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No Money, no laptop

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N

nsthompson

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 22, 2013
5
0
Hello all,

I've been a bit of a lurker on these boards for a few years but have only now decided to register and post as a result of a recent experience at the Apple Store.

I went to purchase a MacBook Pro using my debit card and the payment stalled/failed mid transaction. There was no error message on the assistant's device and no receipt was printed; the screen was just blank. She tried my card again and it was instantly declined. I called my bank who informed me (and the assistant) that the first payment had left my account. A manager then tried to find my payment but it didn't exist on their system.

No Money, no laptop. :(

Apple admitted that the payment failed due to the store's servers having intermittent downtime throughout the day, but were simply unable to do anything because according to their system my payment didn't exist.

Two days later, I'm still without the money or the laptop.

The bank has subsequently informed me that the money is effectively now ring-fenced by them until the payment is accepted by Apple, but because the transaction didn't finish, that will never happen. After 7 days it will automatically be defaulted back into my account.

The bottom line is that having gone into the store for the convenience of walking in an out with a laptop, I not only have to wait for 7 days for a computer but I am also without the money too.

I find this hugely unacceptable and wanted to get other peoples views on this :confused:

Cheers,
Nick
 
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It's a system error and while you may not like it, it is neither Apples or your banks fault. Such things are rare and they happen and I am pretty sure that they would not give you any compensation, especially since it hardly happens.
 
sorry to hear, but stuff happens. this has happened to me on several occasions at different places.
 
I'm not sure why you think you deserve compensation. Exactly how were you wronged? Was it inconvenient? Yes. Annoying? Yes. Are you 5 years old or something?? You can buy your computer once the hold is lifted off your account it's not the end of the world.
 
"I find this hugely unacceptable and wanted to get other peoples views and whether anyone thinks I deserve to be compensated and by how much!?"

You deserve nothing except maybe some encouragement to grow up.

:apple:
 
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It's a very regrettable situation, and it's hard to fault any single entity - it's kind of a compounded error of a badly designed system. I don't think you're up for any compensation, but the lesson I learned after dealing with a variety of debit card issues over the years, is that you will only avoid such inconveniences if you don't use debit cards altogether. Instead, I use a credit card, earn a small reward for that and never risk my own money (don't pay any interest either, since I pay it all off before it's due).

Debit card = your money = your risk. Credit card = bank's money = their risk. Not using your debit cards also reduces your chance of having to deal with card fraud. Unauthorized usage of a debit card is much harder to deal with than with credit, since again, it's your own money at stake, not the bank's.
 
wuhan-fake-apple-store1.jpg


You must've walked into one of those. Well, enjoy.
 
nsthompson said:
What a stupid response.
Click to expand...

It's only stupid because you don't want to accept said response.

As already stated, I use a CC when purchasing large items just to make sure if I have any issues it doesn't have any affect on my back account. I can always pay it off when the bill comes and thus not pay any interest either.
 
paulrbeers said:
It's only stupid because you don't want to accept said response.

As already stated, I use a CC when purchasing large items just to make sure if I have any issues it doesn't have any affect on my back account. I can always pay it off when the bill comes and thus not pay any interest either.
Click to expand...

Bleh, did he really need to torment an obviously venting OP?
 
Batt said:
I see you edited out the part about wanting compensation. Why? Didn't like the answer?
Click to expand...

Are you actually so viscerally angry at the OP that you monitor this thread, looking for an excuse to come back here and spew yet another bit of cynicism on them? That's sad.
 
nsthompson said:
Of course it's Apple's fault!
Click to expand...

No, it's your fault for using a debit card (low-limit credit cards have the same issue). This type of stuff happens all the time, actually the same thing happened when I just swapped my iPhone by mail. Not one, but two authorisations from Apple (first time it failed to go through) for $549. That meant for about a week, $1100 of my credit limit was tied up as collateral on the return. Had I paid with a debit card, that'd be $1100 of my bank account balance.

Hotels often authorise for hundreds or more, if you use debit that's your balance tied up instead of merely a credit limit. Gas pumps? $75-$100 is routine.

Good credit cards (American Express is best for this) also extend your warranty and offer you a host of other benefits. The way the bank card system works these authorisation holds are common, and one of many reasons to avoid debit cards.

Thus, your fault.
 
jca24 said:
"I find this hugely unacceptable and wanted to get other peoples views and whether anyone thinks I deserve to be compensated and by how much!?"

You deserve nothing except maybe some encouragement to grow up.

:apple:
Click to expand...

I can't believe you felt the need to say that. I see it as quite an ironic statement.

markie said:
No, it's your fault for using a debit card (low-limit credit cards have the same issue). This type of stuff happens all the time, actually the same thing happened when I just swapped my iPhone by mail. Not one, but two authorisations from Apple (first time it failed to go through) for $549. That meant for about a week, $1100 of my credit limit was tied up as collateral on the return. Had I paid with a debit card, that'd be $1100 of my bank account balance.

Hotels often authorise for hundreds or more, if you use debit that's your balance tied up instead of merely a credit limit. Gas pumps? $75-$100 is routine.

Good credit cards (American Express is best for this) also extend your warranty and offer you a host of other benefits. The way the bank card system works these authorisation holds are common, and one of many reasons to avoid debit cards.

Thus, your fault.
Click to expand...

Sorry, it's the OP's fault for using a method of payment that is available to him? Not everyone wants to have a credit card and not everyone is in a position to have a CC with a big enough limit to purchase a computer! Ridiculous to suggest it's his fault based on his chosen payment method, what did you want him to do, take 2k out of the bank and stroll across town to the store?

Clearly, as mentioned earlier, the OP is angered by the situation, I too would be if I had saved for a period of time to make a big purchase only to find my money gone and also no laptop! For me to go to my nearest apple store would mean an hour drive and £10 fuel along with the parking fee. I would not have appreciated wasting that time and money either, however small the money may seem to some.

If apple have already acknowledged it was caused by their servers, it's clearly their fault, I would be expecting some form of compensation for such and inconvenience and would be on the phone to apple. In this modern age, often a tweet to a company can help get their attention.

I can't believe many of the above responses.
 
I think as an acceptable level of compensation you should ask for a free case for your MacBook :D
 
markie said:
No, it's your fault for using a debit card (low-limit credit cards have the same issue). This type of stuff happens all the time, actually the same thing happened when I just swapped my iPhone by mail. Not one, but two authorisations from Apple (first time it failed to go through) for $549. That meant for about a week, $1100 of my credit limit was tied up as collateral on the return. Had I paid with a debit card, that'd be $1100 of my bank account balance.

Hotels often authorise for hundreds or more, if you use debit that's your balance tied up instead of merely a credit limit. Gas pumps? $75-$100 is routine.

Good credit cards (American Express is best for this) also extend your warranty and offer you a host of other benefits. The way the bank card system works these authorisation holds are common, and one of many reasons to avoid debit cards.

Thus, your fault.
Click to expand...

What a pile of baloney. Everybody I know (UK) uses a debit card. The reason being: it's your money, so you can't overspend or spend money that isn't yours/you don't have. Avoiding credit cards isn't bad practice, and good credit can still be built from paying bills by Direct Debit, etc.

What happened to the OP has never happened to me, and I've never heard of it happening to anybody else. I'd be pretty pissed if it happened to me.

Why everybody seems so unsympathetic and rude is beyond me.
 
keysofanxiety said:
What a pile of baloney. Everybody I know (UK) uses a debit card. The reason being: it's your money, so you can't overspend or spend money that isn't yours/you don't have. Avoiding credit cards isn't bad practice, and good credit can still be built from paying bills by Direct Debit, etc.

What happened to the OP has never happened to me, and I've never heard of it happening to anybody else. I'd be pretty pissed if it happened to me.

Why everybody seems so unsympathetic and rude is beyond me.
Click to expand...

You've clearly never worked in retail or handled large financial transactions....

In high school and college, I worked in retail and for a hotel. I would say 1 out of every 100 transactions would fail and I would have to redo them and more often then not the Bank would temporarily hold the funds even though I didn't receive an approval.

Since leaving college I've worked for a bank and an insurance company and my most recent project was setting up a recurring monthly credit card payment option..... After that project, I can see why so many transactions fail. There are a million steps from when you punch or swipe your credit card and when the retailer receives the confirmation. If ANY of those steps fail....

So again, it sucks that it happened but our banking industry is a million servers all not wanting to play nice.....
 
Paypal

Part 1:
Holds. I sold a number of cell phones on Paypal and because my feedback at the time was less than the cutoff, I had to wait for either delivery confirmation or positive feedback to get my money. I was not happy with this and it basically meant that PP had the use of my money interest free for several weeks. I have since reached over 100 rep but these "holds" left a bad taste in my mouth about PP.

Part 2:
I tried using Paypal to buy 3 tool chests from Sears one time. Somehow the Sears web site hung up and didn't finish the transaction. Meanwhile, Paypal had already pulled the money out of my credit union. It took 30 days for the transaction to "expire". 30 days. Normal credit card interest on $300 for 30 days is $4.50. I got nothing and I decided to never use Paypal again for Sears. Once again, PP had the use of my money for over a month.

Part 3:
I tied my iTunes account to paypal. I decided I would rather use my credit union account to pay for apps. One day PP decided all on their own that one of my app purchases looked fraudulent. They submitted an appeal to Apple to reverse the charges which in turn made Apple freeze my Apple Id not only from future purchases but even from basic amenities like updates and redownloading purchased apps. I have since decoupled PP from iTunes, contacted Apple support to unfreeze my account (which they did promptly) and from now on I will only use PP for ebay.

In all of these 3 situations it was my money and I experienced a delay or inconvenience that affected the availability of my money or my stuff. In no way was this somehow my "fault" for choosing an obfuscated payment method. It's my money and I can use whatever method I happen to find convenient. This does not mean I'm so stubborn I will continue to use a system that can lead to lengthy delays. I've recently tied a credit card to google wallet so I could purchase an Android app I use for checking my OTA TV signal strength. I also purchased a similar app on iOS. Perhaps google wallet will do what PP failed to do and allow me to make online payments for small items without providing my CC numbers.

Back to the OP's question. Yes you absolutely deserve some sort of (minor) compensation. Apple should do something to make you whole. Why? Partly because Apple had the interest free use of your money for some time and partly because you think deserve compensation. A part of Apple's idea of what a customer "deserves" is affected by what the customer asks for. Of course they aren't stupid so don't expect some sort of free Mac Pro under your Christmas tree but a minor free upgrade such as a case or an iTunes credit that can be applied toward apps is perfectly reasonable since they borrowed your money for quite a few days without paying you any interest and without providing you a product. Basically the bank or your ISP or Apple screwed up and deprived you of the use of a chunk of money for several days, it's perfectly reasonable to ask Apple to make this up to you in some way.

As for all those "grow up" comments in this thread, perhaps they were reacting to some unreasonable compensation you suggested. I didn't get to the thread until after you had edited your OP so I'll never know what these posters were reacting to. But words are just words. Ignore the ones that are mean spirited and basically just a way for people to put you down, take the useful advice and move on. You won't get any compensation if you don't ask.
 
Roman2K~ said:
Are you actually so viscerally angry at the OP that you monitor this thread, looking for an excuse to come back here and spew yet another bit of cynicism on them? That's sad.
Click to expand...

What in hell are you spewing about? I made a legitimate observation. What are you monitoring?
 
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