Triple charged for Occult Adventures PDF, and did not receive it

[EJDean]

Hi,

I attempted to purchase the Occult Adventures PDF on the 15th. The first time I attempted to purchase it, I received a message that my debit card was refused. This sometimes happens when I attempt to make purchases in different currencies (my debit card uses Euro), and I usually receive a message from my bank allowing me to unblock the transaction.

However, I did not receive any such message. I then tried to purchase the PDF two more times, and each time the page simply went back to the checkout page when I clicked Confirm.

I then noticed that three charges for the PDF have been authorized on my card. This ~$30 is now unavailable to me, and I have not received the PDF.

I emailed support two days ago, but have received no acknowledgement. I should think that putting a hold on someone's card multiple times without giving them the product they tried to purchase would qualify as an urgent issue.

I have contacted my bank, and they have told me that three transactions have been approved, and provided me with the authorization codes for the transactions.

Could these holds on my card please be released, so I can use that money, and so I can finally order the Occult Origins PDF?

Kind regards,
Evan.

[Diego Valdez]

Hello EJDean,

Your card is being declined because it is failing the address verification system. Usually this happens when the billing address attached to the card does not match with what the bank has on file. What you are seeing are not charges, they are authorizations. Each time you attempted to submit the order the bank got pinged to make sure the card is valid. When this happens most banks put a temporary hold on the funds, which can look like a pending transaction on your end. Since the card was declined these authorizations cannot be finalized. If not finalized authorizations expire after a few business days and the holds are released. How long that takes is ultimately up to your bank. You can read more about authorizations here.

[EJDean]

Diego Valdez wrote:

Hello EJDean,

Your card is being declined because it is failing the address verification system. Usually this happens when the billing address attached to the card does not match with what the bank has on file. What you are seeing are not charges, they are authorizations. Each time you attempted to submit the order the bank got pinged to make sure the card is valid. When this happens most banks put a temporary hold on the funds, which can look like a pending transaction on your end. Since the card was declined these authorizations cannot be finalized. If not finalized authorizations expire after a few business days and the holds are released. How long that takes is ultimately up to your bank. You can read more about authorizations here.

Hi Diego,

Thanks for your quick reply! OK, so it's an address validation issue; this sometimes happens on international websites for me, due to address format mismatches. This was not communicated well by the website.

I've tried to order the PDF again, this time ensuring that my billing address was correct. This time, after clicking Confirm, and submitting my 3-digit card number, I was taken back to the Payment Method step with zero error text displayed, and it seems a charge has been authorized on my card again.

Could you please help me understand the requirements of your address validation? My address is an Irish address, and is correct. However, the format is different from a US address. Additionally, I'm not sure what the phone number is required for. In any case, I provided my number with the "+353" international dialing code prefix. Is this correct?

I would like to order PDFs from Paizo directly, and I'd love to get this address issue ironed out.

Kind regards,
Evan.

[Diego Valdez]

Hello Evan,

We have had some issues with billing addresses in Ireland before. I am going to send you an email with what the format I see and what our processor may be looking for could be different (I don't want to post your address on a public forum). The phone number is because for international shipments we need a phone number to put on the paper work. The card processor isn't looking at that though so it shouldn't be having an impact.