[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Software Purchase Causes Debit Card Problems here

[charles849]

Thanks I'm going thru something like this as we speak Driver Detective advertise using one price and then somewhere down the line it jump up another $10 . Then to add insult to injury its not what I need . GULP I used my debit card . the bank says I can do nothing till it post to my account . NO response from Driver Detective

[coastie65]

That is one of the problems with Debit Card purchases. You are not afforded the protections that you would get with a credit card. About 2 1/2 weeks ago, I found out that my bank has a protection of sorts on my Debit card. I was trying to purchase a new HDTV with my Debit Card, and it wouldn't approve it. I called my bank, and as it turned out, my bank had a $500 daily limit on purchases on my card, based on past useage. They raised the limit to $2000 so I could complete the purchase. I could have used a credit card, but had paid them off some time ago, and didn't want to start again, but guess I could have just paid the thing in full again, when I got my statement. I have had similar incidents, where I entered the wrong expiration date of my card, but didn't have any problems as to the overall billing. coastie65

[charles849]

hey coastie , we finally to get to converse. driver detective eventually contacted me give me a list of hoops to jump thru , all having to use their irrelevent product . I thought I had a software problem turns out it was hardware. wish me luck getting my money back. did anyone ever come foward to claim the super PC ? I'll bet the guy not going to enjoy it as much as I would...lol

[coastie65]

Hey Charles, yeah, I think somebody claimed it and PC World is in the process of doing an article. Good luck on getting that issue resolved. I had signed up for another driver update service, but never used it as I could always find the drivers anyway. $29.95 down the tubes for the first year and I didn't renew that thing. Again good luck. I need to go over to the Security area and post an e-mail I just received about a real nasty Virus that will fry your HDD if you open the e-mail. coastie65

[Stars68502]

With only 4 comments, I am not sure if this article warrants a post. Sadly, the article is grossly inaccurate.
First of all, the order was processed using her credit card. The three digit value is the card security card. A four digit value would be the pin number for a debit card. This means that the consumer had the full protection of credit card purchase.
Second, I am a bit stumped that anyone could complete a purchase in Euros and not notice it. However, this was not the British store. Great Britain uses the Pound not the Euro.
And yes, there were other "charges" on the card. They were authorizations. This is the same process used by gas stations. When you pay from the pump, the gas station places an authorization on your card for an amount much higher than most tankfuls. When the tank is filled, the actual charge hits the card.
With debit cards or cards tied to a checking account, those funds are secured. Which means you can't spend it until the authorization clears.

[coastie65]

Hi Stars and welcome to the forum. Another thing about a card tied to a checking account. They usually have a daily spending limit, based on past spending history placed on them, as I found out when trying to purchase an HDTV. I had to call the bank and raised the limit so I could complete the purchase. coastie65

[sjeldich]

Number one, no matter how frustrated you may be, never under any circumstances click more than once when trying to make a purchase online. This tends to bring the "I was billed twice" when I only wanted to buy one.

[maceman1]

That would be the way a normal system works, but Archos uses the address and everything to verify. Amber did a great job going through each email and emails sent by Archos to be able to put together this story. She didnt receive a laid out letter describing everything. It was long process she had to go through correspondence between Archos and myself to put together this story. The security code was only put in wrong one time and it was from some US Robotics rebate cards I finally got. I was seeing if they would work in Archos sytem. When they emailed me I didnt know that a quarter of the article would be based on that, but I really dont mind. She helped me get my money when Archos wouldnt even give me the time of day.

I still havent got my debit cards to work on their sytem to date. The Rebate cards I tried using the address of the place that the card came (the issuers that USR went through) and it worked. I couldnt believe it. So now I ahve two plug ins for my Archos besides the web browser.
As for the Euro thing I dont know, I registered with my address in the US and the credit card in the US. I thought their whole system was a sham. It doesnt matter if you log in. Whenyou go through and click to add something to your basket if you dont click a little box in the upper right hand corner that says where your from then you automatically get put in the European server.

Another thing they kept saying was that the the Euro system has the same guards on it, but my argument was it cant or I wouldnt have gotten through. So the system is based in this flaw or design to trick people like that. Then they give people the response that they dont give refunds for plug ins. Most people dont have the time to mess with it and ignore it and Archos pockets the money.

Stars, I believe the Archos base is in France. Im not positive though, What is the money system used in France?

[coastie65]

France uses the Euro. coastie65

[maceman1]

Thankyou,
Coastie


I was going back over what I wrote.I wanted to clarify one thing I wrote it just didnt make any sense. In the start of the second paragraph, I was trying to explain the rebate cards and the archos sytem that thought didnt come out right at all.
When I was using the rebate cards to try to get the plug in I typed in my address and it wouldnt go through. I did this one the first on the first one. I then waited 3 days for the money to get placed back in the account. This is why I didnt use bothe right then, I didnt want to waste the money if it couldnt go back on the rebate card. The rebate card is a visa card with $20 dollars on it, the others were $10.
Anyway, the money got put back on it. I tried my address one more time with it but a different way, like with digits spelled out and not ST but street, things like that. It did not work. I then tried using the address of the company that makes them or the company that USR contracts this service to. Their information was on the paper the visa card came with. I used my name their address and it worked.


There is quite a bit to the whole story. Its hard to shrink it down into a couple of little paragraphs. I couldnt imagine Amber's end. She's got to be fair to both sides.

[coastie65]

Hey, That was one big mess. Hopefully everything has been straightened out, or on the way to be getting straightened out. coastie65

[maceman1]

Thanks I appreciate that.
So far Archos hasnt fixed their system yet, but I havent tried in a couple of months. Lets see, this started in Dec. (christams present), I emailed Amber in mid Jan. This is going on 5 to 6 months. I'll try again tomorrow and repost the results here. I have only 1 more game plug in to get for my daughter, then I can get the plug ins I want like movie plug ins(mpeg2) and stuff like that. The archos is handy little mini computer. I enjoy using more than my kid. She egts the best use from it when we go on trips and long drives. She's tried to let me get her to use like a m3 player (begged), I told not a chance in hades. $300 dollar mp3 player, she cant even keep up with her $30 one. If they would have had those little laptops out, she might got that instead.

I was reading your post coastie, your bank doing that is a pretty good idea. If you ever lose your debit cards at least the max lost is $500, but a letter saying stating this kind of protection was going would have been good. I hate waiting on th e phone in the checkout line calling the card companies (debit or credit) when you know you have the money.

[coastie65]

Yeah, I was unaware of the Bank doing that until I was ready to close the deal on the HDTV and couldn't get approval. Fortunately, there was a phone at the register so I called my Bank to find out why I couldn't get approval and found out. My nephew has a problem keeping up with stuff, but hasn't lost anything yet. He did deep six his digital camera in the pool once, and his cell phone on another another occassion. He has one of those Apple thingies that look like the iphone but it does not have the phone. He was over here one evening while his folks were out and tried to download some tunes on it, but he couldn't access the internet with that thing as I wasn't being too forthcoming with the info. Actually, my router is hardwired to the computer and I have never set up a wireless connection on it as there was no need. Anyway, as bad as things seemed to be at your end, I can only imagine what must have been like at Amber's end of things. coastie