Well, in fact they weren't very supportive (if some).
I know there is not a problem with my bank, cause I shop online several times every month (just this noon I made a flawlessly VISA payment on a UK shop) and never had a problem like this: payment platform telling me that my "payment [was] refused by vendor due an identification problem" but my account charged with the name of the vendor as a reference.
I won't bother you with my email exchange with them (altough I don't have any problem to do so if you want to know in detail the kind of support I got), but is a pitty that even when I was polite and patient (I waited more than 24 hours for their first answer expecting not a solution, just a "we know about it, wait for news") they end our correspondence with a rude message (no "Hello", no "Dear customer", nor anything and no signature).
I'll look for better luck at Nova, Silverprint or elsewhere.
Sounds to me like my hunch was correct, and your card failed either the AVS (Address Verification System) or CVV (Card Verification Value, aka CV2) tests.
If this is the case, there is no 'problem' per se. In the event that these tests fail, the bank still process the authorisation, but the merchant may choose to decline the transaction. If the merchant does choose to decline, there is unfortunately no way to reverse the authorisation. This is an unfortunate consequence of the way AVS and CVV have been implemented by the credit card companies; it's not the merchant's "fault" (although it is the merchant who gets it in the neck in these scenarios, so don't expect the credit card companies to do anything about it any time soon.)
The authorisation will normally expire from your card in 3 to 5 days, depending on your card issuer. Note also that some card issuers, particularly overseas (non-UK ones) may not even support AVS; in this case a merchant may also choose to decline the transaction. The effects are the same.
Tedious excursion into the vagaries of AVS follows, for the curious:
For the curious, if you have an unusual address - and an overseas , getting address verification to pass can be something of an artform. The way AVS works is based on the numbers in your address and postal/zipcode; the address you enter on the website is not passed on to the credit card company for verification, only the numbers; so for example if your address is:
12 Acacia Avenue
Somewhereville
Somecounty
SC56 2LP
when the card transaction is processed the merchant also sends the number "12562" across. Once the charge is authorised, the card acquirer then returns a code that says one of (in simple terms) either
- Yes, the numbers "12562" also match the numbers in the address we have on file for this cardholder
- No, the numbers "12562" do not match the numbers we have on file for this cardholder
- We do not support AVS, and cannot tell you if the numbers match
If the response is either of the last two, the merchant
may, at their discretion choose not to complete the transaction. Unfortunately the authorisation remains valid until it expires, and there is no way for the merchant to cancel it.
AVS becomes 'tricky' when your address is complicated - basically, when you have a flat number and a house number, for example. The question becomes 'do we include all the numbers - flat number and house number - and in which order?' In theory, you should concatenate all the numbers together, but some systems will only take the numbers from the first line of the address, or some will only take the first number they see, and so on... This means you often require a certain amount of trial and error to work out the 'right' way to write your address to pass the AVS tests.
Said trial and error obviously needs to be conducted on low value transactions of course, to avoid piling up authorisations on your card!
AVS is a long way from perfect, but it exists for a reason (using stolen credit cards to have goods delivered to the thief's address; if you can only get goods delivered to the cardholder address, a stolen card is a lot less valuable.) I'm afraid it's something that more and more sites will implement...
