<p>Okay, what if you guys bought an ebook online in the publishers site. They charge you, let's say, $84. So, you pay by credit card. There seems to be no problem. However, a few days later, you see that the charge was gone. You email them why they haven't charge you yet. They say they have system issue. Days passed, you recieve an invoice with the $84 + sales tax. Now, you have to pay $91 and you have to mail the payment in the address they give you. What would you guys do in this situation?</p>
<p>If it’s their fault, they should be trying to make it easier for you…or I guess in this hypothetical situation, me.
If I’ve received the book–and assuming it’s the worth the hassle to keep it–I’d pay, but I’m certainly not about to go out of my way to correct their mistake. I’m the customer, they ****ed up, they need to make me happy. </p>
<p>Amazon always makes me happy.</p>
<p>thanks plattsburghLoser for the reply. I really regret Not buying the book in amazon. </p>
<p>I sent them a message Sept. 12, stating that I do not think that what they did is fair, and I want my book to be cancelled. You know what they did? Just today, I found out, that they have tried to charge me for the $91. Luckily, I use shopsafe, and I set the limit to $100 which means the transaction was denied. </p>
<p>I ask for an explanation why they have to change the price, and they give me a poor excuse that it that they can only figure out the sales tax after I have made the purchase. In my case, it took them 2 weeks. I don’t know much about computer, but I have taken a programming class, and I think it only takes a few lines of code to figure out what sales tax to charge given the state or zip code provided by the customer. </p>
<p>I regret contacting them after I have notice that the charge was gone.
They are not ethical at all.</p>
<p>Don’t pay.</p>
<p>Actually, I’m not sure what the issue is. You bought an eBook for $84. They didn’t charge you right away because they were having an issue with their system. You eventually get the charge and it includes sales tax. I’m pretty sure that somewhere on their site it says that items may include sales tax. The reason they don’t know what this sales tax will be before you pay could be because they need your billing address before they know what the tax rate will be. If they’re based in your state they’re required to pay taxes to the government for every online item they sell to you, so there’s nothing unethical about them charging you for it. Some companies just eat the cost but I would hardly say it’s unethical for them to charge you.</p>
<p>In fact, you GOT the book, and it’s what you were planning to pay for, right? The only inconvenience I can imagine is having to send the money by mail, but people lived fine on that system long before the internet came around. It’s just like paying your bills. It would take maybe 15 minutes tops.</p>
<p>I understand money is tight for college students, but we’re talking $7 here that you weren’t aware you had to pay for a book I’m assuming you need. That’s like complaining that McDonalds charges extra for cheese on their burgers. Who are they to charge extra for cheese? And who are you to skip the cheese over a measly 83 cents?</p>
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<p>The agreement was to pay by credit card.</p>
<p>You have every right NOT to pay for something through a medium which you DID NOT AGREE to do.</p>
<p>By asking him to pay through mail, the company has broken the contract.</p>
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<p>The agreement was that the seller would give him the item and that the buyer would pay. Specifying exactly how the payment will take place is likely not legally binding in this situation. If the OP could make a case that it’s not possible for him to pay by mail without significant inconvenience on his part then he’d have a case.</p>
<p>Imagine if the reverse happened…the OP buys the item but his credit card is declined, but he offers to pay by sending a check in the mail. It’d be pretty douchy for the publisher to be like, “Well, we COULD accept that check, but that wasn’t the agreement. So yeah, you’re not getting your textbook. Sucks to be you.”</p>
<p>I disagree.
And the following is under the assumption that sending the payment by mail = send a check: a number of people, particularly college students ( and because this is CC, I will be sure to emphasize that “a number” =/= “all”) actually don’t have have/use paper checks anymore.</p>
<p>OP agreed to pay by credit card as that’s what s/he readily, that we know of, has access to. If they wanted a check, that’s something they should have specified before the transaction. </p>
<p>If I walk into a store, ask whether I can pay with credit card, they tell me I can, and some days after I’ve already paid for my purchase via said credit card, call me up and demand that I use another form of payment that I don’t have on me; then I’m not about to go out my way to correct their mistake.</p>
<p>The company needs to find a way so that the OP can still pay by credit card, be it PayPal or what have you. </p>
<p>And I hope they’re offering to pay to mail the payment in. Even it’s only $0.35 or however much it cost to send an envelop.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure how he pays off his credit card without a checking account.</p>
<p>And the store vs. online retailer analogy isn’t applicable. When you pay with a credit card at a store it’s immediately verified as able to pay for the item. When you pay with a credit card online, it takes them an amount of time to actually process the payment. You can see the difference when trying to pay with a debit card. If you go into CVS and try to pay with a debit card linked to a checking account that has insufficient funds, it’ll decline your debit card and you won’t be able to pay. If you order something online with the same debit card, it’ll overdraw your checking account because the retailer solidifies the transaction before the payment can actually be processed. This is a good thing because otherwise you’d be waiting a couple of days before they even considered shipping your item, but there can be glitches.</p>
<p>And stores will do that, by the way. If you pay for an item and then there’s a problem with your payment they will bill you. This most commonly happens with bounced checks because those are the only thing these days that aren’t verified immediately, but you can bet your first-born male child that they’d do the same thing if they found out days later that they couldn’t process your credit card.</p>
<p>Well, I am planning to pay. I am just mad that they are not replying in my email. They did not even tell me about the card being decline. It was decline because the first transaction was still pending, and I only set a limit of $100 in that purchase. Anything beyond that will be decline. </p>
<p>I tried calling them to correct the problem, but I found out that we have different time zones, and I need to call them before 12 pm. I am very busy in the morning. My available time is only at night. </p>
<p>How can I resolve this issue, if I can’t call them and they won’t answer my email?</p>
<p>I don’t want this to be reported to the collection agency. I just want this to be over, and never buy anything ever again in that company. I have bought an ebook before and never have problems (and the quality is good and I have unlimited views!). That’s another reason why I don’t feel like paying the $91, it is not worth it. Everytime I delete my cookies, the pages that I have bookmark and notes are gone too. So, I need to find that page again which decreases my number of views left, etc, etc.</p>
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<p>There’s this wonderful thing called “online banking”.</p>
<p>Maybe I am lost in your terminology but online banking is still a checking account. Aside from that you can get a money order as well that could pay this. </p>
<p>Sole21…Even tho you now fill the book is not worth the sale price plus shipping you only have 2 options pay the money or send the ebook back. Now there are other issues that come into play about just giving the book back. This is an e-book there is nothing stopping you from putting the book on a flash drive or printing the book and then giving the book back without paying. So they may not allow you to just give the book back without paying.</p>
<p>What would I do in the situation? I would pay for the book and be done with it and call it a lesson learned and not buy from them again. I have bought books online before that I was not happy with but I never thought of not paying the people. I just never bought from them again.</p>
<p>I don’t get why this concept is so difficult. Having a checking account does not necessarily mean somebody has the physical paper checks.
Those must be ordered.</p>
<p>However, you can pay off a credit card or what have you through just entering your account information and routing number on the computer or whatever little form they have, sans the physical cutesy Garfield checks.
Somehow, I doubt people are shoving checks into their computer to make online payments from a checking account.</p>
<p>Get it?</p>
<p>OP: I would just “return” (since it’s an e-book, I don’t know their policy on returning it) and stop dealing them.</p>
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<p>Really? Almost everyone pays their credit card off online. From what what you’ve quoted from Plattsburh:</p>
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<p>How did you take this and connect it to not having a checking account? </p>
<p>Now let’s think about this: If most people pay their credit card off online, would they still need *checks<a href=“as%20in%20the%20actual%20paper%20product”>/i</a>? No. They wouldn’t. </p>
<p>To summarize, not having checks does not mean the person does not have a checking account. </p>
<p>I can see why you’re struggling with science classes. You’re not very good at making connections.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You actually can have a checking account without buying paper checks — although it would be pretty pointless to open a checking account then.</p></li>
<li><p>You can have a bank account that is not a checking account - a SAVINGS account. Duuhhh.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>EDIT: checks are pretty useful. Some people don’t take credit cards - e.g., your landlord, your roommate, a relative.</p>
<p>Having a checking account without paper checks isn’t pointless. I have a checking account that’s connected to a debit card, then there are also e-checks, there are multiple ways to transfer funds from a checking account without using paper checks.</p>
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<p>If you’re going to act like as *******s, at least get a good grasp on whatever it is you’re talking about.</p>
<p>A) If you pay your credit card off online, you have a checking account.
B) When you get a checking account, the bank almost ALWAYS orders you a set of checks to start out with. If you run out you have to order more, but there’s a good amount they give you.
C) People still need checks for lots of things. Paying bills, sending money to friends/relatives, etc, and they’re always good to have as a last resort if you realize you’ve lost your wallet or something and need to pay for something.</p>
<p>As things becomes more and more electronic and reliant on the internet, things like checks are becoming less common but no less useful. And like a poster above me said, if they really don’t have any checks (which, if they have a checking account, I doubt, but it’s possible) they can always go get a Money Order.</p>
<p>If nothing else, this situation is a good life lesson…always keep some checks around. And it seems like the OP is actually able to pay, he’s just annoyed at the poor customer service (which is actually really legitimate now that he explained it a little more).</p>
<p>Funny, you two must be even worse at science than I am.</p>
<p>So back to the OP’s conundrum… (sorry to end the Great Check Debate, though ^^ my card is also linked to my checking account. I think my bank calls it a “checking card,”…but they’re weird.)</p>
<p>I just noticed this comment
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<p>So this isn’t an ebook that you actually get to “keep”? This is something where you’re allotted a certain number of views?</p>
<p>That sounds like a ripoff. What’s their return policy?</p>
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<p>I’m not the one who can’t manage to pass the class. 
And as a double engineering major, chances are I might know a little something about the science department. </p>
<p>You ever figure out that horribly confusing chemistry? </p>
<p>Any event, I’ll be honest, I didn’t read half of what you wrote. All that’s been repeated by at least three or four posters here is that my little comment, which you seem to not be able to understand, is that “not having a check”, as in now, as in not with you, as in person does not have a check for whatever reason be it:
they used them all, they lost them, they don’t like to use checks, they think checks are ugly, they don’t know how to use checks, they burned them for fun, they used them to line their birdcage =/= not having a checking account, which is what you said.</p>
<p>Not having checks on your person does not mean they don’t have a checking account.</p>
<p>I can’t explain that any simpler for you.</p>
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<p>This is exactly what Plattsburgh said and you took to mean has not having a checking account. </p>
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[QUOTE=PlattsburghLoser]
a number of people, particularly college students ( and because this is CC, I will be sure to emphasize that “a number” =/= “all”) actually don’t have have/use paper checks anymore.
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<p>This comes down to you agreeing and still arguing. </p>
<p>For the record, my comment about you and science was not meant to be offensive. It was just an observation. No need to use your asterisks and get so heated. If you can’t handle different opinions, then maybe the internet is not for you.</p>
<p>We don’t even know if they asked him to mail in a check. For all anybody knows, they might want cash, or a money order, or his pin number for a good time. </p>
<p>All I said is that, in a hypothetical situation, since I don’t know what was asked of him/her: people using checks are not as common anymore. Which the brilliant scientist took as not having a checking account, which means he can’t pay his credit card, which means super duper debt forever and ever, which means bankruptcy.</p>
<p>When the point was, if a company is asking for a form of payment that he may or may not have readily have access to and did not prior agree to pay with, then his/her only obligation is to pay but–pretending, s/he is out of checks and just spent his/her last one on purchasing a sea lion–, go out of his/her way to purchase a set of checks, wait for them to be printed, and then rush to the post office, when that wasn’t the original agreement and their they one at fault.</p>
<p>Seriously, can we get off the damn checks that was used in a fantasy scenario? Maybe the OP has a set of checks a mile high. None of this is that serious.</p>