If a buyer contacts you in a panic and demands that you refund the “Double Charge”; READ THIS FIRST!

As you already know, if you are an online seller, it is very difficult (I may even say “impossible”) to double-charge someone unless you are manually running payments. Regardless, you have to address the issue, so here’s how to deal with it:

The goal of a “You Double Charged Me Scam” is to get the seller to refund a LEGITIMATE order by tricking the honest seller into believing they charged the buyer twice.

We previously discussed what “Pending” Charges are. To quickly review: Every time you swipe your credit card or click “Confirm Order”, a Pending charge is placed on the card:

This *LOOKS* like the credit card holder was charged twice for the exact same item. But before you rush to click the “Refund” button, you need to first look at the big picture:

Pending charges have NOT “gone through” (yet). If the buyers credit card was declined, one of the two duplicate charges will AUTOMATICALLY DISAPPEAR off of the buyers credit card statement and the buyer will NOT be charged. If you have access to your merchant account, go through transactions for the amount in question. If you see a Declined charge, this is a Pending charge that will disappear off the buyers card:

WHY DUPLICATE CHARGES APPEAR AS PENDING

There’s lots of reasons why a charge could appear more than once on the buyers credit card statement, but the most common reasons are:

• Insufficient Funds
• Buyer Typed incorrect Billing information (it doesn’t match the credit card)
• Buyer Typed incorrect Credit Card Number
• Incorrect Expiration Date
• Incorrect CVC Code
• Buyers internet dropped while card was being processed
• Buyer clicked the back arrow while card was being process
• Buyer is trying to purchase something that exceeds the purchase amount they have on their card. For example, many cards automatically set the “Maximum Purchase” at $300 or $500. So if the buyer is trying to buy something for $2,000 the card will be declined even though all of the information is correct and the buyer has sufficient funds.
• Sometimes technology is just glitchy and it’s nobodys fault at all

BUYER IS DEMANDING REFUND

If you have a hostile buyer who insists they were charged multiple times, the first step is to find out WHEN they ordered. If it was today or within the past 2-3 days, the charge is likely still “Pending” and will automatically disappear by the 4th day (usually it disappears next-day unless today is a Friday or the day before a holiday).

So, the solution is to ask them to kindly wait a couple days for the Pending charge to be erased.

If the buyer still demands a refund and is totally uncooperative, check your sales records. Did the buyer purchase 2 identical things? This HAS happened to us before! If there are two different order numbers for the identical item(s), obviously this will result in two duplicate-amount charges on their card! This is a lesser known scam that is very easy to fall for if you strictly rely on the buyers credit card statement photo as complete evidence of a double charge. If you do not see two orders under this buyers name, CHECK THE ORDER AMOUNT because if the buyer is attempting to defraud you they may have placed the 2nd order UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME, but used the same credit card to pay. Look through your sales from the date of the supposed “double charge” and inspect all orders for that specific amount.

By this point you should be able to feel out the buyer: Do you get the vibe that this person is trying to run a scam on you? Or do you think they are just upset about seeing a couple Pending charges? MOST people are pretty understanding and, after you explain that the charges will disappear, they calm down. But there’s also the Batsh*t crazy customers and the fraudsters. If you suspect you are dealing with a batsh*t crazy; the easiest solution is just to TELL them you issued the refund. Since the Pending charge will automatically disappear they will believe you did. Alternatively, you can suggest they contact their bank so the bank can explain what a Pending Charge is to them. Depending on the level of Crazy you are dealing with, some people will just wait 10 minutes then contact you again and tell you “The bank told me you double charged me!”, even though they never contacted their bank. Other less-crazies actually DO contact their bank and learn that there is no double charge,

BUT if you are dealing with a scammer, tell them to contact their bank and file a chargeback against the duplicate charge. Their bank will NOT let them file a chargeback against a “pending” charge, Since the scammer is well aware that they are running a scam, they won’t contact their bank and there won’t be a chargeback filed.  

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