It Was Your Bloody Fault!
14 July 2010
Success! I can now buy things online again! My replacement debit card arrived in the post today and it was accepted by Amazon. It turns out that the problem of not being able to use my Visa Electron card online was isolated to my old card. I don't think I'll ever be able to find out why it suddenly decided it wouldn't work, but I don't really care anymore. At least I now know that Halifax were the ones at fault after all. My new card is practically the same as the old one and yet it was accepted with no problems at all. So screw you, Halifax, you lying bunch of halfwits, it was clearly your fault. Try listening to your customers next time instead of trying to fob me off with a shitty excuse!
Posted byHocchan at 10:17 pm 2 comments
It's Not Our Fault, Honest!
13 July 2010
I called the bank again today about my Visa Electron card problem but the matter still hasn't been resolved. This time, because I'd ordered a new card yesterday, they were trying to blame it on that. I had to repeatedly tell them that this problem existed way before I ordered a new card. However, they also told me that because I'd ordered a new card, the expiry date on my current card had changed. They told me to try it again with the new expiry date and see if that worked. It didn't, no surprise there. I asked them once again to make sure there wasn't a problem with my account or a block on the card. They said there was absolutely nothing wrong. I would have argued further but it seems like they've already sent my new card out by First Class post so it should arrive in the next couple of days. I decided to wait for that to arrive and see if the problem continues.
Meanwhile, just in case I am stuck with a Visa Electron card that won't work online, I've decided to apply for a Lloyds TSB account. Unlike Halifax's basic account, they offer a proper Visa Debit card rather than a Visa Electron card. The only drawback is that I'm only allowed to withdraw cash from a Lloyds TSB cash machine, but on the plus side I am allowed to use the branch counters to pay in money (unlike Halifax if it's less than £300). If my application is successful, I may turn the Lloyds TSB account into my main one, and just have the Halifax account as a back up. I haven't heard from them yet so I'll have to wait and see.
Posted byHocchan at 6:49 pm 0 comments
Work, Damn You!
Just a quick update about my Visa Electron card. It's still not working for online purchases (which is a major pain in the arse as I do a lot of online shopping) but it works when I use chip-and-pin in shops. I went into the bank today but they tried to fob me off with the usual "Oh, it's because Electron isn't that widely accepted, blah blah blah..." bullshit. If it's not that widely accepted then why the hell have I had no problems buying stuff online for the past two years?! It's only been in the last week or so that the card has been getting declined. I need to be able to use the card to buy things from the internet. It's just crippling not being able to use my card. It's right when I need to buy some stuff too. It's so irritating, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?
Ahem! Anyway... I asked them to provide me with a new card. Unfortunately, it's got to be another Electron card but hopefully it'll sort out whatever dickery has befallen my current one. If not, then I don't know what I'm going to do. The internet is just a much better place for buying things that aren't groceries or everyday stuff. I don't know how I'll manage if I'm not able to buy anything online. I hope it won't come to that.
PS. Royal Bank of Scotland is to blame for all this bullshit!
Posted byHocchan at 1:45 am 0 comments
It's Not Hip-Hop, It's Electro(n), Prick!
11 July 2010
I feel much better after writing that last update. It seems like writing all my worries and anxieties down has helped me to deal with them. Previously I had been bottling it all up inside and that had made me feel awful. It really does seem as though this blog's only purpose at the moment is a place for me to vent my frustrations. With that in mind, I'm going to write about another thing that has been annoying the hell out of me lately - my Visa Electron card.
A few days ago I tried to buy a Dell Studio laptop for someone using my Electron card. The site said that they didn't take Electron but I thought I'd give it a go anyway (from past experience it usually works). But for some reason it got declined. I spoke to a representative from Dell who tried to use the card again but got declined once more. It was definitely not because I didn't have enough money in the account, I had the online banking webpage right in front on me. Eventually I managed to pay Dell by arranging a bank transfer instead. I thought nothing more of the incident until a few days later my card was declined by another online retailer. I tried several times but each time the card kept getting declined. Once again it wasn't because I had insufficient funds. And the retailer did accept Electron cards. I wanted to make sure that it wasn't the retailer's fault so I tried to order something from Amazon. I'd used the same card to pay for many items from Amazon in the past. There was even a purchase a couple of weeks ago that went through fine. But this time the card was declined.
I didn't know what the hell was going on so I phoned the bank asking them if there was some sort of problem with my card. I was informed that there was nothing wrong with the card and that it must be the online retailer's system. But surely it can't be getting declined at several different retailers for the same system error? I decided to test my card in the shops at a chip and pin device and, lo and behold, it worked no problem at all. It seems as though there's a problem with the internet purchases only. I'm going to have to go down to the bank on Monday and get it sorted out, once and for all. I don't see what the problem could be. If there's nothing wrong with the card, why is it getting repeatedly declined at an online retailer that has accepted it many times before? It just doesn't make any sense!
Posted byHocchan at 4:28 pm 0 comments
