Imaginary Landscape
RSS FeedImaginary is sending out a large marketing mailing. We have hundreds of small boxes being sent first class mail. Since we do not have a postage machine and I did not want to affix 4 separate postage stamps to each box, I signed up with Stamps.com.
The account requires a credit card in order to pre-purchase postage, so I put down an American Express and proceeded to purchase about $900 in postage.
Stamps.com only allows accounts to hold $250 in total postage, so it required several purchase-print-purchase-print cycles to get all the postage I needed. I started with $100 and printed some postage. That worked, so I bought another $200 and printed some more. I then attempted to buy another $150 and was denied with the unhelpful message, "The charge was unsuccessful. Check your information and try again." I did and was denied again.
A couple minutes later I received the following e-mail message:
Dear Brian,
We were not able to process the following transactions(s). You may continue to print postage with the funds currently in your account. Please follow the instructions below to process your recent purchase.
DATE DESCRIPTION PAYMENT METHOD AMOUNT
-------------------------------------------------------
10-21-2009 07:56 PDT the credit card charge is refused American Express $150.00
Your payment was not authorized by your issuing bank, and Stamps.com was not able to charge your credit card. Please contact your credit card service or bank, and confirm the following:
- The credit card is activated and in good standing.
- Adequate credit is available on the account for this transaction.
- The account does not have an Internet or phone order block.
- Non-travel related transactions are allowed on the account.
- The bank does not request voice authorizations for any Stamps.com transactions.
The e-mail indicated that AmEx denied the purchase. I figured that AmEx saw a series of online charges in rapid succession and activated some safeguard. I called, spent some time on hold and finally reached a human.
"There is no hold on your account. We only received two charges from Stamps.com and approved them both."
I was confused, since the e-mail clearly stated it was a problem with my credit card. I called Stamps.com customer service, spent some more time on hold and finally reached a human.
Stamps.com did indeed put a lock on my account because my account was new and the charges were large and in rapid succession. After I verified myself, they happily removed the lock.
I thought I would be helpful and let them know that their notification e-mail was wrong and should be corrected. That's when the world turned upside down.
They said the error was on purpose.
"Our e-mail message specifically points to the credit card company, even though the lock came from us. In the case of a stolen card, this message gives the impression that the card is no longer useful, causing a thief to stop using it. If we had communicated that the lock came from us, a thief would know the card was still valid and continue to use it elsewhere. We apologize for the confusion, but it is for your protection."
This is both flawed and irritating. It is flawed because in order to truly protect me, a thief must have stolen both my credit card as well as the e-mail account that received the notice. It is irritating because it specifically, and with pre-meditation, sent me on a wild goose chase.
A wag of my finger to you, Stamps.com.
Updated 07/14/10 @ 10:37AM CDT by brian
Categories: Rants User Interface
