Tried to migrate - card payment failed!

[LadFromWales85]

Hey all.

On my trek back to F2S. Got right to the end of the sign up page, clicked submit, then got a lovely 'declined' message!

Called my debit card issuer, who checked with the switch department, and found multple failed attempts at debiting £74.98 from my account.

Which can only mean:
£24.99 for the service
£49.99 for activation

When I called F2S and queried this, the assistant insisted that F2S would be trying to debit £24.99 and £24.99 only, as it was a migrate. Called card issuer again, who checked who tried debiting the funds, and it was infact F2S. Call F2S again, who still don't really give me a clear answer, apart from saying "perhaps you didn't enter your MAC key correctly".

Even got the assistant to attempt the migration herself. Went through the form, got to the end, declined again, a quick call to card issuer reveals yet another 74.98 attempt!

I see no reason why F2S should even be attempting to take this extra £49.99 from me, considering I am migrating, it the confirm form states that migrate is £0.00, and the total amount is £24.99 monthly.

The assistant suggested I wait until tomorrow, when apparently the system will have 'cleared' of the issue, and it will apparently work correctly then.

I can't believe that even with my card issuer telling me that there were £74.98 attempts, that the assistant would totally deny that this was how much they were trying to take. She constantly insisted that it was £24.99 and not £74.98.

In this situation, think I'd believe my card issuer! Not like they just make up a figure now is it

[John R]

Sounds like a bad mac code as lady said, either that or you found a bug in the system.... But considering all the inbound migrations of late its certainly strange.
Just wondering why your card Co is declining the payments ? Mind you its lucky they are for you...

[LadFromWales85]

MAC code was confirmed correct, after she suggested I entered it incorrectly. When I told her I copied and pasted it, she did a check, and confirmed it was correct.

My card co is declining the payment as I don't have £74.98 in the account for them to take, heh. If the MAC was incorrect, then surely the sign up form would say so, rather then saying its going to take £24.99, then taking £74.98?

What do you mean 'Mind you its lucky they are for you...' ?

[John R]

What i ment by "Mind you its lucky they are for you" is that most banks would just have processed the transaction then added a nice bill for you going over your limit...
Seems you have found a bug then.
Maybe the form is set to ignore incorrect mac codes and just process as a new sign-up.

Originally Posted by John R

Sounds like a bad mac code as lady said

If it were a bad MAC key then wouldn't the order have been rejected?

[LadFromWales85]

John R: So, if you went to purchase goods or services online, got to the checkout, the total said £50, but when you checked your transaction information, and £100 had been taken, you would be happy with this?

[stephen_ex-f2s]

Hi,

If you're migrating we won't take anything for the activation, nor will we take anything until you're connected to us. However I believe you might be right in that we're attempting to check for £49.99. We're not invoicing you there and then, however. It's just a credit check.

If it's still causing you problems please let me know, and I'll see if I can get that fixed. I'm not sure how quickly or easy it can be altered though, as it's coded in there for the benefit of new installations.

[LadFromWales85]

Thats the sort of answer I was looking for.

The staff on the phone wouldn't tell me that though, and instead insisted that £24.99 was being taken, and totally denied the fact that £74.98 was in fact being taken.

stephen_f2s, if I pm you my MAC key and adsl phone number, can you check if the key is correct? I'm pretty sure it is, I don't think an ISP would deliberately give a customer an incorrect one, to keep them there.

Don't worry about changing it so that it only takes the £24.99, my balance has now dropped below that! I get paid on Friday, so that is when I will try to migrate over again

I don't know if this 'bug' only exists for people adding it to a previous f2s account, rather than signing up as a totally new user?

[stephen_ex-f2s]

Well I've only had a query like this once before. And it seems like too much of a coincidence that when checking for £24.99 on the authorisation check it comes up as £74.98 which is 24.99+49.99, and 49.99 being the cost for a new activation. That amount won't get taken in any case, but then if so, there's not really much need to check for it. I'll see if I can get it fixed though.

Just place the order as normal if you can. The order process doesn't check the MAC number at that stage anyway. The MAC number validation comes later on when your order gets submitted in an XML batch to one of BT Wholesale's systems.

[John R]

Originally Posted by LadFromWales85

John R: So, if you went to purchase goods or services online, got to the checkout, the total said £50, but when you checked your transaction information, and £100 had been taken, you would be happy with this?

No i would not be happy...
but many card co's would happly make the transaction and leave it up to you to complain later.....
Hats off to your card co.

[John R]

Originally Posted by mark

If it were a bad MAC key then wouldn't the order have been rejected?

That was the thinking behind the extra £49.99, that entering a duff mac code would allow tranaction to go through, but you would get charged for a new activation.

[LadFromWales85]

I'll log into my f2s account on friday, and attempt to add connect plus to it then, as I don't have enough money now, heh, BT phone bill took all my money!

Looking forward to being back with F2S, not that eclipse gives me any problems, its just that my usage, including all hours of the day, and upload, barely ever gets over 40gb a month, with lots of that being at night, when I'm home from work

Originally Posted by John R

That was the thinking behind the extra £49.99, that entering a duff mac code would allow tranaction to go through, but you would get charged for a new activation.

I disagree.

[donegal]

Originally Posted by mark

I disagree.

So do I. Wouldn't everything just ex/im/plode once the duff code was sussed by the software?

[LadFromWales85]

Well, if it went and actually charged me £49.99 for a new activation if the MAC was indeed incorrect, then I wouldn't be a happy camper at all. Firstly, a new activation would fail as the line is still connected with another ISP, and secondly because the sign up form said it was taking £24.99 and not £74.98

But as said, the credit check amount is based on a new customer amount, so it appears to add the cost of activation to the check, even if you are migrating...

[donegal]

Originally Posted by LadFromWales85

Well, if it went and actually charged me £49.99 for a new activation if the MAC was indeed incorrect, then I wouldn't be a happy camper at all. Firstly, a new activation would fail as the line is still connected with another ISP, and secondly because the sign up form said it was taking £24.99 and not £74.98

But as said, the credit check amount is based on a new customer amount, so it appears to add the cost of activation to the check, even if you are migrating...

Have to say, my confidence in guys like stephen_f2s, jamie_f2s, henry, brian, etc. is strong enough (given the evidence I have seen on these pages and over at AG) that if anything went dodgy, these guys would be there to sort it.

And that's why I signed with f2s. 'Cos I read all the forums first.

[plesbit]

Originally Posted by donegal

And that's why I signed with f2s. 'Cos I read all the forums first.

Agreed. In fact, after more than a year with Demon who bent over backwards to have no customer contact at all, if they could help it, when I was looking to move ISP I actively read the forums of all candidates and good ISP participation was a leading factor in my decision.

Given what an effective tool for communication forums are, I find the refusal of some ISP's to get involved very short sighted indeed. The number of questions which have been answered in forums, and the number of announcements made, just think how many fewer emails and phone calls to the ISP there are as a result.

Mind you, I recently told a friend about the F2s upgrade to webspace etc and he complained that F2s never announce these things so I suggested (and not for the first time) that he actually starts reading this forum and the one at ADSLGuide.

Mind you, in fairness, the F2s website has not publicised any of the recent increases in this that and the other - unless you actually go digging into the specifics of the available packages and associated add ons.

[LadFromWales85]

At least they are service upgrades rather than downgrades

[plesbit]

Originally Posted by LadFromWales85

At least they are service upgrades rather than downgrades

Oh I'm not complaining! See here.

[artee2]

[QUOTE=LadFromWales85]Well, if it went and actually charged me £49.99 for a new activation if the MAC was indeed incorrect, then I wouldn't be a happy camper at all.
QUOTE]

I once attempted to buy an Acer laptop and got a call from Visa to confirm that I had actually made 11 orders to a total value of £18,414.

evidently the rep who placed the order was not getting the right code back on his system so just kept entering it

In the end it was out of stock anyway and I bought a Sony

Compared with MOST companies nowdays f2s CS, works like CS did when I was a lad and people actually valued your custom rather than take it for granted

( I think I am turning into my Father)

Bob

[LadFromWales85]

Visa: Hey there. We're just calling you to confirm that you did infact place 11 identicle orders with Acer
You: No! One order, just the one!

I have an acer laptop I love its 1400x1050 resolution (no its not wide before anyone suggests it is )

[stephen_ex-f2s]

Ladfromwales: We think we've fixed the bug where the auth checks for £49.99. Feel free to retry and let me know of any problems.

[LadFromWales85]

I would, but my bank account balance is now very very low, a whole £12.52, until I get paid tomorrow...

I will put in my migration tomorrow, as there will be money there then! I don't have a credit card, so that isn't an option, even so, its only one day

Glad to hear you've fixed the bug!

[LadFromWales85]

Put in my migration, it did indeed take £24.99 this time, instead of £74.98

I see I'm on gw6 this time...was gw5 the last...and the IP range isn't 195.137 anymore, not that its a problem

Looking forward to being back on the only ISP that has ever actually tried to fix connectivity problems, rather than just blaming the user, or not even attempting to fix it at all!

Really hope the problem that hit me with F2S previously, doesn't strike again! My upload was spiking up and down, between 0 and 70kb, rather than staying at a steady 30~ which caused anything involving transferring both directions (even browsing) going very very slow! I've switched between 20:1 isp's since then though, heh

EDIT: What day does the billing period begin? does it begin on the 1st of the month, or the day you are connected? I am just wondering, because of the tables of usage