Order status: "Do Not Honour"

[HiBaller]

Once again I am given the above answer to a perfectly good card which has bought a lot of goods off the Internet. I've tried, several times, to purchase items from the N3V store over the last year and each and every time I get all the way through the order and get hung up at the end with this stupid message. If they have a verification problem, why don't they say so right at the top of the store page instead of letting people go through the painstaking process of ordering and THEN telling them their card isn't being accepted. Couple this ordering problem with the horrifying black pages filled with VERY SMALL colored fonts and there is the makings of me never returning to the store.

Is anyone else getting this "error"? I fully realize that it is now the Holiday season down-under and nobody will take action on this (probably for a long time, in my estimation).

This is really annoying to me! (/rant)

Bill

 

[martinvk]

I'm guessing but I think that the actual verification of a card is only done once all the requested items have been entered and you are at the checkout page. Verifying any earlier would be a waste of time since someone could back-out and not order right up to the last moment before checkout. If the N3V store is told to not honour the card, by the verification company, are you suggesting that they ignore the warning and accept your card anyway?

Yes it's annoying but it happens. Once had one of my cards refused at a point of sale terminal, (then paid with a different card,) only to have the same card accepted the next day at the same POS terminal. A communication glitch somewhere in the verification process? A 1 changed to a 0 along the way? Routing error? Who knows.

 

[clam1952]

If it's anything like the UK, some banks are blocking any transactions from overseas as potential fraud attempts, I had to phone my bank and get it cleared for a couple of purchases I made. I was told that any overseas transaction was viewed as potential fraud especially for smaller amounts, which they view as a possible test transaction for stolen card details. It's probably not anything to do with N3V but the card issuer that needs a kick.

 

[HiBaller]

I understand that, Martin, but my card is and has been accepted all over the web (including quite a few overseas companies). This is a recurring theme with N3V however. If they can't verify a given brand of card it would save a LOT of time if they stated that in their header.

My issuing bank already knows I do a lot of International banking, Malc. They allow every transaction that gets posted to them. Ten minutes ago, I just ordered a DVD from a Canadian firm - no problem.

Bill

 

[oknotsen]

Canada is on the same continent as you (the US), Australia is not.

Now that does sound weird or irrelevant, but it is not.

My bank has send me a letter to inform me that starting January 1st 2013 they will reject all card activity from other continents unless I have requested in advance of the payment that I want those to be accepted. A lot of banks have already introduced this rule and more and more banks are introducing this. This is to prevent illegal activity.

In other words: Maybe your bank recently introduced a similar rule. Canada is on the same continent as the US, so travel to that country is a bit more common. Australia is a different continent, so for safety reasons they locked it down unless you have requested your bank otherwise. If someone would steal your bank account info, they could try to empty your account from a different continent (with all the legal problems you can think off) and this can now be prevented.

I say contact your bank first. Who knows, maybe you are barking up the wrong tree.

 

[HiBaller]

I already have contacted my bank. Their 24/7 Customer Service tells me there are no restrictions on International banking of any sort. Good idea, but not applicable. N3V has done this several times before and every time it takes me around a month to get them to finally accept my order. The problem is on their end.

Bill

 

[martinvk]

Does anyone know who approves a credit card transaction, the issuing bank or a third party verification company? I ask because if it's the bank, then your bank would have a record of refusing those transactions initially. If not, then someone is telling N3V to not honour your card. Hard to believe that N3V would not want your money so someone is making them not want yours.

One of the bumps in the road to the smooth Internet commerce that was promised when it all started.

 

[HiBaller]

While I was connected to my bank, I asked that very question. They said, after checking their records, that the only request for verification had come from Canada (which I already knew). There were NO requests from Australia. This means, I am fairly sure, that something inside Auran/N3V or closely external told them to refuse my card. The request never made it to my bank for verification.

The ball remains in N3V's court.

Bill

 

[clam1952]

I'm guessing that the verification software is faulty or maybe it couldn't connect and you got a generic failure message.

 

[HiBaller]

Quite possibly their verification process is faulty. However, this has been going on now for over a year. Every time I try to order anything using any of three different cards I get that notice and I have to submit yet another ticket to get it fixed. The time between submission of the ticket and final solution is sometimes as long as three months. My FCT will run out Jan 20, which is why I was trying, yet again, to order a new one. Sometimes, I wonder why I bother.

Bill

 

[martinvk]

The only way to really solve this is to have the private data from N3V. Who else has this issue? Do they have anything in common? Bank, location, credit card version, etc.

Others have successfully ordered from N3V so it cannot be a common issue.

 

[clam1952]

That doesn't inspire much confidence, long shot here but are you on a fixed IP? just wondering if that's what's actually getting blocked or maybe your username, possible that something should have been reset rather than overridden without investigating the cause? Seems odd that different cards would be blocked, normal sites usually allow a different card to be used if one fails. Not suggesting you try this and I won't use them but wonder if Paypal would get through?

 

[JCitron]

I agree with Martin. This has to be looked into by N3V.

I would suggest signing up with PayPal. This has solved a lot of web purchasing issues because there no direct connection to your credit card by the place you are purchasing. PayPal is the intermediary, meaning you put in your credit card number through PayPal, and then the transaction is completed. Usually the transaction happens right off, but not always. Things can sometimes take a few hours to a day to process, but usually it's immediate.

John

 

[gawpo50]

I understand that, Martin, but my card is and has been accepted all over the web (including quite a few overseas companies). This is a recurring theme with N3V however. If they can't verify a given brand of card it would save a LOT of time if they stated that in their header.

My issuing bank already knows I do a lot of International banking, Malc. They allow every transaction that gets posted to them. Ten minutes ago, I just ordered a DVD from a Canadian firm - no problem.

Bill

As has been stated previously, N3V do not do the verification process, that is done in one of two ways, first one is by card issuer only, i.e. bank and the second, depending on whether you use Visa or MasterCard is done through a second layer of security after the bank has verified the card. If either step fails then your card is not honored. It is no use complaining to N3V about it as the problem is not theirs. It is a card issuer problem and needs to be dealt with it by them.

I have had similar problem in the past with a different site. Card would not be accepted on that site but had been used on other sites successfully. Turned out to be a routing problem on the bank end. Once fixed, I never had any more problems.

Peter

 

[HiBaller]

I have ad extremely bad experiences with PayPal both times I tried to sign up. The first time, within two months of doing so, I got an email telling me that my data 'might' have been compromised. I had my account cancelled. Against my better judgement, I tried again about a year later and they kept messing with my account so badly that payments never came through in a timely manner (especially with Amazon) so I cancelled again. I don't intend to try a third time.

As I've said, I enjoy purchasing goods from all over the world and have had NO problems at all except with N3V. Either they've subscribed to a bad/sloppy verification service, or the request gets rejected out of hand immediately within their purchasing servers.

Bill

 

[HiBaller]

@gawpo50: That may very well be true however the request never made it to my bank according to the person I talked (at length) to. That would indicate that something at their end is causing the failure.

I am just now going to wait until I get contacted by N3V about this and see what they have to say. Speculation here isn't productive at all.

Bill

 

[johnwhelan]

I would suggest paypal as well. Banks and credit cards are getting to be a pain in the neck. On three recent trips to the UK my credit card has been frozen despite the card being on "travel status" for the UK for the period. Normally it's get the wife to call them and get it lifted except the last time when I couldn't be bothered and don't even talk to be about American Express travellers cheques, I spent an hour in a bank trying to cash them but they couldn't contact American Express, and my Canadian bank card which I'd been assured would work in the UK apparently was the wrong type. They gave me a new one when I got back and said that the new one should work though.

Cheerio John

 

[ZecMurphy]

Good Morning All
If you are repeatedly seeing this error, then please contact the helpdesk. We cannot provide assistance with credit card payment issues on our public forums.

However, as per the support section of the simulator central website:

It is possible that your card is not being accepted by our payment gateway or that you have entered the details incorrectly. Please check that you have sufficient funds in your account and that all details are entered correctly. Also check with your bank that your card is permitted to pay for overseas transactions (specifically, check that you are able to make payments to Australia).

I will also add to this, please ensure that you are able to make payments in Australian Dollars, as all orders are in AUD.

Regards

 

[HiBaller]

Zec:

I am repeatedly seeing this error and have opened a ticket on the helpdesk.

I have ordered before, using the same card, and, yes I know the funds are in AUD. My bank is also aware of this as I have already contacted them as indicated above. My first thought was that I mis-typed information but that is not the case. Everything I typed was correct. The pop-up informing me that it was rejected happens immediately, certainly less than half a second after clicking the continue button. Half a second is NOT fast enough to confirm anything from your purchase server to my banking here.

I agree that anything further should be moved to private communications.

Bill