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I got a call yesterday similar to calls I get at least 20 times a day and this type of call is usually very simple. The failed credit card.
Sometimes when we put the charge through on the credit card the customer's credit card issuer won't let us. First our computer system automatically tries the card a few hours later. If it still fails the customer receives an email telling them to call us. If we don't hear from them in 24 hours we make a phone call to the customer. If we still don't hear back in 48 hours the order gets canceled.
Well this know-it-all douche-nozzle placed an order for under $20 and got the credit card failure email. I knew he was going to be trouble because from the beginning he is talking to me in a pseudo-businessman tone (trying to sound professional and stuffy). He starts off telling me the name of the person that sent him the email (who sent it doesn't matter, I've never had a customer mention the name before). He then quickly blurts out his order number in the middle of his rant so I pull it up. At this point I manage to momentarily take control of the call and let him know "for security purposes can you please confirm you billing address?" it takes him a few seconds to grasp YES he has to give the info to me and NO I will not give him ANY information until he does.
Before he can continue ranting again I chime in "I see we had trouble getting credit card authorization on your Mastercard ending in XXXX, the most likely reason for that to happen in your credit card # or expiration date may have accidentally been entered incorrectly" For a moment he was actually quiet reasonable and said something along the line of he was fairly sure he entered it all correctly but he might have made a mistake.
So I verify all his info as minutely a possible (the bigger jerk you are the more I verify to death). I go over his billing name, address (he claims he street has no designation at the end but I latter find him to be wrong, it ends in St, thanks USPS.com), I then ask him the phone number his credit card company has on file for him (I already have the phone he provided when he placed the order, but because these are often not the number the issuer has on file I ask directly). He gives me the phone number and goes into a two minute long tirade on how he is on the national do not call list and he wants NO PHONE CALLS trying to sell things. I advise him the ONLY two purposes we use the phone number for are matching against what the bank has on file and contacting him if we have any problems concerning this order and this order only. We get through that.
I get the CC# and expiration date and the card STILL FAILS! Customer becomes livid saying that we are in the wrong for not charging a perfectly good credit card. I advise him that there are a WIDE variety of reasons why his issuer might not be letting us put this charge through and his best bet is to contact his credit card issuer and give us a call back.
Then he changes rants on me he asks out of the blue "Does your company only conduct business under the names AB and/or ABC?, Do you have warehouses in Texas under either of those names?" Being the over-thinker I am, I know exactly what he is getting at so I cut him off at the chase. I answer NEITHER of his questions I jump straight into what he is really asking and reply, the reason you are being charged Texas state sales tax is because due to Federal mail orders laws if we have a physical business entity in your state we MUST charge sales tax of that state and because we have stores in all 50 states we must charge tax according to the laws of your state. The customer tells me that I am wrong and the law says we must have a warehouse in his state. I further advise him that we use a nationally know tax database software program called Taxware to calculate all taxes and we charge all tax in compliance with state, local, and federal laws.
He goes back to ranting about his failed credit card and I sternly remind him that his best bet is to contact the card issuer. I do my closing and ask if there is anything else I can help him with. He says "just make my perfectly good credit card go through NOW!" I remind him to contact his credit card issuer and call us back and he hangs up on me.
He must have some sense because he called us back about 30 minutes later and spoke to a lady who sits near me. He told her his CC issuer blocked the charge due to the number of transactions he made in that day and that if we retried the card it would go through. She explained that we only have the last 4 numbers on file so in order to rerun his card we MUST get the whole card # and expiration date. He insists we can do it his way (we can't) and that he will have a supervisor do it for him. She places him on hold to be transfered to a supervisor and the customer hangs up.
Customer calls back and actually stays on the line long enough to get a supervisor. Customer has apparently lost his mind, he tells supervisor I pulled up his order with his telephone number (not true and not possible) and I re-ran his card without getting the number from him (not true or possible, and I had him convinced he might have mistyped the card #). So he is demanding the supervisor do what he says I did. Supervisor talks to me I tell him what went down, we both comment on what an asshole the customer is. Supervisor gets back to customer advises him no full card number = no retry = no order. Customer lies some more saying it would have been impossible for me to get card # because customer has a back injury and can't read the credit card number. He starts ranting some more about do not call list refuses to give card # and hangs up. Supervisor and I note the order to death so no one gets blind-sided if he calls back. Even left a note for admin (the callback people) that they might not want to call about the cc failure because dude is so adamant about do not call list (legally we can call him because we have an established business relationship and he hadn't directly asked us not to call for business needs, came close in his rants but never quiet made it to the finish). I can't wait to see how this ends.
Sometimes when we put the charge through on the credit card the customer's credit card issuer won't let us. First our computer system automatically tries the card a few hours later. If it still fails the customer receives an email telling them to call us. If we don't hear from them in 24 hours we make a phone call to the customer. If we still don't hear back in 48 hours the order gets canceled.
Well this know-it-all douche-nozzle placed an order for under $20 and got the credit card failure email. I knew he was going to be trouble because from the beginning he is talking to me in a pseudo-businessman tone (trying to sound professional and stuffy). He starts off telling me the name of the person that sent him the email (who sent it doesn't matter, I've never had a customer mention the name before). He then quickly blurts out his order number in the middle of his rant so I pull it up. At this point I manage to momentarily take control of the call and let him know "for security purposes can you please confirm you billing address?" it takes him a few seconds to grasp YES he has to give the info to me and NO I will not give him ANY information until he does.
Before he can continue ranting again I chime in "I see we had trouble getting credit card authorization on your Mastercard ending in XXXX, the most likely reason for that to happen in your credit card # or expiration date may have accidentally been entered incorrectly" For a moment he was actually quiet reasonable and said something along the line of he was fairly sure he entered it all correctly but he might have made a mistake.
So I verify all his info as minutely a possible (the bigger jerk you are the more I verify to death). I go over his billing name, address (he claims he street has no designation at the end but I latter find him to be wrong, it ends in St, thanks USPS.com), I then ask him the phone number his credit card company has on file for him (I already have the phone he provided when he placed the order, but because these are often not the number the issuer has on file I ask directly). He gives me the phone number and goes into a two minute long tirade on how he is on the national do not call list and he wants NO PHONE CALLS trying to sell things. I advise him the ONLY two purposes we use the phone number for are matching against what the bank has on file and contacting him if we have any problems concerning this order and this order only. We get through that.
I get the CC# and expiration date and the card STILL FAILS! Customer becomes livid saying that we are in the wrong for not charging a perfectly good credit card. I advise him that there are a WIDE variety of reasons why his issuer might not be letting us put this charge through and his best bet is to contact his credit card issuer and give us a call back.
Then he changes rants on me he asks out of the blue "Does your company only conduct business under the names AB and/or ABC?, Do you have warehouses in Texas under either of those names?" Being the over-thinker I am, I know exactly what he is getting at so I cut him off at the chase. I answer NEITHER of his questions I jump straight into what he is really asking and reply, the reason you are being charged Texas state sales tax is because due to Federal mail orders laws if we have a physical business entity in your state we MUST charge sales tax of that state and because we have stores in all 50 states we must charge tax according to the laws of your state. The customer tells me that I am wrong and the law says we must have a warehouse in his state. I further advise him that we use a nationally know tax database software program called Taxware to calculate all taxes and we charge all tax in compliance with state, local, and federal laws.
He goes back to ranting about his failed credit card and I sternly remind him that his best bet is to contact the card issuer. I do my closing and ask if there is anything else I can help him with. He says "just make my perfectly good credit card go through NOW!" I remind him to contact his credit card issuer and call us back and he hangs up on me.
He must have some sense because he called us back about 30 minutes later and spoke to a lady who sits near me. He told her his CC issuer blocked the charge due to the number of transactions he made in that day and that if we retried the card it would go through. She explained that we only have the last 4 numbers on file so in order to rerun his card we MUST get the whole card # and expiration date. He insists we can do it his way (we can't) and that he will have a supervisor do it for him. She places him on hold to be transfered to a supervisor and the customer hangs up.
Customer calls back and actually stays on the line long enough to get a supervisor. Customer has apparently lost his mind, he tells supervisor I pulled up his order with his telephone number (not true and not possible) and I re-ran his card without getting the number from him (not true or possible, and I had him convinced he might have mistyped the card #). So he is demanding the supervisor do what he says I did. Supervisor talks to me I tell him what went down, we both comment on what an asshole the customer is. Supervisor gets back to customer advises him no full card number = no retry = no order. Customer lies some more saying it would have been impossible for me to get card # because customer has a back injury and can't read the credit card number. He starts ranting some more about do not call list refuses to give card # and hangs up. Supervisor and I note the order to death so no one gets blind-sided if he calls back. Even left a note for admin (the callback people) that they might not want to call about the cc failure because dude is so adamant about do not call list (legally we can call him because we have an established business relationship and he hadn't directly asked us not to call for business needs, came close in his rants but never quiet made it to the finish). I can't wait to see how this ends.
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