Is it just me, or does it seem like the vendors just charge my credit card at will?

We use a credit card and a debit card to pay vendors for products. I always get charged wrong and they use it like it was a petty cash fund.

Today I was charges over $500.00 to much for the wrong item. It will take 4 days to replace the money.

another vendor scans my account when I place the order and then shipping charges it again with there fee, on top and along with the orginal fee. It takes 4 to 5 days for the sales scan to free up my limit, I'm being charge twice for one order. When I complain about it, they act like it's no big deal.

If I charged a customer twice or wrong I would feel terrible.

Is it just me or are there others out there?

Mike

I've used CC from the beginning and have never had that kind of problem. Occasionally yes, but not on a regular basis.

I use my Amex, no limit and I got to pay it off at the end of the cycle so I can't get to crazy with it. I have been very lucky about not getting misbilled.

was miss billed $3k about 6 years ago from a vendor...i almost shot them...they rang up $3k in small amounts over 1 month


ed

Thats why I shy away from paying with a CC with my vendors. Have had problems in the past with misbillings, overbillings, etc. Now I write checks, and have not had any problems.

I use amex also. No problems to speak of.

The only problem we have had was keeping track of sales tax with CC purchases. Easy to forget about items payed for by CC that we we not charged sales tax.

I have had conversations with all of my CC vendors NOT to keep my # on file. I have terms and use the CC to pay for the items as long as there is not a cash discount. I pay bills with a phone call.

My advantage? miles. I have run through over a million travel miles and have about 600,000 available now. Some vendors give you no discount for cash (A**D) so what the heck.

Integra has had a few billing snafus but none recently. For the most part it works for me and has its perks... I've never paid a dime to fly to CEDIA.

I had one major vendor, owned by a publicly traded company, triple charge my card for the security for an advance replacement for a DOA unit they shipped me. Nary an apology for nicking my card for five figures. Last business they saw from me.... I'm waiting for the regional to call me up to see about "resuming discussions"'; he will certainly get an earful.

You might want to contact your CC company and point out that you are being fraudently charged. That might raise an eyebrow or 2.

Long past, and it would not have gotten the apology I had earned and was waiting for from the vendor. Much like wetting your pants in a dark suit; you get a nice warm feeling, but no one notices. Better that I cease doing business with those jamokes and move on to happier and more profitable endeavors.

You use the word "always". This means this has happened before, not once, not twice, not thrice, but many times. My grandmother used to say "You can't get walked on unless you lay on the floor!"

I think it's time to step up to the plate, confront the vendors, and ask what they're going to do to rectify this. If that doesn't fix it, your credit card company must by law quit withholding the credit amount when you dispute the charge. No x number of days, it happens immediately. This also has the nice side benefit, that if the vendor in question has many cusotmers do this, they are able to no longer get processing from the same company, or they charge them greater rates :-)


Again, make a call to the credit card company, dispute the charge, make it clear that this vendor has done this before. If you give the CC company dates and amounts, they'll give the vendor some real headaches.


Of course it's not a big deal... to them! I'd like to use your money for days at a time too. You know what to do, why not do it!


You can't make these companies feel bad. Make business difficult for them by exposing these practices to the credit card companies. Also feel free to take your business elsewhere. Don't forget the power of a well written letter to the president of the company! Include facts, don't get emotional, explain what you want to see happen. Explain what will happen if you don't get a response by a date defined in the letter. Follow through if you don't get a response.


I've had this happen once with three different vendors. Each time was for about $8000 in charges. I chastised the vendors. The person I got didn't really care. One resulted in the president of the company changing business practices after hearing about this. One called me up after I closed my account with them, wanting to know why... I got to roast the guy slowly, they agreed to make future business go without this issue. They've been good since. The last, never responded to my phone requests with satisfactory answers. They didn't respond to my letter. They lost my business.

Pay cash...often times you can get an additional discount ( a few points ) because the distributor does not have to pay the CC fee.