Hello! I recently attempted to make a purchase for the new bestiary book for second edition but found that no matter what or how many times I tried (which was a few dozen) I kept having my request declined; that would be well and fine if paizo's services didn't bill me for each attempt and I am now $300+ in the hole without a product to show for it. Please I need help with this matter right away as I can note afford this kind of lost at the end of the month.
I know the guidelines recommend against it but i have also issued an email regarding this matter in the hopes it might get resolved sooner.
Most of the time, when a transaction is declined at Paizo.com, it's because the billing address you have entered at Paizo does not exactly match the billing address on file at your bank or card issuer. Paizo's anti-fraud software can be very picky about that.
The good news is that what you are seeing are not charges but temporary authorizations: the system checks your account/available credit when you submit the order to make sure you have sufficient funds to make the purchase. If the purchase doesn't go through, the authorization goes away after a number of days.
The bad news is, if you are using a debit card, the charges that have been checked against your balance but not finalized still tie up a portion of your money that can't be accessed until the temporary authorizations expire.
You've done the right thing in posting here and e-mailing. Paizo Customer Service can issue a request to your bank to release the authorizations. Unfortunately, they are currently almost a month behind in responding to emails because their office is still shut down due to the pandemic and they are working from home. They could get to either the forum post or the email first (you can check their progress on the email backlog in this thread). At this time, calling is not a good way to contact them because they can't answer the office phone lines.
Do not respond to this thread or "bump" it to the top before Customer Service gets to it. They reply to threads from the bottom to the top, so bumping the thread moves you back in the line.
Best wishes. Paizo Customer Service is top notch and will help you; it's just unfortunate that they're running behind right now so you'll have to be a little patient.
Hi Cinderverse,
It looks like our team was able to take care of you via email. Thanks for your patience!