BA's additional 'Pending transaction'

A_Scott

I recently bought x3 tickets from BA online for £4,893.45 on my credit card this showed up on my Barclaycard on the 24th Oct. However 2 days later my credit card (£9 limit) was frozen on Paypal and when my wife was out shopping, it was declined.

I phoned Barclaycard and looked on line and saw a secondary sum in the column 'pending transactions' for £4,894.28. To BA. (it is 83p different)

I spoke to BA customer services they said not to worry as it will come off the statement, but they missed the point that i had to transfer money from my ISA to pay my card off in order to free up my limit. I paid a fee to BA to pay by credit card, but ended up paying upfront now.
I cannot put that money back in the ISA now.....

After an hour with BA customer services, they told me i should be speaking with customer relations.
After an hour phone call i was told that it is not a BA issue and that i must have clicked on the booking twice. This is not the case, plus as mentioned the amounts are 83p out.

I want BA to refund my credit card booking fee, they refused saying that it goes to Barclaycard anyway - not the point i still paid it to them. No one could really explain where this 'pending transaction' came from. It finally disappeared after 4-5 days.

Plus i want an apology for their error on this 'ghost' pending transaction that took me to nearly 12k on my credit card. It is embarrassing being in shopping when cards are declined and there is a a full grocery load at the checkout. Plus i missed out on an eBay purchase due to PayPal being blocked.

I want BA to acknowledge the mistake, offer an apology and a small compensation, but no they say i was at fault for this double amount ????? I am a customer paying a fair amount to travel and they can't be bothered to reply to e-mails or put you through to the correct departments to discuss the matter.

Any advice would be welcome on this.

Voyager2002

I have to say, someone who tells us that he spent nearly five thousand pounds on a card with a nine pound limit has probably got a few more details wrong. So it is difficult to say anything constructive.

BA customer service is dreadful, and there is nothing unusual about your experience.

dickydonkin

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I have to say, someone who tells us that he spent nearly five thousand pounds on a card with a nine pound limit has probably got a few more details wrong. So it is difficult to say anything constructive.

BA customer service is dreadful, and there is nothing unusual about your experience.

I wonder if the £9 was the remaining limit on the card following the purchase of the tickets.

The interest lost on the funds taken from the isa will likely be less than the interest fees you would have paid on the CC balance.

In your situation, I would just pay into a bank account what you would have repaid on your credit card and repay it into your isa in the new tax year.

I have to agree that BA customer services are absolutely abysmal and I would suggest you recalibrate your expectations of receiving some form of service recovery and put this down to experience.

NiftyDigits

Should always write to the Executive Office in cases like these. Normal customer service/relations will likely only waste your time. The EO will ensure that it's looked into in depth, as opposed to a cursory reply.

peachyprice

It's not an error, a lot of airlines do this, and other establishments too, they'll ringfence an amount when you book then take the actual amount when your flights/goods/services are confirmed, same thing happened to me recently with United.

You didn't have take the full amount out of your ISA, you could have just taken out enough to bring you back into your credit limit. Or do as I did, explained it to my bank who removed the pre-authorisation amount immediately on the understanding that if it was a genuine charge that would re-take it from my account.

As for the shopping, surely your wife doesn't shop with just the one card in her purse?

peachyprice

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Should always write to the Executive Office in cases like these. Normal customer service/relations will likely only waste your time. The EO will ensure that it's looked into in depth, as opposed to a cursory reply.

But there was no error or wrong-doing. What do you think the CEO is going to do?

eDicky

peachyprice wrote: »

It's not an error, a lot of airlines do this, and other establishments too, they'll ringfence an amount when you book then take the actual amount when your flights/goods/services are confirmed, same thing happened to me recently with United.

The same thing? It's fine for an airline to ringfence the amount to pay, then take that amount upon confirmation. But in this case it looks like BA ringfenced an amount, then on confirmation took a completely separate amount, leaving the first amount pending and putting the OP over his card limit. If so, surely that is a human or system error, presumably by BA.

lewishardwick

I had exactly this. Their online system took two payments because the transaction timed out.

No amount of complaining worked. I gave up and will go with a different operator from now on.

'to fly, to serve' my a$$!

peachyprice

eDicky wrote: »

The same thing? It's fine for an airline to ringfence the amount to pay, then take that amount upon confirmation. But in this case it looks like BA ringfenced an amount, then on confirmation took a completely separate amount, leaving the first amount pending and putting the OP over his card limit. If so, surely that is a human or system error, presumably by BA.

Yes, it happens, especially if the actual amount differs from the ring fenced amount, which it did in the OP's case.

It happens with car hire companies too, they ring fence a deposit, take payment when you return the car, but as a separate amount, not out of the ring fenced amount, which remains pending.

OP's card provider should have realised this is what had happened, if he'd have bothered speaking to them.

dickydonkin

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Should always write to the Executive Office in cases like these. Normal customer service/relations will likely only waste your time. The EO will ensure that it's looked into in depth, as opposed to a cursory reply.

Really!:rotfl:

This is BA we are talking about.

NiftyDigits

dickydonkin wrote: »

Really!:rotfl:

This is BA we are talking about.

Worked for me every time. Customer Relations often send out cursory replies after skimming through the complaint, hardly appearing to have read it through.
A note to the EO usually ensures that it's read through properly.