VENT - Account authorization charges

morte, LPN, LVN · Jun 3, 2008

I feel like an idiot for not knowing that Tafford Uniforms places an authorization charge in the amount of your order, PLUS the cost of your order, on your debit card. I ordered $45 worth of stuff knowing full well that I only had $80 in my checking account, and figured I'd be well-covered. Well, now my account's in the negative, the bank says they can't take the authorization charge off without Tafford faxing them a letter telling them to, and Tafford tells me I just have to wait until the authorization charge falls off. In the meantime? No gas for me, I guess.
Grr.

i am not following this, they charged you double? what is an authorization charge?

tachybradyRN · Jun 3, 2008

According to Tafford, when I purchased the items with my debit card, they immediately sent a "pending transaction" authorization charge of $45 to my account making sure I had the money to cover it, which I did. That was on 5/29. Then, on 6/2 when the order went through, they posted the final charge, which was also for $45. The first charge is supposed to lift within a week, but I need my money. I just wish they would have warned me that I was going to be out an extra $45 for a week. I'm just a poor, broke nursing student, haha.

morte, LPN, LVN · Jun 3, 2008

According to Tafford, when I purchased the items with my debit card, they immediately sent a "pending transaction" authorization charge of $45 to my account making sure I had the money to cover it, which I did. That was on 5/29. Then, on 6/2 when the order went through, they posted the final charge, which was also for $45. The first charge is supposed to lift within a week, but I need my money. I just wish they would have warned me that I was going to be out an extra $45 for a week. I'm just a poor, broke nursing student, haha.

i dont use my debit card in such a fashion, but this doesnt make sense to me....the second should have superceded (sp) the first....i would call them back and tell them if it isnt cleared immediately there is going to be a lot of word-of-mouth advertising, and not of the kind they would like....

KCnTexas, ADN · Jun 3, 2008

i use my debit card all of the time in this fashion and what should happen is they send the authorization charges and then when the bill is closed they are to go back to that transaction and it would be reversed and posted for the final amount. just like restaurants do when you leave a tip.

it should look something like this, sounds like they are doing something shady or the person who ran the charge did not know how to complete it and started a new one.

this is how it should look on your account.

6/3/2008preauth tran this is the preauthorization$3.12

6/3/2008d/c pos tran this is actual charge$3.12

6/3/2008atm pos clearing this is where it was credited-$3.12

missjennmb · Jun 4, 2008

this happened to me of sorts when I was moving and was going to hire a moving company. They put a pending amount of about $1200 on my card, and then called the next day to tell me that they misquoted and the cost was actually $2400. Of course I freaked and told them no thanks, but the charge sat "pending" for 7 days on my account, closing my window of opportunity to get another method of transfer before my husband had to start his new job. We ended up having to move 3 states away w/ only what we could fit in a Toyota Corolla w/ 2 adults, a 9 yr old kid, a large dog and a cat.

Their response? oops~

Its not right and its not fair, but it does happen quite often. We had some weird pending charges for our Dell purchases as well, although they came off in about 3 days (and didnt re-charge for almost 2 weeks)