Thanks to crappy UI design by NewEgg.com, I was able to solve the mystery! See, unlike other stores who actually take the time to try to auth your credit card inline with the store flow, NewEgg does not. And to add to their crappiness, they also don’t email you when your credit card auth subsequently fails. You have to go to their site and wade through several screens to see an unexplained “Attention” link next to your order.  I was lucky enought to notice this, since I had ordered something I was pretty anxious to receive.

Oddly enough their crappy multi auth flow is what helped crack this nut.  Other sites I just switch cards upon failure chalking it up to the mystery.  They wouldn’t let me switch cards on the order, even after calling in…

They had also required that I create an account to order and apply a coupon code I received.  Somewhat fair if they want to limit the code, but I could just create another account, so that methoid is a really poor control.  Now, you all know me as Myk.  That’s how I spell my name.  My legal name is Michael, but when I create accounts, I use my common name, since that is how I prefer to be addressed.  That is what has been wreaking havoc.  I won’t go into details over the whole debacale about why I had to remove the apostrophe from my last name online due to even worse usability issues on major web sites (think SQL escaping folks…)
These stupid sites use my account information name (Myk OLeary) as the name they pass for the credit card authorization INSTEAD OF the specifically requested, and correctly filled out CARDHOLDER NAME (Michael OLeary) field I filled out in the order flow.  This abbreviated nickname is unfamiliar, and unused by more than about 6-10 people in the world.

So to all E-Commerce sites (especially large ones like NewEgg.com) - ask for and use the cardholder name provided during the order flow to get a credit card auth, not some randomly provided incorrect account name.  I mean, what if I was using my mom’s or my wife’s card to order???  Time to get your heads out of your butts and make your sites work FOR your customers instead of AGAINST them!!!

I almost shot juice through my nose when I got to the part I’ve hilighted in bold…

Subject: please contact me…
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”ISO-8859-1″
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 04:53:31 -0700
X-Priority: 1 (Highest)
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-Id: <20050420204911.B98CF560146@link.e-rice.net>
X-E-RiceNet-MailScanner: Found to be clean

Hello There,

I come to the point of sending this letter for the reasons of introducing the business which I belong at the moment, and also, I am interested to know the business venture that you are currently working. Perhaps you were surprised on how did I obtain your email address.

Actually, I obtain this e-add once I go to see some of the web sites in the net. And it happened, that this e-mail address is enclosed on the portion of the page, which certainly triggered my intimacy to send letter of invitation.

The first thing that necessitates me before sending you this letter, is to well thought-out the consequences. I might wasting your precious time and privacy. But because of my desire to spread the word of my business, I took all the risk to pursue sending.

Maybe I violated the Spam Law because you are not requesting any information from me in regards to business. That is why I didn’t include any of them to minimize my violation.

To lessen my violation in Spam Law, I would like to ask your permission to send you the information about my business. You can reply to this letter with the subject MORE INFO and also your first name on the body of it. Because with out any of those permissions is already my violation, right?

I am gladly anticipating for your nice reply and at the same time we can exchange businesses for evaluation as soon as possible.

God Bless us all.

First, I admit I broke the law, but I don’t care.
Second, to make sure I don’t get caught I won’t tell you who I am.
Third, I won’t even tell you what the heck I’m selling…
Fourth, even if you were intriqued enough to care, you can’t find me (catch me if you can…)

And these morons think that they’ll get money from people??? The really sad part is that they’re probably right…

On August 20th, my wallet and phone were expertly removed from my hand bag between uptown espresso and the corner of Queen Anne Ave/Mercer. It probably took place as I walked through the people waiting for the bus.

I just got a phone call from the Seattle Police department saying that a call was placed from my phone to a “victim” that day. Apparently, they have a suspect in mind but no proof. He takes phones and bank cards and tries to remove money from the downtown Bank of America main branch (no camera there) and uses the phone to place calls.

Please mind your valuables when you walk through that area.

Many things here worry me:
1) The cops called back darn near a month and a half later. I know that no one was hurt per se, but come on, how long does it REALLY take to do an investigation???
2) The downtown BOFA DOESN’T have a camera?? WTF!!!!? You’re a bank for goodness sakes! I can’t really figure out how to say just how frustrating and apalling that is.
3) Lower Queen Anne is going to hell. There was an attempted robbery, a shooting, a drive by shooting, and much more last weekend. I can’t even walk my daughter at night on the weekend anymore. Will I soon not be able to take her out at night at all??

Oprah spent nothing and got tons of press. The members of the audience? They got “free” cars. Well, not really free at all. Turns out they have to report the value of the car as income on their tax return, thus making them have to spot upwards of $7000 for their “gift”. What a travesty to those in need! A lot of these folks may not be able to afford the taxes on this gesture…

See articles at the Chicago Sun Times and NBC5.com.

An exerpt from the Chicago Sun times says:

That’s because while Pontiac agreed to pay for most of the local charges – things like state sales tax and licensing fees – the recipients have to report the cars as income once tax time comes.

By adding $28,500 to someone’s income, it can push them into a higher tax bracket – which means they will have to pay about 25 percent or more of the car’s value in taxes. And for a nearly $30,000 car, that probably means, for most of the recipients, shelling out $7,125 for the “free car.”

Via Drudgereport…

Ever since 9/11, the administration has been saying, “we won’t cancel the Superbowl, if we do, the terrorists have won,” “We can’t stop flying, becasue if we do, the terrorists have won,” “We can’t live our lives in fear, because then the terrorists have won.”

But, go ahead and take away our Constitutional right to vote as a democracy. The ONE thing that made the US the US. Go ahead and take away our freedom, that’s A-OK.

I think not.

Bush, by even suggesting this, you are almost as big a terrorist, because you’re eroding our country’s structural freedoms.

I refuse to allow out country to continue to be ruled by an administration that is starting to make us live our lives in fear. If we can have the Superbowl and fly, then we damn well can take the day to vote.

Thank goodness it’ll take not only a Constitutional ammendment, but also an Ammendment to each state’s constitution. A hurdle I hope is large enough to never overcomce, because if it happens, then the terrorists have won, they will have taken away our system of Democracy.

The next step is jail for people like me for making posts like this…

I think my mind is starting to be made up for which way I’ll vote in November (that is, if I get the chance…)

They are on my eternal shitlist. Why, because not only is there a VERY big bad issue, but there is no way to get around it and make it stop.

1) Their support email address is bouncing my requests for help.
2) They have a bug right now whereby you can not remove yourself from groups. I’d try to remove myself to make it stop, but I can’t.
3) There is no support phone number. I tried calling the technical contact number in WHOIS, but no one answers. To protect their precious employees, all that are listed on the site in their “about us” section are convientiently missing from the spell by name voicemail directory.

I COULD set up an inbox rule and call it a day, but then no one gets to hear me bitch about this. Why should I change my settings because they can’t set their’s properly?

Why can’t companies do things right? It’s one thing to mess up, I’ll give everyone that, I’ve done it myself many a time. It’s the procedures you have in place to mop up during and after a mistake that show the true mettle of a GOOD company. This has been going on for EIGHT hours!

While they’re all asleep in their beds, I continue to get these dang messages! I’ll probably still get them tomorrow since I can’t get a hold of them to tell them they have a problem!

This deserves a public black eye.

And meetup.com, when you do see this, don’t just apologize. Anyone can do that, come up with something better for the stupidity you’ve exposed yourselves as having.

What have local Seattle merchants done to counteract this avalanche of fees? They’ve started tacking on transaction fees for purchase totals under their arbitrarily choosen minimum purchase amount. Some do this because they don’t care, others do it “because the other merchants are doing it.”

Well, here I am to let you know that this is 100% against the contracts that they have signed which allow them to accept VISA cards. If you attempt to purchase anything with a VISA card, NO merchant is allowed to charge a fee for or require a minimum purchase to run the transaction. If they do, they are running afoul of their merchant account contract and given enough complaints can LOSE their ability to accept credit cards.

Here in Lower Queen Anne alone there are many merchants which are doing this, almost all of which I have reported.

What should you as a consumer do to stop this?

1. Tell the merchant that they are not allowed to do this so they know. Most are just ignorant of the rule and will comply if told (well, not really, just for those who bitch…)
2. Report them to your credit card company. They should have forms which you can use to report these miscreants.
3. If your bank does not have these forms, are too slow to respond, or if you’re just flat out too lazy to contact them for these forms, call VISA at 1.800.VISA.911
4. I’m creating a wiki at CashFree.org (newly registered, please be patient with the DNS…) to promote this, get the word out, and to build up data on these merchants. Visit the Seattle list and help me expand it! (or add your city if this blog entry gets passed beyond our walls.)
5. Don’t shop at these stores until they stop raping their customers.

Let’s take back our money and make Seattle a place where you can truly go cash free. I prefer to not carry any cash, but because of these thieves I have to just in case I need an emergency sundry. I’m not going to pay the fees they’re not allowed to charge, and neither should you!