Dealer Tells Me To Get Lost

https://www.martins-philatelie.com/login.html

This French dealer sort of set me back recently. I'd surfed onto his site and decided to order some year sets. There was an issue on checkout with my credit card. His checkout screen had the message that 'your bank has declined this purchase'. I messaged him asking if there was some issue on his end. When no reply after 24 hours I just told him to cancel. He has now replied with a terse message denying any issue on his end and.. told me he was cancelling my account and asked that I go elsewhere for purchases. I think he believes I tried to pay him with a bad credit card.

I'm glad to comply, but for Gosh sake, what dealer in their right mind these days does this? I'm moving on but have to wonder if this guy has a reputation for this sort of thing. I seem to recall years back someone posting about issues with him. Life goes on..

Every time I travel out of the country, I check in with my credit card issuer so I can use the card for outside of USA purchases. I generally carry a couple spare cards and do the same with those card issuers. Perhaps the problem is with your issuer, seeing a possible fraud situation.

I've had no experience with that seller, but Climber Steve is of course correct. Credit cards used in unusual ways or in unusual places will trigger an alarm at the credit card company which will then deny the purchase, assuming the card has been stolen. Maybe that happened in this case? And once declined as perhaps stolen, the stamp dealer is going to think maybe it was stolen. That's my best guess, anyway. If you wrote him -- in your best French because, well, you know -- and explained what must have happened, and offered to make a very small purchase to try the card again, maybe he would relent? I've found Google Translate helps me in such situations.

On the other hand, I've used my credit cards to buy stamps and stamp-related material from France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Germany (and probably other countries) and never had a problem even though I never "alerted" my credit card company I'd be doing that. I might have gotten a phone call from the credit card company just for them to be sure, but that wasn't more than once. So I don't really know what happened to you.

Stamps - that sounds frustrating. I hate to say it, but I have found some people from other countries can treat Americans with contempt when things don't go as smoothly as they would like. Most transactions go off without any problems, but there are a few nasty people out there. I agree with the others - the issue may be that the card company thought there may have been something 'fishy' with the transaction. They should have called you, though, to confirm your wishes. I bought a TV on my card once (locally, at a brick and mortar store) and the card was declined. Literally, a minute later the store got a call from the card company, put me on the phone, I satisfied them that I was who they thought I was, and gave them the okey-dokey. A pain in the butt, but I got my TV and took it home.

If you can find what you were buying from this guy somewhere else, walking away may be the best thing you can do. Who needs that grief?? Just know that he is cutting off his own nose to spite his face.

Mootermutt,

This has only happened to me once in over fifty years with a US dealer. It has happened I think six times with dealers in Continental Europe. That cannot be coincidence. Yes I do think it is a form of prejudice against Americans.

I did get an alert from my card carrier asking me if I'd made this charge and I confirmed it. So he had his money then terminated the transaction. Too bad because I'd have spent some money with him but he'll never know that. What a fool.

Unfortunate, but I suspect that you're being paranoid. There may well be a degree of fraughtness in international sales, for both buyers and sellers. If a concern is raised about payment, the seller may consider it prudent to avoid any risk.

Stamps1962,

I don't know the seller personally, but as a full-time credit card merchant for 20+ years and a corporate banker before that (specializing in global payments) I think I know what happened and it appears to be a misunderstanding by both buyer & seller.

Stateside card issuers are very risk-averse to "Cardholder Not Present" transactions as the rate of fraud is much higher than Cardholder Present (and why I have to pay a much higher fee for CNP transactions) as there is no chip, PIN, swipe or signature involved.

If you didn't "pre-advise" your card issuer and hadn't used your card with that seller previously your card issuer will temporarily block that transaction (technically "Refer to Cardholder"). If you're using one of the main issuers ie Bank of America, Citi, Chase etc you can set up an alert via cell text, automated call, or email to ask for your permission to proceed. You would then advise the seller and resubmit the transaction which would then be authorized.

The seller has to worry about card fraud – if he has too many declined or disputed transactions, he can have his merchant account (and even his bank account) closed.

You mentioned that seller didn't reply within 24 hours – many full-time dealers don't work on weekends and as France is EST + 6 hours, that might explain the lack of immediate response.

Also noticed on his website that he accepts PayPal for non-European buyers without additional fees – this would have avoided the problems with this transaction and is a generous offer as he'll get charged 5-7% from PayPal in transaction & currency fees. Very rare for European dealers not to charge a fee for using PayPal.

Steve Taylor
www.stephentaylor.co.uk

p.s. he has been a dealer member of the APS in good-standing since 2000:

https://stamps.org/collect/detail-p...name/dealers

I agree with what Steve posted, several of the cards I have utilize the 'notification security feature'. I would add that I think they only do this on foreign purchases over $50, smaller purchases go through without the call back.
Don

Stamps 1962


I do not think so. I once had the same experience trying to buy from an American dealer. It is probably bad luck that something went wrong or the card was not cleared for foreign transactions as has been suggested.

Nowadays I would never dream of giving my credit card details over the web. If the seller will not accept PayPal I will not buy from them and I now stick to the online auctions like ebay, Delcampe and Hipstamp. How can you trust someone not to misuse your credit card details once they have them.

After all you do not know who is on the end of a web advert.

AQ

While the issue is probably a misunderstaning or card transaction not being recognised by the card company it is only natural that people are more ready to deal with others of the same cukture and mindset. I'm not a stamp dealer but in the early days of the net I sold some decals to 6 or 7 different countries. I found definite national stereotypes that meant I prefered to deal with some regions and nationalities than others. I could do a sale with Spaniards or Poles easily. but afterwards the Spaniard might indicate goods received thank you and that was it. the poles would tell me I had sent them overpriced merchandise and were disappointed, but never took the offered refund. whose business would I prefer. Americans (US and Canada) have a reputation of being very demanding customers. People prefer to stay with the familiar where literally and psychologically you "speak the same language."

I've fortunately encountered very few problems In many years selling on ebay. The few obnoxious buyers have all been English.