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GA/Sheepline payment issues

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mikeg

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Is anyone else having issues with the Greater Anglia website and telesales?
I just tried to book a sailrail ticket to Belfast on the Greater Anglia website, getting the following message:
Code:
Your payment has not been authorised, please contact our customer service team quoting reference code DM3.

I quoted the code and the chap tried to sell me a ticket, also having said it declined. However Nationwide say they have approved the transaction leaving me in the unenviable position of having no train ticket but an approved payment. How do I get my money back?
 
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button_boxer

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I quoted the code and the chap tried to sell me a ticket, also having said it declined. However Nationwide say they have approved the transaction leaving me in the unenviable position of having no train ticket but an approved payment. How do I get my money back?

“Approved” or “authorised”? If the card was authorised by the bank but the transaction was not subsequently “collected” by the merchant then the authorisation should disappear and the funds release in a couple of days. The merchant may have said it “wasn’t authorised” but this doesn’t necessarily mean it was rejected by the bank - the system I use to take online payments has its own set of fraud checks over and above those of the banks, and I’ve had payments where the bank has granted authorisation but the platform has rejected the payment based on its own fraud checks.
 

Bletchleyite

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The merchant may have said it “wasn’t authorised” but this doesn’t necessarily mean it was rejected by the bank - the system I use to take online payments has its own set of fraud checks over and above those of the banks, and I’ve had payments where the bank has granted authorisation but the platform has rejected the payment based on its own fraud checks.

You can also get, as I did at a supermarket recently, a situation where the bank issues the authorisation code but the connectivity between the bank and the merchant breaks down immediately after that and before the merchant receives the code, so at the merchant's end the transaction will come up as declined. This is a nuisance, but your card won't actually be debited (in the very unlikely event it was you could request a chargeback at your bank). However, if you use one of the banks that show an authorisation as debited[1] you're a bit stuck until it times out in a week or so.

[1] Typically online-only debit cards and the likes of Monzo, though if you have an overdraft arranged with Monzo they just warn you, they don't actually charge you until an actual debit takes you below zero.
 

sammyg901

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Make sure your online profile has something in each line of the address and try again
 

Bletchleyite

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Make sure your online profile has something in each line of the address and try again

Is that a known bug? That's poor, as they should be working on the basis of a correct postal address being used, which is as follows:

1 Your Street
POST TOWN
A1 1AA

There is no need for any more than that. Putting districts and counties in is a waste of typing.
 

A Challenge

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Technically, post town and in most cases Street name is unneeded as well, but I'll Annie that that isn't a good idea (especially with Street name as the next Street could also have a (say) number 1 in the same postcode area.
 

Bletchleyite

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Technically, post town and in most cases Street name is unneeded as well, but I'll Annie that that isn't a good idea (especially with Street name as the next Street could also have a (say) number 1 in the same postcode area.

They sort of provide a checksum against an incorrect postcode, though.
 

sammyg901

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Seems to be - I found a few references to it online when I had a similar issue

Agreed- my address doesn't even have 5 lines in full!
 

kieron

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Technically, post town and in most cases Street name is unneeded as well, but I'll Annie that that isn't a good idea (especially with Street name as the next Street could also have a (say) number 1 in the same postcode area.
The only part of an address a company like GA should insist on is the country name. While there should be a sensible postcode to use for any UK address, you can't expect people to actually know it. You certainly can't assume an address contains a house name/number, street name or post town.

If a site works better if you stuff the address fields with rubbish, however, then it's worth a try.
 

Bletchleyite

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The only part of an address a company like GA should insist on is the country name. While there should be a sensible postcode to use for any UK address, you can't expect people to actually know it.

The best way of doing this I've seen recently is the type where you start typing any part of the address in a field and it gives you a list to select from including the postcode.
 

Bletchleyite

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If a site works better if you stuff the address fields with rubbish, however, then it's worth a try.

I've taken to putting "safe place" instructions in the address for Amazon stuff, as they can't be bothered providing more than a drop-down list for that purpose, and my safe place is not one of the rather short and useless list.

For certain companies I've also put "DO NOT LEAVE WITH NEIGHBOUR" as an address line. It's near enough always these days for me easier to have them take it back to the depot and for me to redirect to whatever the local collection service is. Decent couriers (e.g. DPD) even allow me to do this on the day of delivery before they have even missed me.
 

mikeg

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Hi, I phoned GA shortly after creating their thread and they passed it on to their payments investigation team. A day or so later I received an email saying I had in fact been charged and they were refunding this and to allow 72 hours for the refund. I'm unable to check the status of this now, as my online credit card service details are saved in the browser of my desktop and am currently in Belfast, having decided to fly instead thanks to cheap last minute flights and TPE's advance sale. Having a great time in Northern Ireland, will update you all when I get back.
 

mikeg

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Having checked my credit card account, the payments investigation team were right, I had indeed been charged but this has thankfully been refunded.
 
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