Why are e-cig vendors so nosy?

[Train2]

A couple points -

1) repeating a previous poster's warning (not relevent to the OP) about ordering stuff on WiFi. People don't think about it, I see them sitting in Starbux, with their credit card out. That's BEGGING to be robbed. Bad guys can sit in the parking lot - or over in the corner - and pick up your transaction, including the card number, security code, birthday, etc.

2) For THIS issue - here's what I think is going on:
a) the vendors have been forced to use second-tier credit card processing systems. They are being discriminated against by the bigger card processors - I guess because they're involved in an industry that's related to - OH MY GOSH - nicotine delivery (they'll happily process transactions for people selling caffeine, and god knows how many worse drugs though).
b) these card processors have some hinky rules that don't quite work perfectly under certain circumstances. It MAY be a mismatch between your delivery address and your area code. Or a mismatch between the name on your card and the name on your order (I've seen one kick back because order said JOHN and card says JONATHON).

So if this is happening to you frequently, there's SOMETHING (something silly probably) causing it. And it then throws the vendor into their "verify the cardholder" grilling - which is what's pissing you off!

Maybe you can figure out what it is, you can avoid it by changing how you place that order - and then everything will run smoothly for you.

Personally, knock on wood, I've had no trouble yet with orders/charges/deliveries - and at a glance, I've got 19 vape-vendors I know I've bought from bookmarked

 

[SharonH]

I can totally get it. I run a large company online and we have multiple offerings. Most of what we do is in business to business area, but we do have some consumer oriented services/products.

We use multiple payment processors and all will red flag payments where shipping address is different from billing address and IP for order is different too.

Although as a buyer, this may be frustrating, it is ultimately for consumers protection to ensure that credit card fraud is minimized.

Fraudulent cc use online is a HUGE issue. We're 'mainstream' so I'm sure e-cig vendors get it worse.

 

[SissySpike]

I struggle to imagine any identity thief who'd piss away a perfectly good credit card number on e-cig crap.

Looks to me you just want to gripe. How is this you are a victim the rotten dirty capitalist ecig vendors have it out for you I bet they call each other and laugh behind your back at singling you out for order hassles.

I bet its not just them its the Credit card company's also. They are owned buy the banks who eventually are traced back to the FED!!!!!!

You are so screwed the Federal Reserve is out to get you I feel for you I really do! You might as well live in a box life is over for you as you know it!

 

[Codex Gigas]

I've ordered from all three as well and have nothing but stellar service, especially from vape rev. I have ordered on the go with various addresses, yes I have had to sometimes clarify it to a vender so that my order would be placed; I have also had my number grabbed from an ecig vender as well and a bunch of fraudulent charges applied to my card. Given the options between the two I would rather a suspicious vender than an ambivalent one. And how would any vender know you were ordering from a secure location requiring carded access, is that part of your address? Not saying that their suspicion is justified or that they weren’t rude to you. Just my experiences were the opposite of yours. I can understand the feeling of having your privacy violated, I once had a juice vender put my order on hold until I provided a copy of my photo ID and a utilities bill with matching address, of course they requested this after they had taken my money. It took three days of constant calling to finally cancel the order and get a refund. Its fine if that’s your policy for age identification but it should be clearly stated up front before any money is taken. It sucks you had a bad experience, I'm sure they had your best interests at heart though.

They seem to know so much about my location that it's simple insanity for them not to have investigated what it is: if ordering "from a fedex site" is "suspicious" then the same could be applied to everyone at every job, it's all suspicious, when you think about it. Who are these people ordering from "houses", in fact? Maybe they should be investigated...

And yeah, VapeRev charged my card and sat on my money for about 10 days without offering me any reasonable explanation as to what it was that they were doing, but then canceled my order when I questioned them about the likelihood that what I ordered would still be in stock after they finished dicking around - which it wasn't, in point of fact.

It is what it is, I ended up saving money in the end by going with cheap clones (I have two GGTS, an Ithaka, two ProVaris/Z-Attys and two iHybrid devices, so when I say that I bought clones, you should hear it the way you'd hear your friend who loves exotic IPA's say "Yeah, Schlitz is pretty good beer too") and discovering that there's a whole world of much cheaper stuff that is entirely indistinguishable from the stuff that these American vendors are selling.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

Well, if the OP is determined not to change the way purchases are made so as not to arouse the suspicion of companies whose job it is to protect vendors AND consumers from credit card fraud, perhaps he could find a card company, bank or other financial institution with lax security, thereby making the thieves' jobs' that much easier.

 

[Codex Gigas]

Looks to me you just want to gripe. How is this you are a victim the rotten dirty capitalist ecig vendors have it out for you I bet they call each other and laugh behind your back at singling you out for order hassles.

I bet its not just them its the Credit card company's also. They are owned buy the banks who eventually are traced back to the FED!!!!!!

You are so screwed the Federal Reserve is out to get you I feel for you I really do! You might as well live in a box life is over for you as you know it!

You're babbling stupidly but I do detect a note of sarcasm behind the flying spittle. Looks to me like you just want to parade your ignorance.

Well done.

 

[Codex Gigas]

Well, if the OP is determined not to change the way purchases are made so as not to arouse the suspicion of companies whose job it is to protect vendors AND consumers from credit card fraud, perhaps he could find a card company, bank or other financial institution with lax security, thereby making the thieves' jobs' that much easier.

That's silliness as well. It's not that complicated. EVERY OTHER VENDOR IN EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY seems capable of dealing with this, but e-cig vendors, half of them, anyway, haven't reached the level of professionalism to be able to run an anti-fraud process that works out to being anything more than emailing the person and asking "hey, are you a fraud?"

 

[InTheShade]

My shipping address is always different to my billing address and I've not been verified once. This has to be something else.

I actually change my shipping address frequently depending on what I am buying (long, boring and irrelevant story)

 

[InTheShade]

That's silliness as well. It's not that complicated. EVERY OTHER VENDOR IN EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY seems capable of dealing with this, but e-cig vendors, half of them, anyway, haven't reached the level of professionalism to be able to run an anti-fraud process that works out to being anything more than emailing the person and asking "hey, are you a fraud?"

Have you tried calling in the order - that way if there is anything wrong, they can take care of it immediately.

I understand it's a hassle but it might just be the best way.

 

[SharonH]

My shipping address is always different to my billing address and I've not been verified once. This has to be something else.

I actually change my shipping address frequently depending on what I am buying (long, boring and irrelevant story)

I explained above from a seller's side.... it is when the IP address you are using to place order is different from those 2 as well. Different billing/shipping addresses are pretty common.

 

[RosaJ]

I struggle to imagine any identity thief who'd piss away a perfectly good credit card number on e-cig crap.

From what I've read in the forum the fraudulent charges are not purchases of ecig supplies, they're airfare tickets, clothes, and other big ticket items. From what has been gathered so far the consensus is the thieves get the info from ecig purchasers who use debit/credit cards and then turn around and go on a shopping spree.

I'm fortunate that I have a local vape shop and have not had to place an online purchase in 10 months. Good luck to you and hope things get easier for you.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

That's silliness as well. It's not that complicated. EVERY OTHER VENDOR IN EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY seems capable of dealing with this, but e-cig vendors, half of them, anyway, haven't reached the level of professionalism to be able to run an anti-fraud process that works out to being anything more than emailing the person and asking "hey, are you a fraud?"

So you deal with every other vendor in every other industry, online, using different IP addresses and different locations around the country?

And you don't expect to trigger the alarms of an industry beset with credit card fraud?

You want some free healthcare and an Obamaphone, too?

/Outta this thread.

 

[Codex Gigas]

A couple points -

1) repeating a previous poster's warning (not relevent to the OP) about ordering stuff on WiFi. People don't think about it, I see them sitting in Starbux, with their credit card out. That's BEGGING to be robbed. Bad guys can sit in the parking lot - or over in the corner - and pick up your transaction, including the card number, security code, birthday, etc.

2) For THIS issue - here's what I think is going on:
a) the vendors have been forced to use second-tier credit card processing systems. They are being discriminated against by the bigger card processors - I guess because they're involved in an industry that's related to - OH MY GOSH - nicotine delivery (they'll happily process transactions for people selling caffeine, and god knows how many worse drugs though).
b) these card processors have some hinky rules that don't quite work perfectly under certain circumstances. It MAY be a mismatch between your delivery address and your area code. Or a mismatch between the name on your card and the name on your order (I've seen one kick back because order said JOHN and card says JONATHON).

So if this is happening to you frequently, there's SOMETHING (something silly probably) causing it. And it then throws the vendor into their "verify the cardholder" grilling - which is what's pissing you off!

Maybe you can figure out what it is, you can avoid it by changing how you place that order - and then everything will run smoothly for you.

Personally, knock on wood, I've had no trouble yet with orders/charges/deliveries - and at a glance, I've got 19 vape-vendors I know I've bought from bookmarked

Now that makes sense. I guess that if these vendors are using Billy-Bob's Credit Verification System™, I shouldn't stress it too much and just accept the fact that it's more trouble than it will ever be worth to do business with them.

 

[Orb Skewer]

fasttech

Problem solved

 

[Codex Gigas]

From what I've read in the forum the fraudulent charges are not purchases of ecig supplies, they're airfare tickets, clothes, and other big ticket items. From what has been gathered so far the consensus is the thieves get the info from ecig purchasers who use debit/credit cards and then turn around and go on a shopping spree.

I'm fortunate that I have a local vape shop and have not had to place an online purchase in 10 months. Good luck to you and hope things get easier for you.

My point exactly. The ecig vendors need to be a lot more careful what they do with their customer's info than they need to be picky about who is allowed to be their customer.

 

[SissySpike]

You're babbling stupidly but I do detect a note of sarcasm behind the flying spittle. Looks to me like you just want to parade your ignorance.

Well done.

What you say is what your are Im rubber your glue what you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. black jack no say backs!

 

[Codex Gigas]

What you say is what your are Im rubber your glue what you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. black jack no say backs!

I was certain that we were trying to avoid giving e-cigs to tweens and small children. What a revolting development.

 

[peakcomm]

Looks to me you just want to gripe. How is this you are a victim the rotten dirty capitalist ecig vendors have it out for you I bet they call each other and laugh behind your back at singling you out for order hassles.

I bet its not just them its the Credit card company's also. They are owned buy the banks who eventually are traced back to the FED!!!!!!

You are so screwed the Federal Reserve is out to get you I feel for you I really do! You might as well live in a box life is over for you as you know it!

My goodness. Was all that snark really necessary? And from an ECF veteran, too ...

 

[SissySpike]

I was certain that we were trying to avoid giving e-cigs to tweens and small children. What a revolting development.

Darn it you made me spit coffee on my key board;-) Good one!

 

[SissySpike]

My goodness. Was all that snark really necessary? And from an ECF veteran, too ...

It was all meant in good humored ribbing if it was taken any other way it was not my intention.