Card Transaction "disappeared"

jasonwatkins

I made a large purchase from eBay last week (16th) with my card and I paid directly rather than Paypal.   The balance and amount available reflected the amount spent, but, to be honest, I can't remember initially if it was pending or if it had been fully claimed.

I'm going to say I'm 99% sure it was pending though.

The item was dispatched on Tuesday the 19th and I received it on Thursday the 21st.   Everything was fine.    

I checked my account this morning to find that the transaction has vanished.   There's no hint of it even being made and the balance and available balance have reverted to what they were before this purchase.

Logically, it appears to be that the pending balance was not claimed by the merchant for some reason - oversight or error maybe  - and the amount has simply fallen back on to my card but I'm not sure.  The eBay order details page does not indicate anywhere that the item is now unpaid.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me before so I'm not really sure what to do.   Obviously the "honest" thing to do would be to chase it up with the card company first and find out if the balance was indeed unclaimed.   But then if that's the case, and it's fallen back onto the card, am I subsequently obligated to complete the purchase or send the merchant the money or would they have to pursue me for the item bought ?

I'd certainly appreciate any help or thoughts.

Ergates

A pending transaction will only stay visible for so long (a few days - exactly how long will depend on your bank) - if the posted transaction doesn't come through within that time, then the pending transaction will disappear.

In theory, there is no maximum time limit for a merchant to put the transaction through (though obviously, this isn't generally something they intentionally delay).   It's pretty unusual these days for transactions to be delayed for more than a day or two - though you're already way past that.

There won't be much your card company can do - if they've not had the transaction through from the merchant then they can't process it.  If you have contact details of the merchant, you could drop them a mail.

jasonwatkins

Ergates said:

A pending transaction will only stay visible for so long (a few days - exactly how long will depend on your bank) - if the posted transaction doesn't come through within that time, then the pending transaction will disappear.

In theory, there is no maximum time limit for a merchant to put the transaction through (though obviously, this isn't generally something they intentionally delay).   It's pretty unusual these days for transactions to be delayed for more than a day or two - though you're already way past that.

There won't be much your card company can do - if they've not had the transaction through from the merchant then they can't process it.  If you have contact details of the merchant, you could drop them a mail.

Thanks.  The merchant is actually a branch of Cash Converters in Scotland, although they've only been on eBay since the 1st of March this year.

If they've dispatched the item without checking to see if the payment has cleared then that's a pretty massive oversight I suppose.  The only other thing I can think of is that they did check to see if they'd received the money but that some kind of glitch meant that the pending payment wasn't properly claimed and it fell back on to my account.

I can drop them a message on eBay to see if they can check though. 

Grumpy_chap

Check the funds were not drawn from your PayPal account.
I know you said you paid outside of that, but that is one possible place the discrepancy crept in

jasonwatkins

Grumpy_chap said:

Check the funds were not drawn from your PayPal account.
I know you said you paid outside of that, but that is one possible place the discrepancy crept in

Don't do that to my nerves !

I had an image of a massively overdrawn PayPal account there!.   But no, PayPal is in the clear.

I might have a possible explanation though as the seller has responded to my message.   Since they've only been active on eBay since March the 1st, I think this might be to do with the standard hold on funds for new sellers.   I know that eBay will usually hold the money until you're established as a seller, but that hold is released if you send the item as tracked and you receive feedback - all of which has happened.

The seller said that their account showed the funds as available on the 21st for the correct amount but they appear to be saying that that amount hasn't hit their bank yet.   It's unusual as eBay usually send the payment automatically the day after the funds become available, so this would have normally been Friday the 22nd and it would have also likely hit the account the same day.

It does also say that the payments are released "if you send the item trackable and that item shows as delivered + 3 days" so it could mean that the funds are finally claimed by next Tuesday or Wednesday I suppose.

Grumpy_chap

I certainly would not pay again, in case of being asked to.
Let the process work itself out and keep the funds available on your card.

born_again

Retailer have up to 6 months to present the payment. After that it is a technical breach of card regulations. Which can be contested.
Of course as you have the goods you would not. But I have known people try..
I would not offer to pay again. As it could just be a glitch & come through at any point.

jasonwatkins

Thank you both.  I’m probably going to ring the card company tomorrow when I get home and see what they can tell me but I will certainly not be offering to pay a second time.

If the money still hasn’t left the account by Wednesday then I’m just going to let it sit there and let things play out as they will.

I know I probably shouldn’t be fighting this hard to give up a ‘free’ iPhone but I keep thinking I don’t want it to come back and bite me in the behind somewhere down the line.

jasonwatkins

Well then ..

Today was the first chance I had to speak to the Credit Card company and they confirmed that there was no such transaction on my account.   The person I spoke to said that, in his experience, if a pending transaction disappears in the way this has done then it's likely been cancelled or has fallen through in some fashion.

So i then contacted eBay directly and explained everything.   I asked them to look in to the transaction to see if there were any issues or if the payment had been cancelled.

They said no.  No issues on the account or the transaction and that the funds had been released to the seller.

So I don't know.   When do I stop digging ?

#Update

Just spoken to the card company again and they dug a little deeper and found the transaction on the 16th but said that it had been declined.

They mentioned something about the payment method and asked me to check if it was definitely the right card used and to also check my PayPal but I said that i only had that one card and that I'd paid directly instead of using PayPal.

They advised me to contact the seller again to verify that the money had been received and that that was all I could really do.

So i'm going to contact the seller one last time and if they verify that they've received the money and it's cleared in their account then I'm going to draw a line under it.  I'll sit on the money for a few months just in case, but I won't pursue it any more if that happens.

jasonwatkins

Well I got up this morning to find that the transaction has now hit my account in full so I suspect my thought about it being due to the hold that eBay put on funds for new sellers was correct.