Card 'Authorisation' muddle

[SoWat]

Upon checking my bank account online today, I noticed that my 'available balance' was around £2600 less than my Account balance.

I immediately rang my bank (thoughts of card cloning going through my head), who informed me that Amazon had put through over 40 'authorisation' requests for the same amount (£65-ish), and that the money *should* reappear back in my account... no estimate on how long though.

I emailed Amazon, and received a reply basically stating that pre-authorisation was a 'security feature' designed to protect their customers. OK, I can see that, but not 40 times! Luckily, the reply had an actual phone number that I called.

The helpline guy was helpful, and promised to go away and see what had happened, and to see if he could stop whatever process was doing it (it had done it twice more between my original complaint and receiving a reply).

My question is, and I know we have some banking types on here... what is the process for getting rid of these authorisations? Amazon reckon that they automatically disappear after 7-10 working days (which is bloody outrageous), and my Bank reckons that they'll stay there until Amazon stop them.

Any advice peeps?

Cheers

 

[Guest]

Have you acutally bought anything for £65 from them, its sounds like you have, so when they actually send your stuff out they will deduct the £65 from your account, the other 39 transactions will most likely stay on your account until amazon remove them. Online shopping do this all the time, eg, you buy some food and the price is "held" from your account at the bank, when they deliver the stuff the money comes out. Normally this is only a single transaction, i suspect amazon have fucked up at their end and only one £65 will actually come out of your bank but until they cancel the other 39 transactions they will stay in a sort of limbo

Hope that helps

 

[rynnor]

Pre-auths are commonly performed by Hotels at check in - as you can see it reduces the available funds.

As someone who works on ISO based Authorisation I dont think there is the concept of a pre-auth reversal however your bank could manually cancel these pre-auths at their end restoring your true available funds.

Most importantly ensure that amazon stop doing this or youll end up back at square 1.

 

[rynnor]

They will expire on their own but its a configurable amount of time so no idea - less than 28 days tho...

 

[SoWat]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I've been thinking about cancelling the actual order but I just know, now that Amazon are 'on the case', that this will screw things up further.

I think I'll get on to my bank and see if they can't manually delete them... I don't fancy waiting 28 days.

Thanks again.

 

[rynnor]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I've been thinking about cancelling the actual order but I just know, now that Amazon are 'on the case', that this will screw things up further.

I think I'll get on to my bank and see if they can't manually delete them... I don't fancy waiting 28 days.

Thanks again.

Probably a lot less than 28 days - I think thats the max - more likely a week to 2 weeks.

But yeah - try kicking the bank since its them that actually supress your available balance.

 

[MrHorus]

Upon checking my bank account online today, I noticed that my 'available balance' was around £2600 less than my Account balance.

Lucky bastard - I wish I actually *HAD* £2600 for anyone to take out of my account :|

 

[Sockstuff]

I just got the same sort of thing with them.

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.

It has come to our attention that a technical error caused multiple
shipments to be sent for your recent order #**************

Rest assured that you were charged only once for the item(s).

However, your bank may be holding authorisations for the value of the
additional shipments. An authorisation is not an actual charge to your
credit card or bank account; rather, it reserves the funds until the
transaction is either processed or cancelled. In this case, the extra
authorisation(s) will be cancelled - but some banks have been known to
hold these authorisations for 7-10 business days. You will need to
contact your bank if you wish to have this authorisation removed
sooner.

We do ask that you return the extra item(s) to us.

Please use our returns address below:

Returns Department
Amazon.co.uk
FREEPOST AT20893
Ridgmont
Bedford
MK43 0ZA

As this was our error, we hope you will accept the GBP 5.00 gift
certificate below towards any purchase from Amazon.co.uk. To redeem
this gift certificate, please follow the instructions listed at the
following help page:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/502522

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this error has caused. We
have since fixed the error, so you should not experience this problem
with any future orders. Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk.

Customer Service Department Amazon.co.uk

 

[SoWat]

It all seems to be sorted now, as my money is back in my account.

I didn't get a voucher though!

 

[Chilly]

I just got the same sort of thing with them.

Wow, an actual real email from amazon! At least they were polite and gave you a fiver for going to the trouble of slapping on sticky labels onto a few boxes and driving them to the post office.