Rant about Nordstrom.com credit card charging policies - YouLookFab Forum

Category

Shopping

Rant about Nordstrom.com credit card charging policies

annabelle

Veteran

I just spent 25 minutes unclogging my credit card. According to my very gracious credit card company, stores including Nordstrom and Macy's get frustrated trying to put through a $480.30 charge, and then they put through five charges of $96.06, or an amount of charges that total the bill. I had purchased 5 items online totaling $1220, so that's a lot of little trial and error for a clerk at Nordstrom.

Then the fraud detection unit at the credit card company pings me, and I ended up having to go through, charge by charge with a representative, all the purchases, until we are reasonably sure that the oddball charges add up.

That seems so disrespectful on Nordstrom's part to put that burden on its customers. Maybe they don't know what is happening. (I think I'll call them.)

What stores have excellent customer service? What are your positive upbeat stories? I could use a few right now!

I have loved CitiCard, shopbop, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Ritz Carlton, Alaska Air. What else do you have?

Shopping

21 replies

Latest reply was from elissa c

Anonymous

I use a Norstom store credit card, only good at Nordstroms, the Rack and Hautelook, I think. So far, no problems. I also use it to order from their sites online.

Diana

Veteran

That's odd. They've never done that to me (I use both my Nordstrom store credit card and a Chase visa with some regularity on Nordstrom.com.)

Keix

Veteran

That is very strange. I order a lot from various online stores and have never seen a bill split up evenly... they do charge weird combinations of items in a single order as different transactions, but the numbers have always added up with exact (unique) prices for the items in each box shipped.

Certainly call Nordstrom and see what they say. In my experience Nordstrom has some of the best CS I've experienced (I have their Visa Signature CC, but am only a Level 1 Rewards member and majority of the spend on that card is non-Nordstrom purchases).

Diana

Veteran

ETA: I wonder if your card has a single transaction limit? We used to have a corporate Amex for the lab that had a $500 limit, which meant that anything over 500 was split and charged twice. And yes, we were constantly getting called by fraud detection on it because vendors never seem to realize that multiple identical charges looks suspicious...

I would think that most vendors would prefer to charge once anyway because it costs them a fee for every cc transaction.

Thistle

Veteran

I haven't seen what you mention, but I have seen the different smaller charges come throughout as they only charge my card when it ships. So if I order 4 things and it ships in 3 boxes I see 3 charges.

Anonymous

Wow, I would find that really disconcerting. Hopefully Nordstrom comes up with a good reason for why they charged you in this manner.

You asked about good service: Today I ordered some shoes online from Club Monaco (after seeing them in person in the store and striking out because they didn't have my size) and the agent made me wait for a little a while on hold (maybe 2 minutes). It didn't bother me at all (these things happen) but for the wait, she volunteered to take 10% off. Yay!

annabelle

Veteran

The Nordstrom customer service said "it must be retail." i.e., when the items don't ship from the warehouse and they ship from retail stores. She was implying that the retail counters were lazy or clueless...I couldn't tell which.

Diana' s point is right; the store didn't understand that the multiple charges looked suspicious, resulting in suspending my credit card until I speak with them. That's why I called Nordstrom customer service directly to let them know. Do they want me to spend 4 minutes gleefully filling my cart with goodies on a weekend, and then spend 20 minutes on a weekday untangling their data entry conveniences? Probably not. The rep on the phone did not even know that the stores were doing this to their customers.

Anonymous

Oh, so you're saying that Nordstrom retailers divided up the total into equal parts without even checking to see whether your credit card could handle the larger amount for a single item? Yah, that does seem lazy. (And if I misunderstood, you don't have to reexplain. I'll let it go. )

abc

Veteran

Maybe Thistle can chime in with more but I think it has to do with revenue recognition laws/rules. As in they cannot charge you one bulk charge - they charge you as they ship to you. Meaning their end of the transaction has been upheld, in simple terms.

I have seen this on amazon orders too. I don't think it is specific to Nordies. I think it has more to do with accounting and laws than anything. And I certainly don't think it has anything to do with laziness on anyone's part or it being online vs retail. My 2 cents of course...

abc

Veteran

http://www.revenuerecognition.com/industry/retail

See section online orders

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

Yeah, the retail part of it seems fine, presuming that they did charge as they shipped - as folks have said they're not allowed to charge you until a particular component of the order is ready. And even if stuff gets shipped the same day, it might get shipped separately or from a different warehouse or warehouse versus a store branch. (Were you buying multiple items that were priced the same, or did they just divide the total amount by x? If the latter, that does sound sketchy.)

The flaw here seems to be that if this is the sort of thing that happens all the time, then the fraud prevention unit shouldn't automatically freeze your card - especially since this is Nordstrom and a Nordstrom bank, they should have measures in place to not automatically put a fraud hold on things from their own 'family', so to speak.

Peri

Veteran

I get all those split up charges too and find it so annoying, I mostly figured it was a charge as they ship, since so many of my orders get split up as well. I haven't have the sort of problems you've faced, but I keep track of my charges and credits and it is so confusing when the charges are all split up when my order receipt is for one total. And then returns...agh!

I was thinking instead to go ahead and get a Nords card, so at least it would be easier to track. I still find their free shipping and returns policy really important to me and I do buy there more than any other online store. I've always had good customer service and only thinking of this as an annoyance.

Funny you mentioned Neiman Marcus as good...my one experience with them was terrible customer service!

marianna

Veteran

If you saw 5 charges, you'll likely get 5 shipments. Each charge correlates to a shipment. This usually happens if the items are coming from different stores and not just the Nordstrom DC.

annabelle

Veteran

I'm completely on board with having a charge for each shipment, or even for each product + taxes that matches the items I've purchased, even when they are combined into a single shipment. The problem today (and with Nordstrom and Macy's generally, it sounds), is when, instead of charging me for an item or a shipment, the charges are broken into fragments of the purchase price. For instance, one of my items was (a gorgeous) $380 Helmut Lang jacket. Instead of charging $380+ tax, I have these "pending charges" on my card from Nordstrom Direct at the moment:
1222.59
328.43
85.49
85.49
85.49
131.47
when none of my individual items was under $119.95 and my total order was $1221.

The CitiCard rep ultimately told me to save my receipts and match up everything in the end that is charged to the card, and that they could dispute errant charges with Nordstrom on my behalf when all is said and done.

It just seems like an inconvenient way to shop, or to run an online retailer.

I'm glad that CitiCard flags things as possibly fraudulent when six or more separate charges from a retailer hit my account on the same day. The reason I mentioned it to Nordstrom, is I don't think they realize quite how much time it took *me* to resolve, when their clerks probably easily could have charged me for the actual amount they were sending. It probably saved their retail store maybe 5 minutes, by entering the conglomeration of prices.

Thank you for the upbeat news about Club Monaco, smittie

kkards

Veteran

annabelle --i've never heard of anything like that happening….and i'll be honest, if you're ordering on line, even if the items ship from an actual retail store, i don't believe that the actual store employees ever ring your order…everything is pre approved when the order is placed….even if the charges don't go thru until your item is shipped…..sounds like something else is going on here.

retailgirl

Veteran

I never heard of anything like this, except I have ordered several items and they were shipped at different times, and charged to me as they were shipped. I have a Nordstrom Visa, have had it for 15 years, and the customer service is wonderful. I feel secure using my card anywhere, knowing that if I have a problem, I can speak to a real person and the problem will be resolved, usually immediately.

crutcher

Veteran

I find Nordstrom to be just excellent in customer service...I order all the time onlineand have never had a problem..I hope you were able to clarify this with cs because they are really concerned about good customer relations...smile..

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I've never heard of anything like this! It sounds extremely frustrating. I use a Nordstrom card and each item is noted individually, items are charged when they ship, and I do not get a false breakdown of any item. Very strange indeed and I would certainly be asking questions.

I recently had a bad experience and a bad/good experience of customer service.

The bad: I ordered a few items from Zara. The package never came. It took fully a month to resolve the issue and get my money back (despite the fact that they have on record that I've been a fairly loyal Zara customer and have never reported a problem with an online order in the past.) They insisted I had received the package, Purolator would not take responsibility, and unless I had phoned and asked to speak to a supervisor directly, nothing would have come of it. I DID eventually get a refund -- but by that time, the items I wanted were long gone. Very frustrating.

Meanwhile, I'd also ordered a package from Club Monaco that never arrived. I phoned and they told me it was on the way. Their mistake -- it wasn't! The man talking to me was looking at an order from a year earlier. The order had not actually gone through. I reordered the items and they gave me free expedited shipping. Not much, but better than nothing.

abc

Veteran

Strange indeed. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Golden

Veteran

They do this on my nor dies debit card and it's hard to figure out my purchases and returns!

elissa c

I've had the exact same problem with Macy's orders and my credit card. I'm also with Citibank and I'm wondering if they just have a more rigorous fraud alert system than other companies. It drives me crazy how they post the total as pending first and then all the little charges later - it looks like you're billing double billed.