josephstern

IMHO, no one really cares about the BBB anymore. They browbeat businesses into 'joining' for a fee, and the business' ratings can't rise above a certain level unless they 'belong.'

These guys have less credibility than Yelp! at this point.

biggestbopper

I am having a lot of difficulty believing that any of these posters who want to complain to the Better Biz Bureau are even close to serious.

The Mint is a government agency and the BBB has nothing to do with it--it is not a biz.

If you were really wacky, you could complain to your Congressional Representative--but that is counter-productive.

To repeat--don't even think about killing the goose laying the golden coins. @:-)

LGA

Gets worse. The amounts of the two authorizations are the same (for the same delayed order), and the authorization from mid-February did not drop off my credit card, so now there are two authorizations and they have indeed locked up use of this card. Citi told me to call the Mint, and of course I got an agent who said she couldn't do anything. And she wouldn't give me any id number or last name, so get this info right up front or hang up and call back. Wish I had my old answering machine around so I could record the call.

ecq

two authorizations? wow that's a bit much. It's true though, the Mint can't do anything about it (at least I don't think so). Also the credit card can't do anything about it either. But maybe the Mint can not double preauthorize, so I guess they can do something.

My cc limit is $15k and I"m using the card I use daily. So if they double preauthorize then I'd be in trouble. Right now my limit is half of what it should be.

Too bad you couldn't record the call.

Happy

The merchant CAN DO SOMETHING if it wants to.

I had Hilton Portland front desk mistakenly took authorization of full rack rate on a Priceline stay. I called the hotel and talked to the guy overseeing billings. He took care of it.

From what I understand, the merchant can send a cancellation on the authorization request. I saw that being done in front of me at a hotel in New Zealand - it was a 3-nighter stay on points, but the hotel was a rather upscale hotel with high rates. Upon check-out, our bill was 0, and I requested the hotel manager to cancel the authorization as we were on the road and had 3 weeks ahead of us before returning to US. She did that and handed me the proof - a receipt showing cancellation of authorization request.

Someone taught me to use a card that you dont normally use, for check-in if you expect a 0 or very small bill on check-out. Then you switch card upon check-out, so the authorization would not affect the credit limit of the card you actually use on the trip.

deant

If you call the Mint to check status, the recording now states 5-6 weeks for you to receive the order.

josephstern

Yes - any merchant that does "Pre-authorization and capture" as two separate transactions can easily void the pre-authorization any time they want. It may take a few days for your bank to process that, but from the merchant's standpoint, it's immediate.

Now, the operator may not have had access to that level for financial transactions . . .

ecq

interesting to know... i never knew.

thebat

5-6 weeks from when? Now or when you ordered?

LGA

A second call to Citibank and a quick talk with a supervisor got the first (and expired!) authorization removed.

God, what a bother... If I weren't getting 5 TYPs/$ right now, I'd quit this.

thehawk75

You know... this is getting a little silly.

I have orders placed in early January that are now being fulfilled. It was a little aggravating it kept being fulfilled in small parts and each time my CC was charged it stepped on the toes of my AMEX TC run (because apparently AMEX considers these purchases cash equivalences and they eat up your cash advance limit for the week week even though these are not a cash advance, and that's what's needed to buy the TC's)

Most recently I just had another portion of an early January order fulfilled yesterday! And there's no rhyme or reason as to how these orders are being fulfilled. I had a $7500 order process and deliver in less than a week in early March, and a couple medium orders placed in Jan are still slowly being processed to delivery.

In the least the Mint should consider that now that we're getting beyond 3 months since the order was placed, there increases the possibility that the CC that was originally used might not be active, or in the least at some different balance in respect to credit limits that might make just arbitrarily releasing some order and successfully charging the card to not be a guaranteed thing.

thehawk75

You know... this is getting a little silly.

I have orders placed in early January that are now being fulfilled. It was a little aggravating it kept being fulfilled in small parts and each time my CC was charged it stepped on the toes of my AMEX TC run (because apparently AMEX considers these purchases cash equivalences and they eat up your cash advance limit for the week week even though these are not a cash advance, and that's what's needed to buy the TC's)

Most recently I just had another portion of an early January order fulfilled yesterday! And there's no rhyme or reason as to how these orders are being fulfilled. I had a $7500 order process and deliver in less than a week in early March, and a couple medium sized orders placed in Jan are still slowly being processed to delivery.

In the least the Mint should consider that now that we're getting beyond 3 months since the order was placed, there increases the possibility that the CC that was originally used might not be active, or in the least at some different balance in respect to credit limits that might make just arbitrarily releasing some order and successfully charging the card to not be a guaranteed thing.

jackal

Visa's systems allows a merchant to go back and process an authorization reversal (for any amount up to the full amount of the transaction), which should instantly give back the amount released into the cardholder's available credit.

MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and Diner's Club (if any still exist that are not rebranded to MasterCard) do not have that capability, and voiding an authorization will involve the merchant calling or faxing the cardholder's bank to manually request the authorization be voided.

I typed up a rather long explanation of how this all works on another forum. That post (plus the four posts following that which further explain the process, including reversals) can be viewed here.

frankcoton

Anyone know when next president will be issued. Apparently they are not going by the schedule they have listed.
I have maxed out all the presidents and native american coins for 2 cards. A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my bank almost daily.
All the tellers now know me by name, one asked me if I wanted a job there since I was there everyday.
With no coins to deposit, I am going through bank "withdrawl".

super-mileage-fan

Whenever I have a problem with government service, I just have the BBB take care of it for me.

All: please remember to read the entire thread before posting your questions! So many of the questions have already been answered!