Originally Posted by s0ssos

The problem is when you say the merchant is being truthful you mean their definition of "decline".
As someone said, often it is "declined" but when you call the credit card company they will say there was never a request.
In reality, when a merchant says it is "declined" it can be anything from "our internet connection was bad so it didn't go through" to "the credit card company said no, and will be contacting you about a fraudulent charge soon"