certainly not the school of common sense!

I don't understand your post, the payment was "verified by visa" and a payment reference issued. Subsequently, O2 did not receive the payment and the OP's account was not debited.

To me that sounds very much like a problem with the bank (assuming the OP is correct that their cleared balance was sufficient ) and the coincidence that it happened when the OP was away.

The other potential issue is that the OP paid the bill on the date it was due, rather than a couple of days earlier to allow funds to reach the account by the due date. if the OP habitually pays on the due date then there will be a history of payments reaching the account a few days after the due date. This would explain why the account was terminated as O2 will not normally do this for a failed payment, only if there is a history.

The OP was out of contact for at least two weeks. Personally, I would not leave my affairs unsupervised for that long and it's unfortunate that it coincided with a payment mistake.

Collabora

sometimes their is a delay on the suppliers bank claiming the funds from your bank, could it not just be this

Snowedunder

I have posted on the 02 site the record online at o2 of my payments - all by DD and all paid on time. I was changing the DD to another account hence the recommendation to pay the next due payment online as the DD would not be set up in time.


I do not have many 'affairs' to manage being a state pensioner and this was the only bill to be paid manually. In this day and age most people cannot bear to be 'offline' for more than a few hours, but in the 'olden days' it was given than you prepared your 'affairs' in a manner which could stand the test of time.


Just like everything else, the internet is, in some cases a wonderful thing and as I left home without sufficient funds to pay the bill early, I was quite happy to wait a week into my trip and pay online. However, I need to get to the bottom of what has happened.


I have been torn to pieces on the o2 thread already, just for being old and dependant on a weekly state pension income.


My original question is - does anyone actually have helpful information as to what the procedure is once a payment is made online and accepted, surely the wonderful online world is not infallible, so what I need to know is, who actually could have made the error - 'if' I made an error inputing the 3 digit security code why was this not picked up by 'verified by Visa'. With whatever information they have, the bank assure me that they can see the information input by me was correct, but was later input incorrectly. It has nothing to do with dates, this account has been paid by DD for over 12 months.


I am happy that I have handled my accounts with 02 perfectly giving them no reason to treat me like this.


Thank you to those who have tried to help with the original question, and I would truly appreciate any further constructive information as what might, or could have gone wrong. If it is possible that I made some kind of mistake, why was this not picked up by 'verified by visa', oh just one last thing, there was sufficient funds available from the date of payment ongoing to the present time.

Armorica

Best way forward is to try to get something in writing from your bank that says that o2/o2's processor screwed up.

This kind of stuff is almost always automated - especially for companies the size of o2. There could have been an error or something in the process that required manual entry as a one-off though, or some form of data corruption.

The bit where I'm particularly confused tho, is that I'm not sure the verified by visa bit is actually run on the merchant's server. I thought it is run across visa/card issuer systems, so o2 wouldn't have the number. Hmm, or perhaps your/your banks description is confused!

The 3 digit number is handled by the merchant/their card processor on their servers. The separate verified by visa doesn't ask for the three digit number on the back of your card, but three characters from a passcode (not from the back of your card) and I think is run across visa/your bank's server.

From your description, I'm left confused whether it was the o2 page/ CSV from back of card or the separate verified by visa/three characters from a passcode where the problem occured. [Or rather, VbV only asked for the CSV at initial registration, not for use of the service after that]

With o2, try speaking to http://www.consumerdeals.co.uk/o2contact.html
Finance/Payments Dept: 0870 220 3299 who are most likely to have a clue.