I come to you with caution today in regard to what recently happened to me. I will not name the shopping network on television but this is what happened to me. I saw something on TV and thought maybe I will order it and have it for a gift or two. I called the number and answered the questions of how many, etc. It was apparently based on the phone number I called from that brings up an account if you shopped with them in the past. Before I ever had the opportunity to state how I wanted to pay for the items it prompted if you wanted a gift receipt. I responded yes and a customer service rep came on the line. I then inquired of a credit or certificate that was given to me months ago by the company and I wanted to use it. I was then told there was no such thing and I had to be transferred to customer service to find out about that. At that point I said forget it I did not want to go ahead with this purchase it was too much of a hassle. The rep said she cancelled the order.
Later I notice two emails from this organization. One stating the order confirmation and then one following that stating the order was cancelled. Why did I receive either one of them for I never placed the finalization of this order and never even stated or gave info/approval on how I was going to pay for the order??? Something inside of me was telling me to check further. I did and was shocked to see funds being held in my account for a purchase I never gave authorization to. I called customer service and said I needed to speak with a manager I had great concerns that an order was charged for something I never gave authorization to charge. I was told they had a previous purchase on file and the method of payment was also on file and that is how they used that particular information to take the funds out of.
In my opinion that is unethical, not moral at all and I told the manager that was stealing. I could not walk into an establishment and charge something to someone without their consent for that would be stealing and someone had to be held accountable for this. I was told the manager had to research who the employee was that did this and then their supervisor would be notified to coach this person. Come on now, are you going to tell me that they did not know who the employee was that authorized this sale and then cancelled it. Currently, most organizations assign an employee ID number or something to that effect to employees to be able to track their performance, etc. How hard was it to look up the transaction and see the pertinent information. Unless they have phantom employees working for them, I doubt that is the case.
As this manager was reviewing my situation/concern I was then told that the one purchase was actually two even though you ordered the same item but 2 quantities of it and there was not just one hold on my account for the transaction amount but they were able to see another one also. Instead of a grand total amount due they split it up as two transactions? I got online right then and there and said only half of the amount of the purchase was placed on hold for my account and she assured me she would catch it so another one would not be added. I was also assured as we were speaking that the hold would be removed and I would not have to wait the 3 days that they require when a purchase was made. Guess what? When I checked the hold was still there.
I further voiced my concern as to what if I did go through with the purchase and wanted to use another form of payment why did this default to a former method of payment without my authorization. They had no definitive answer for me other than mistakes happen and they were going to correct it. I think they missed the whole point of this misfortune. I never gave authorization to go forward with this purchase and I most certainly did not even tell them to authorize using any sort of payment method. Why do not big organizations have to be held accountable for this using and tying up of my own money when I did not authorize it to begin with?
I understand people making errors, I really do. We are human and humans do make mistakes. My concern is how did this get out of hand when it should not have even been a concern of mine when I decided to not complete the order in the first place?
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