[effebrala]

This has now happened to me twice this year on fairly big ticket type stuff, hell, it may have happened a lot more on small items that I can't really keep track of. Is it really that hard for a company or store to actually process a credit card transaction in today's computer world?

Last Valentines Day I got a friend some flowers and stuff and was never charged for it. I figured that it was just a mistake or taking a long time to go through but when it never did I started thinking maybe that since there was a small mistake that I caught at the last minute (like the night before) and called to get fixed that the CSR I spoke to may have just comped the whole charge. She did make a note to mention how nice I was when everyone else she talked to all day were freaking out and yelling at her and stuff, but this wasn't $20 free or something, it was like $117, I can't believe just because I was nice she gave that to me for free.

The even more confusing one was just recently (about 4 or 5 weeks ago) when I was in Vegas with my friend and opted for a VIP tour. They had to make two transactions, one for the base tickets and stuff and then for the VIP "add-on", which was fine by me. I noticed the $37 for the tickets AND the $200 for the VIP addition hit my Chase credit card's "pending" amount roughly the same day and expected them to go completely through within a few days. However, when they DID go through the $37 was listed in my transactions and then a CREDIT for $200 was listed right above it for the VIP thing. Now I wasn't actually given an additional $200 but my balance all worked out as if I was never charged for it, or I was charged and then immediately credited back. Again this is a fairly big amount of money to make an error on. I would figure just one or two errors like that would probably get a person fired. I can't imagine it's that easy to just accidentally reverse a transaction instead of actually charge someone.

Now maybe that $200 will show up on my account sooner or later, but if ONE transaction went through and the other didn't I figure I'm in the free and clear. That would mean I've received over $300 JUST THIS YEAR from "mistakes."

Can anyone explain this? Does this happen to anyone else often? This stuff really confuses me because I'll sit there watching my account closely for like the following two or three months just waiting for money to disappear. Also, does anyone know how long they can claim funds? Like could six months from now The Mirage finally just charge me $200 or would the dates be so far out of range that my credit card company would first alert me or something?

[Pcodaygs]

Some time ago I bought a book from W.H. Smith on my credit card and to this day it's never shown up on my statement. So I guess I got it for free!

Only time it's ever happened to me.

[sherrferris]

Thank your lucky stars and get on with it I guess.

[Alulursuifold]

Well, the correct thing to do would be to contact the PERSON who dealt with you and query it - I wouldn't make it a general enquiry as it may get someone who made a simple error fired. Chances are even if it was a mistake they'll let it go rather than go through all the paperwork.
Generally, I'm quite happy getting good deals if it's the owner giving them but a bit reluctant if it's by staff, as the owner will be out of pocket due to the staff's actions.

[LottiFurmann]

Why they would refund your $200 I have no idea. Maybe they decided to give you the VIP thing free as a perk. You know how casinos are. Giving away free crap in the hopes you'll gamble yourself into debt. Or maybe they'll charge you after a while. I've had purchases take weeks after receiving the item to show up.

First mistake sounds like a store problem. I've had stores not charge me properly before. Undercharge, overcharge, not charge. Seems like you got lucky with a good old case of human error.

Or it could be a problem with Chase, because they're a bunch of *insert huge 40 page hate filled rant here*

[effebrala]

Thank your lucky stars and get on with it I guess.

See, I'm not lucky AT ALL so it leads me to think there's something else going on, but I guess it could just be luck.

Well, the correct thing to do would be to contact the PERSON who dealt with you and query it - I wouldn't make it a general enquiry as it may get someone who made a simple error fired. Chances are even if it was a mistake they'll let it go rather than go through all the paperwork.
Generally, I'm quite happy getting good deals if it's the owner giving them but a bit reluctant if it's by staff, as the owner will be out of pocket due to the staff's actions.

It would be next to impossible to actually call and track down THE person I dealt with so the next closest thing would be to just contact them in general. That would probably leave me being charged AND may cause the person to lose a job when maybe they were just having a rough day or something. I'm all for pointing out mistakes when I'm at the point of sale and I'm not going to freak out if these charges DO end up going through one day, but I really don't have the time to do the book keeping for all these companies and then contact them for corrections.

Why they would refund your $200 I have no idea. Maybe they decided to give you the VIP thing free as a perk. You know how casinos are. Giving away free crap in the hopes you'll gamble yourself into debt. Or maybe they'll charge you after a while. I've had purchases take weeks after receiving the item to show up.

First mistake sounds like a store problem. I've had stores not charge me properly before. Undercharge, overcharge, not charge. Seems like you got lucky with a good old case of human error.

Or it could be a problem with Chase, because they're a bunch of *insert huge 40 page hate filled rant here*

Ya, I could totally see the VIP thing as a perk, especially since both of us were dressed kind of nice and when spending ~$230 for something that only lasts one hour might make them think I would (or could) spend a fair amount of money on the tables afterwards. However, I would think they would REALLY make it known at the time so I could turn around and go gamble it away or do something else, having it just slip by three or four days later doesn't really seem to benefit them at all. Hell, if they DID do that to me there's a 99% chance I would have turned around and spent it on a show there which in the end would have been about $50 more then the value of the VIP thing, lol

[effebrala]

Why they would refund your $200 I have no idea. Maybe they decided to give you the VIP thing free as a perk. You know how casinos are. Giving away free crap in the hopes you'll gamble yourself into debt. Or maybe they'll charge you after a while. I've had purchases take weeks after receiving the item to show up.

First mistake sounds like a store problem. I've had stores not charge me properly before. Undercharge, overcharge, not charge. Seems like you got lucky with a good old case of human error.

Or it could be a problem with Chase, because they're a bunch of *insert huge 40 page hate filled rant here*

Ya, that got me thinking but when I purchase stuff online just how much human interaction is required on their part? I figure it's almost all electronic, they've got my info, they have my total, they've sent me an email saying I was charged for it, etc. Is there any reason why an actually human would have any interaction with the payment process if there wasn't a problem WITH the payment process? My problem was with an item that I was being charged for not showing up as going to be included in the gift. When I called I simply wanted to make sure it was included, I wasn't trying to change the price and drop the item from my gift. I can't see why they would have messed with anything with the charge process when I did call, but maybe they did...