Chargeback on Epassporte Virtual Visa

This is a bit off topic. I've had a few transactions that either never cleared or were kept on pending. ePassporte couldn't cancel these transactions and it's a bit of a pain to get the transactions to drop.

I hear ye friend ! Me had the same dammned troubl;es the other day.

YARGH!! Alas, to this day me naven't gotten the loot back !

It's getting old. Don't flock with them.

I currently have a pending transaction as well and it is indeed a pain to get it dropped. Going on for 30 days now and still not resolved.

Actually the pending issue made me think about how it would be when I had to make a chargeback.

Because in case of the pending charge they want the merchant to send in a fax and cancel it. Now what if the merchant doesn't do this? In fact they have not done it yet, so ....?

That raises the question of how Epassporte is going to deal with a chargeback.

Are you drunk man ? :D

Chargebacks.

Well.. ePassporte is a Visa and Visa allows chargebacks.

There are situations where a chargeback is warranted and those would be handled according to card association rules.

ask kimmykim, she assured us few months ago that epassporte is topnotch !

Good to know, thanks. Another question:


What happens with pending charges if the merchant doesn't fax a cancelation. Are they cancelled automatically after some time, if so, when?

Well i am in the process of trying to get a refund through epassport. I send in the dispute form a couple weeks ago, called them today and it is suppose to be resolved in 48 hours... going through their "process" with them to be nice, IF they don't refund me soon, Visa will. Transfered the money to epassport from my visa card.

NOthing like paying someone for a service and all you get is a whole months of excuses. Then dealing with a company like epassport making you jump through hoops to get the money back...

I've posted about this before, but hey, I'm here to help.

Pending Transactions.

What most of you don't realize is that pending transactions (sometimes referred to as a pre-auth) is an action a merchant takes (such as a restaurant or hotel) to reserve funds on your account to be settled at a later time. This has *nothing* to do with ePassporte.

Pending transactions happen on your credit cards all the time. Some banks allow you to see pending amounts online, some don't. But they are there regardless. The reason you don't notice them is that with a credit card, a pending amount doesn't normally put you over your credit limit, so you notice no change to your account. Even with debit cards, your bank which holds your checking account may have relaxed rules about your spending depending on your history with them. -- However, ePassporte is a pre-paid account. You don't have a credit limit. You must think of your ePassporte balance as 'same-as-cash." When a merchant places a pending charge on your "same-as-cash" ePassporte account, those funds are reserved until the merchant either releases the pre-auth or settles the transaction. -- That's simply how it works. This is card association rules that ePassporte is abiding by. This is not some ePassporte policy.

What happens is that a specific amount of money on your ePassporte account gets tied up until ePassporte can automatically drop the pending authorization because most merchants do not know how to drop a pre-auth or won't go through the effort to do it.

We offer pay outs via epass to our affiliates.

Did they (epassporte) tell you to contact the company?

Where did that come from?

Yes they told me they need a fax from the merchant

yes, just gulped down a bottle of wine

Well, God be with thee lad !

i had to fax in a Peer to Peer dispute form

How long does this take?

Roughly one billing cycle.

Actualy is "goes" like this :

Day1: me to epassporte customer service :

> Hello Epassporte,
>
> there is a Pending charge on my Epassporte card in the ammount of
> $xxxxxx, made on the xxx th of January 2005. I have contacted the merchant
> in order to remove the pending authorisation on my card, hower i have receive no > answer from them.
> My question is , as per VISA requirements, after how many days Epassporte
> can remove the pending authorisation, if the merchant still havent closed
> the sale ?

Day2: epassporte Customer service replys:


Dear Cardholder,

In order to drop any pending/outstanding charges on your ePassporte
account, you must contact the merchant that has the hold on the funds, and
request them to cancel/drop the hold. If the merchant does not have the
capability to do so, they must fax a statement to ePassporte indicating
that they have no intentions of charging your account.

I hope this is helpful and please let me know if I can be of further
assistance.

Regards,
Kate


Day2 : Me back to Epassporte Customer Service :

> Hi,
> unfortunately this was't very helpful...
>
> If a merchant has a Penging charge on my epassporte card, i am sure that
> they can not hold it for 5 years.... Visa requirements are that if a
> merchant doesnt settle the charge in 30-45 days, the card issuer can drop
> the authorisation by themselfs.
> I am in a situation where the merchant went out of business, and no
> contact could be estabilished with them. They did and authorisation on my
> card for xxx$, 3 weeks ago,, however they didnt close the sale.
> The question is : after how many days, as per VISA regulations, can
> Epassporte drop the pending charge on the card, if the merchant doesnt
> drop the auth, nor is closes the sale.
>
> If you are not in a positon to give a clear answer (like bellow) kindly
> please foward this to your supervisor.
>
> Thanks a lot,


Day9: After 1 week, Epassporte Customer Service finally replys:

Dear Cardholder,

For further assistance, please call our Cardholder Services Center at any
of the phone numbers listed below.

I hope this is helpful and please let me know if I can be of further
assistance.

Regards,
Johanna




NOW: ACTUALY, AS PER VISA REQUIREMENTS COMBINED BY THE WAY EPASSPORTE IS SETUP WITH SKNAB AND THEIR VISA region, epassporte can drop a pending authorisation code after 30 days (if the transaction was not settled in the meantime).


So it took 9 days, and i wasnt able to get an clear answer : "AFTER 30 days"

Note that i was trying to get just an simple answer in this stage, and not to have "complicated" thing done.....


Rand..i dont want to bash epassporte at all...Epassporte Rulez, we did a lot of $$$$ trough you, and we are very happy about how epassporte works.

However, Customer Service really sucks !
It would be really great if you can improve this...

Do you get an email notice when the pendings are cancelled? I have a few that don't show up on the transaction page from last month. Or is there any way to see transactions past that one page?

bump .....

Ask the motherfuckers for a dispute form. Fill out the form, send it back and wait.

nice to know