I want YOUR money!!

[MikeH]

One of the biggest annoyances I get is when someone places an order and the CC is declined, so after getting a phone call or e-mail they call in to fix it and want us to run their card again right then when they're on the phone. It doesn't work that way. Cards are run when the automated "pick" system chooses in stock items to go into the next shipment round. During the week it happens maybe half a dozen times a day...but on Fridays it stops after around midday (maybe earlier) and doesn't start again until late Sunday when they start picking for Monday shipments. We can't manually run it, it just doesn't work that way. No amount of yelling at me or anyone else is going to change that - IT'S AUTOMATED!!

Having worked in this sort of industry, I know that for most automated systems, *somewhere* on the backend is a human-workable GUI. My last position like this used Authorize.net as their automated payment provider, complete with web-site API scripts and such that tied it all together. Another company I worked for liked using PayPal Merchant Services (ex Verisign, aka PayFlow/Cybercash, NOT the paypal.com consumer oriented site).

My employers' sites would take orders, auth against the API at the payment processor; get a response code and then the order system would continue or stop processing the order (initial auth) at which point if it succeeded, as the order batch closed, the next process was queued to finalize the transaction.

I got phone calls asking to change CC info, re process it, figure out why it was being declined (shipping vs billing address 99% of the time) etc. I had access to the human-accessible GUIs.

So, its not entirely unreasonable to be asked questions such as this; unfortunately your company does not choose to make the user interface accessible to CSRs, probably due to volume and potential fraud issues.

[Kristev]

I'm certainly not paying for her insurance claim. I don't even like paying for things for my mother. (Mainly because she always pretends loans didn't happen just to escape paying them, and I have to fight her tooth and nail for every orange penny. It wouldn't be so bad, if she didn't think of me as her own personal backup bank account. Not good since I'm unemployed right now.)

[Mamochan]

So, its not entirely unreasonable to be asked questions such as this; unfortunately your company does not choose to make the user interface accessible to CSRs, probably due to volume and potential fraud issues.

The company I work for has completely blocked all human interface to the billing system including access to the card data itself. If the user messed up the data they were on the hook for correcting it from the website and there is very little we can do to help them. This was in response to the sheer amount of credit card fraud that is going on in the world. Basically, company's idea is that if no human ever touches it we will never be able to be held responsible for the fraud or identity theft.

Annoying? yes, but better in the long term.

[Sparky]

Can you find out what drugs this woman is on? Because I want some like that.

[taxguykarl]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

That's for sure, Mongo. Was the operation a brain tumor removal? Oh sure, CSR's have access to the payment system and pay claims based on who makes the most noise.

[XCashier]

Can you find out what drugs this woman is on? Because I want some like that.

Trust me, you don't. Not if you don't want to end up like her.

Love the pic, Mongo. Here's another appropriate one:

[Thatgirl71]

Seriously, what a nutbag. I think I need an aspirin and a nap after reading about this one.

[Bright_Star]

Honestly now, if you had that kind of money you wouldn't need to be working!

[MoonCat]

Duuuuuhhhhhhhh......

[HappyFun Ball]

After reading this one, my brain resorted to the blue screen of death.. I had to reboot it.

[thehuckster]

After reading this one, my brain resorted to the blue screen of death.. I had to reboot it.

You should get an iBrain. They never BSOD. This one, though, did cause a beachball cursor to display and lock up my brain for about 5 minutes before it finally continued again, but I forgot what I had just read.

[freaktard]

After reading her blog, I honestly wonder how the poor girl has any brain cells left at all.

[laborcat]

Wow... that stupid smacked me so hard my brain is splattered on the wall over the stove. Two rooms away.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Me - Er...ma'am...just to clarify...are you suggesting that I pay customer claims out of my own personal bank account, with my own personal money?

SC - Yes! Exactly! And I wanna know why you're taking to long to pay me my money!

Me

Here Lies Irv's Brain
As If He Was Doing Anything Productive With It Anyway

[tilly101]

After reading her blog, I honestly wonder how the poor girl has any brain cells left at all.

If I wasn't able to vent on the blog and on this forum, I would have gone crazy a lonnnng time ago