to be cross at this comapny

[shinybaubles]

A couple of days ago I ordered a wedding ring online from them, using a creditcard, with over £2000 available on it the ring was £350. Two days later I got an email from them saying my card was not authorised - thought that was very strange, checked online and there was exactly double the amount of the ring missing from my balance. So called the creditcard company and they confirmed that the company had frozen the amount for the ring twice on my card, and that the card had not been declined.
Have now contacted the company and they keep insisting there is nothing they can do and they have not frozen the money, I am getting so frustrated as now I have no ring, and am missing £700, and the wedding is next week.

tottwriter yes I have in the last email I sent I emailed also the guy I think is in charge. I will give them until tomorrow am to respond before rethinking my plan of action. I told them what visa had said, and also mentioned that the visa people were happy to provide me with any evidence - summary I needed, I hope the more senior guy will do somehting.

Shinybaubles Assuming that you are talking about a credit not debit card not sure what the problem is as you still have £1300 available credit which should be plenty for another ring.

She wont have to pay the £700, this money is only set aside in case the merchant calls for it which they've said they wont.

It is a creditcard - more of a chargecard- where the balance is paid in full every month - the point is I am out £700 and the cost of a new ring and had earmarked the rest of the credit to pay other suppliers etc as the wedding is on Tuesday - I did this specifically because it's supposed to be safer with a creditcard -not for lack of money in bank account although things are going to be tight this month -lol
choogirl the point is I am out £700 and the cost of an alternative ring , and have had no useful info or help from the company , and now I am stressed .

OK - Don't get stressed it sounds as though the credit card company haven't properly explained the process to you.

You are not £700 out but the cc company will have reduced your available credit temporarily in case the money is called for.

If you want to pay for things on your cc but don't have enough limit - just do a faster payment into the charge card or ask for a limit increase.

The £700 will sort itself out eventually but in the meantime you will still be able to do what you need to do.

Hope the wedding goes well

It takes 10 working days for money to be credited to the card - so not an option, also not an option to increase limit as that involves sending in paperwork etc.
But thanks for the tips.

And dp has just got an email from the visa people and they tried to put it through 6 times

Shiney - if you have online banking it can be in your account in less than 2 hours.

I work in financial services and have had to do this myself on occasion.

Sounds like there has been a problem with the authorisation system not surprising really thinking of how many credit card payments are being processed at this time of year.

Hope it gets sorted soon and you have a fab day

Yes choogirl I understand that mistakes happen - we also have a merchant account - so I know a bit about how the system works,it is annoying, but what is really annoying is their attitude and constant theory of having done nothing and that they can do nothing. I have been very polite and my dp even suggested what they should do to fix it but they have their fingers in their ears and are driving me crazy.
They have 6 failed transactions, and have frozen the money twice.

Shinybaubles - the jewellers can fax your bank/credit card company stating that they can release the ring fenced money immediately. They won't want to, but they can. It is no skin of their nose to do so, even if they don't believe that their system fucked up, it will take ten minutes to send a fax. If they refuse to do this then their reputation will be smeared all over mumsnet! It's one thing for a system to make a mistake, but to refuse to sort it out is terrible.

Ask the creditcard company to increase your limit until it's sorted out. If you have reasonable credit, which you will if you pay it off every month, they should be able to do it over the phone in a few minutes.

I know it is stressful (it happened to me when I bought and £11k car!!) but it will unravel itself within a day or two.

So still no reply to the email sent yesterday and they still haven't released the money - terrible service. Dp even got the transaction numbers from Visa that they need to unfreeze the money and emailed them even telling them how they can do it - and guess what no reply.

create can't increase credit limit on phone we did ask - while they are happy to do it they need various paperwork etc, and there isno chance it would be sorted before wedding on Tuesday.

eric they won't do anything at all.

I am so very angry at their stick their head in the sand behaviour.