Rapid Satllite bad experience!!!

Originally posted by Rew452
Last Thursday I called and repeatedly asked if they had in stock and could fill my order. He even checked with supervisor and was totally assured if I placed my order they would be able to ship from the warehouse..

They attached credit card in minutes, no charge but it ties up credit line.

Called them this morning and was told that my order was back ordered!!

I protested but no good couldn't even tell me where I was in line.

Found my local ABC Warehouse has some and was able to snag one; should have it by Thursday.

Called to cancel my order with Rapid and was told OK but it would take 48 hrs to 30 days to remove hold on card.!!!!!!

It seems that they are not very reputable; Take heed.

Rew

Click to expand...

I thought I'd clear this issue up, because I'm afraid you do not know how credit card processing works. When a retailer "attached credit card" as you stated, what they are doing is taking an authorization on the card, to make sure you have available credit and to hold it away from other authorizations and/or charges. e.g. If you had $1000 available credit, and RS puts an auth for $999 on your card, then if you attempted to charge a $1.99 BigMac at McDonalds, your cc would be declined even though your statement says $1000 available credit. When they actually want to charge the amount to your card, like when they are about to deliver, then they "settle the charge against the auth", meaning they were already holding the credit, now they are claiming it. But if the retailer does nothing with this held authorization, like for several (14+) days, then your issuing bank will release the authorization, assuming that the retailer no longer needs the credit. This is why you will see retailers that have you on a wait-list re-authorizing your card over and over again, because they are keeping the hold against your available credit so you can't go blow it on something else and not leave them enough credit to claim. Now, when you cancel an order, they basically take you off their wait list and they tell the bank to release the auth, but it's not their problem to actually release the authorization in your account and free up the credit. That is completely up to your bank. So when Rapid Satellite is telling you that it will take a few days for the hold on your credit card to release, they are making an estimate. Some banks will release the auth the next day, but some banks don't release the auth for upwards of 14-21 days. So if you want to make sure the auth is released as per RS request, then contact your issuing bank directly.

Believe me, this is a common misconception of how credit works. I have to explain this to customers at least 1-2 times a week that we are not holding their credit.

I wonder if the above explanation about "how credit works" isn't pretty much beside the point in the present case.

There is a legitimate reason for a hotel to put a "hold" on your cc when you check in, as they expect you to accumulate charges approximating the held amount over the next few days. However, AFAIK, they don't put the hold on your cc two or three weeks before you arrive.

In the case of a retailer, I can see no legitimate reason to put a hold on the customer's account for back-ordered merchandise. As I understand the above explanation, a retailer's basic objective in doing this is to tie up your cc and thus prevent you from spending your money elsewhere, not to protect himself from non-payment.

The retailer, of course, has the opportunity to process the CC charge normally when he ships the item, so he has no risk of sending the item to you and not being paid.

Although I suppose it's not strictly illegal, an ethical retailer will not charge your cc or put a hold like this against your account until he has the merchandise in hand, ready to ship. And if the funds cannot be released promptly, then the retailer has even less justification for putting a hold on them. Finally, he is the one who created the problem, not the bank, and he should see that is corrected without the customer having to contact the bank himself.

IMO, this explanation does nothing to let Rapid off the hook, especially in view of the misrepresentations they made about having the item in stock.

I did a Yahoo search looking to see if there were other people having problems with Rapid satellite. I see there are many out there. I will never deal with them again and I hope others will stay away. We ordered DirectTV through them and were supposed to get a refund on our shipping, plus a DVD player. After 7 months we got the check for shipping but they won't give us the DVD player. The girlfreind called and worked with a rep so the paper work would be EXACTLY what they required. after many calls later, 3 weeks ago we finally got conformation that it would be sent, and should be recieved within 2 weeks. Yesturday she called and another rep told her we didn't get the paper work right and they were not going to send it. She then transfered to another rep who told her the paper work was turned in too late and they were not going to send it. She then talked to the manager and he told her another story about not having enough bill copies. IMO they are crooked liers and should be stayed away from. Thanks for the link Axiom.