I was working with a wholesale supplier that sells liquidation pallets.
On their website it says they do not accept debit cards, but do accept credit cards.
Anyway since my business debit card will run on the Visa Network, I tried it, and the system said the payment failed. No problem, but it wouldn’t let me retry.
I called in since it wouldn’t let me try again, and they said that they would reset the listing and recommended I pay another way, which I did with a visa credit card.
However, I discovered about a week later when I reconciled my books that both payments went through and settled.
When I called them, I got the runaround and delays, and two separate requests for proof, but eventually after about 2-3 weeks they did refund the money on the first payment, and in the meantime I did receive the merchandise more or less as expected.
So my question is, is this just a scam? Is there a good reason why they would not accept debit card payments that run on the visa network when they do accept regular credit card payments?
And can anyone come up with an explanation of why it should be so difficult to get them to fix their mistake?
I mean, they should have been the ones on the phone with me trying to work it out.
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Did they charge you a fee for using the card? Maybe they turned off debit for surcharge compliance purposes.
Yes, on a $700+ wholesale purchase there was a $20ish fee as I recall.
That is your answer. Their processor should have turned off debit and either made a mistake or misinformed the client. I doubt this is entirely your vendor’s fault other than who they picked for their processing services.
Yeah it seems like the only answer I can come up with that makes sense.
However they should have been all over fixing it, especially since I called in and talked to them about it so they could reset it. Instead they stalled repeatedly to the point I thought I was going to have to reverse the transaction. And if I hadn’t caught it and fought for it, I would never have gotten it made right.
Different fees on their end for one.
Also, their are different time scales for people to charge back on credit cards vs debit cards.
Wouldn’t that be an argument for accepting debit cards?
No, you can charge back onto debit cards, longer than credit cards.
I didn’t know that, I thought that generally debit cards offer less consumer protection.
More, in terms of charge backs. Less in terms of fraud.
With regard to fixing their mistakes, poor bookkeeping or perhaps they wanted to let the funds settle before refunding to ensure you weren’t trying to scam them.
With credit only, maybe they are wanting extra protection from a credit transaction versus a debit transaction.
Does seem odd to me though.
Right? Thing is I was the buyer and credit card disputes nearly always favor the buyer. I would easily have won that dispute.