Getting some weirdly overlong billing delays.
3So I've been doing some account reconciliation and did a bit of a double take at things because they weren't lining up the way I had expected. And I've gotta wonder. Meh, what are you doing?
Everything from Meh shows up as a recurring payment, and the time it takes for charges to show up at my bank seems somewhat long. For examples:
Order 2/19 - Bank 2/26
Order 2/23 - Bank 3/06
Order 3/24 - Bank 3/31
Order 4/04 - Bank 04/08
Order 4/10 - Bank 04/17
Order 4/13 - Bank ... not processed yet.
I'm going to have to be extra careful to avoid an overdraft. Yikes.
- 3 comments, 12 replies
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@TellarHK I think there's a pretty simple explanation:
We use Stripe to process payments. Stripe supports a flow of payment called "auth and capture". We "authorize" the charge when you place an order and then "capture" the funds when your order has shipped.
Each bank treats these transactions a little differently. Looking over the dates you posted it seems possible that your bank is adding an additional delay. If you need us to look into a particular transaction you can send over details to https://meh.com/support
@shawn It's really just a matter of not being able to glance at my account totals a couple days after the order and feeling like the numbers are solid. For a week, I expected that the $30 camera had already been withdrawn, so I'm $30 down from where I thought. It's not going to break me, but after a number of purchases in a row, it makes things hard to track. Thanks for replying though.
Why would this cause an overdraft? It's not like you're being double charged or anything. A lot of companies don't process the payment until your item ships, so that's fairly normal, too.
@PurplePawprints It isn't a matter of double charging, it's simply that I'm accustomed to things processing within 1-2 business days of payment, especially online. So if I look at my balances, I can trust them. Since Meh doesn't place a hold on the money at all, when I look at my statement, it's likely to be inaccurate. If I were to purchase things from Meh in rapid succession, say, every 2-3 days for a week or more, it could get pretty ugly keeping track of how much money I have. That's where the danger comes in.
@TellarHK But that's due to your shitty accounting practices, not Meh. When I opened my first checking account the first thing my mother taught me was to not trust the bank's balance; it was my responsibility to write shit down and keep track of my own spending.
@PurplePawprints It's not 1992 anymore, so I guess I've just been spoiled by 15+ years of managing my books as an adult thanks to the convenience and (usual) accuracy of online banking. Modernity is wonderful, but I guess some payment processors are still using telegraphs?
@TellarHK I wasn't old enough to have a checking account in 1992 so I wouldn't know about that. I just know that my doing it the smart and responsible way doesn't have me bitching and moaning on the Internet about overdraft concerns.
@PurplePawprints Bitching and moaning about other people is way more important on the internet. Good call.
@MrMark I'm glad to see someone understands...
Amazon does the same thing - they don't charge the card until the item has left the warehouse. It's somewhat standard online, and exaggerated a bit by Meh's sometimes occurring shipping delays.
@Collin1000 Another data point... I was just charged today for the Apple Watch that I ordered 10 days ago.
@Collin1000 btw... we still have some more work to do but shipping delays are getting shorter and shorter, average time to customer service response is getting shorter and shorter, things are moving in right direction.
@Collin1000 @TellarHK And I've had a couple of orders from Amazon delayed weeks. Months, even, if I preorder a book that has not yet been released. And Amazon did not charge me until the book was released and shipped.
@shawn so the correct direction is down? good to know ;)
@chellemonkey The correct direction is down, but I'm not sure about the left and right direction. Need more data.