Question about a charge

  • Unknown's avatar
    kitncascadia · Member ·

    I have an undocumented and unauthorized $1 charge on my credit card and need to speak to someone about it. Can I please get a phone number.

    Otherwise I will flag the charge as unauthorized with the credit card company.

    I’m considering upgrading to a professional package but am now reconsidering since this isn’t cool. Not being able to find a phone number right away to get help is also not cool.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    thatrobyn · Member ·

    Hi Christopher!

    It seems when you changed your credit card informationon February 11, 2015, your account was charged $1 to authorize the new card. Generally, when folks change a card, it’s during the action of making a purchase. Then, the amount of the purchase is all that is charged. Because you had no actual transaction going through at the time, your card was checked with the smallest amount possible.

    That’s the long boring story :)

    The solution can be one of a couple options:

    1. I can put a $1 credit in your account, so if you are planning on renewing your domain mapping (which expires March 21, 2015), you will be charged $12 instead of $13.

      You’re also welcome to apply the $1 in anyway you wish. It doesn’t have to be for the mapping.

    2. I could ask our accounting department to refund the $1.

    Either way, we’ll make it work for you! Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks very much.

  • Unknown's avatar
    kitncascadia · Member ·

    Thanks much.

    I have to ask: if I didn’t ask this would I have not been credited then? Would WP have levied an undocumented, unauthorized charge and left it there?

    I’ve changed credit cards on file with many organizations and they’ve not needed to make a $1 charge. Even if it was needed, the fact that I got no advanced notice, no notification after it happened, and it’s not even listed in my receipts makes this a shadowy practice. It feels to me like a “salami attack”: where attackers will make small unauthorized charges in the hopes you won’t see them. I work in online security and privacy so this is something I deal with regularly. In fact, I write on online security and privacy for a number of sites, so I’m actively considering writing about this highly questionable practice.

    I would like to speak with an actual human being to get answers to these questions. Can you please escalate this and get me someone to help.

    Thanks much.

  • Unknown's avatar
    alexjgustafson · Member ·

    Each banking institution handles authorization charges differently but in general they’re left for less than 5 business days.

    Adjusting the credit card on file triggers a $1 authorization charge with us — similar to using pay-at-the-pump at a gas station. We use $0 authorization charges when it occurs along with a purchase. Your bank will be removing the charge in accordance with their policy, and that would occur even if you had not asked about it.

    Robyn went ahead and voided out the charge on our end, which helps expedite the process of removing it from your bank but leaving your card functional here on WordPress.com.

    We currently don’t offer support over the phone, but we can move this discussion to email if you prefer. Please let me know if you’d prefer that.

  • Unknown's avatar
    kitncascadia · Member ·

    Thanks for expediting the charge and thanks for the explanation.

    I would strongly recommend you put this information somewhere and explain this when it happens. This is not a a good surprise.

    My question is resolved so we are good thanks for your help.

    I will close by saying I understand not wanting to provide phone support, but for billing issues not providing a human isn’t appropriate or acceptable. My takeaway is that if I upgrade to the business package with it’s email support, I can count on no ability to speak to someone regarding billing issues. As I noted I’m up for renewal on the domain mapping and was considering upgrading to the business package. I’m going to be expanding to other providers to see what my full range of options are.

    Frankly, if this hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have thought to expand my search. So some feedback that little things can have an impact.

  • Unknown's avatar
    alexjgustafson · Member ·

    Robyn and I are both humans, but I understand that posting rather than phone is not everyone’s preferred experience.

    With the Business package you will have access not only to email support, but also Live Chat support from 7am to 7pm EST. Both these options lead directly to human support staff. We do not use any automated messages for support requests through our contact form.

  • Unknown's avatar
    kitncascadia · Member ·

    True true, you are real humans: poorly stated, I apologize. And I appreciate that you appear to not be outsourced support in India.

    For billing issues, I want to speak with a human being directly because I want to know the issue is being addressed right away. Plus there’s the psychological boost you get from someone talking with you.

    My biggest beef about this support is I don’t know that someone with WP is actually going to address things. Rightly or wrongly posting in a forum feels to me like “throw it out there and maybe some random person who may or may not know what they’re talking about will pick it up”.

    Just some general feedback in case it’s helpful.

    Thanks for your help, we’re good on this.

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