I placed an order for the Sorcerer on Black Dragon (Limited Edition) on June 1st. [Paizo Order #641027]
I noticed that while viewing my bank statement that the charge was pending on one day, then disappeared the next.
I'm wondering what happened? Is my order still good?
Dale
Chief Technical Officer
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I placed an order for the Sorcerer on Black Dragon (Limited Edition) on June 1st. [Paizo Order #641027]
I noticed that while viewing my bank statement that the charge was pending on one day, then disappeared the next.
I'm wondering what happened? Is my order still good?
Dale
When you place an order, we do a step called "authorizing the card." Essentially, we make sure the card is valid, and has enough available credit to cover your order. However, we don't actually charge your card until we ship.
I'm guessing your bank assumed that an authorization is an immediate precursor to a charge—which it usually is—but after we didn't follow the auth with the charge within some amount of time, they stopped showing it to you.
-Vic.
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When you place an order, we do a step called "authorizing the card."
Having written billing software before, I can tell you that this is standard procedure. Individual authorizations are performed one at a time, and even when an item is being shipped right away, it might be hours or days before the charge is finalized. This allows many charges to be put through at once. This is how the middle-man in these transactions makes their money. They charge per-transaction, but they get charged only for the batch of transactions once by the credit card issuer. At least, that's how it all worked in the late '90s when I was in that business.
I'm guessing your bank assumed that an authorization is an immediate precursor to a charge—which it usually is—but after we didn't follow the auth with the charge within some amount of time, they stopped showing it to you.
Yeah, that makes sense. The bank probably shouldn't be showing it that way, but they probably needed to in order to not freak out the people who didn't see a charge for something they had bought until hours or days after. It used to not matter in the days before electronic, real-time statements.
Thanks for the update.