PCGS Declined Credit Cards - Anyone else having a problem?

ProofCollection

It seems to happen with about 1 in 3 or 4 submissions that the grades are ready and then I get notice that my credit card was declined. EVERY TIME I call or email back and say run it again and they do and it goes through just fine. Is this happening to anyone else or just me? They keep telling me to call my CC company but I'm not sure they are causing the problem. I noticed a few months ago PCGS seemed to switch or update accounting/billing software and ever since it seems I've had this problem. Is it just me?

Mr_Spud

I did have something similar happen. I submitted some coins at the Long Beach show and when I checked the status I got the message saying it was on accounting hold. I called the number they gave me and got it straightened out, I forget what triggered it, but it might have been my fault for some reason. It was annoying because it didn’t show up until they were finished grading the coins and it delayed them posting my grades. But alls well that ends well. The accounting error message they sent me still shows up on my account page, here’s what it looked like

AUandAG

Yes, my subscription was declined today as they said my CC didn't go through. Same card as last year, year before, etc.
Updated it again and we'll see.
bob

Bolo

Not had an issue and I just had a submission completed and received by me this past Monday.

OAKSTAR

@ProofCollection said:
PCGS Declined Credit Cards - Anyone else having a problem?

No, not for declining a credit card. For charging my credit card for an unexpected "surcharge" without notifying me!! I only found out after checking my credit card statement.

Torey

Mine declined with my submission a few days ago. I gave them a good card with plenty of cash on it and it also declined.... I then tried a different card and it went through.

WaterSport

You folks must be getting your cards graded as well as Questionable Credit !

WS

johnny9434

@WaterSport said:
You folks must be getting your cards graded as well as Questionable Credit !

WS

Some of it is way questionable

ndeagles

I've had this issue as well with a card on file for both submissions and account renewals. They call me and try it again and it works every time.

ProofCollection

@PCGS_Hy Clearly there is an issue with credit card processing. I would guess that PCGS management is aware of this issue but can you please reach out to them and make sure they are aware of this and are working on it?

There's nothing more frustrating that getting the message that your grades are available at 4pm but we won't show you to you because of accounting hold that won't be resolved until the next day. It's such a tease and of course an extra hassle to deal with a non-existent problem. And, if this is a pervasive problem as this thread suggests, can PCGS start running credit cards twice if they get declined?

PCGS_Hy

Hello All,

There appears to be a mix of issues (order payment declined, surcharges, and membership renewals) getting all piled into one. We are not seeing any outages or issues with payment processing at the moment.

I apologize for the issues you all have been running into with payments. If you ever need assistance with an order payment, membership purchase, or question about unexpected surcharges, please give us a call at 800-447-8848 or reach out to us by our Contact Form.

Best,

PCGS_Hy

ProofCollection

@PCGS_Hy said:
Hello All,

There appears to be a mix of issues (order payment declined, surcharges, and membership renewals) getting all piled into one. We are not seeing any outages or issues with payment processing at the moment.

I apologize for the issues you all have been running into with payments. If you ever need assistance with an order payment, membership purchase, or question about unexpected surcharges, please give us a call at 800-447-8848 or reach out to us by our Contact Form.

Best,

PCGS_Hy

I appreciate the reply. Yes, some responses were not on the main topic of improper credit card denials and sorry that has caused confusion. MrSpud, AuandAG, Torey, manorcourtman, and ndeagles above all reported the same problem I am having which is having a card denied and then having it rerun and it goes through. For me this has gone on for at least 6 months and happened at least 4 times. 5 other members here had similar issues. Clearly there is a problem with PCGS's system. Can you please escalate this further @PCGS_Hy and have someone look into it? You can't tell me that getting a credit card denied regularly every 3 or 4 submissions only to call and have it processed a second time and have it go through is the way things PCGS wants it to operate. That only causes delays and frustration and benefits no one.

AUandAG

Yes, same card I use every year....I've messaged them to use my card ending in **** and I still get noticed that I'm declined.. Don't understand it. Tried the phone but can't even get a call back as system is full....call back later they said.
PCGS has a problem. Not on my end.
bob
@PCGS_Hy

No Headlights

I had something similar happen to me. But it was my fault. Our company issued us a new card after the old one expired, I failed to update my account at PCGS causing the declined card. Easily fixed once the issue was found.

Manorcourtman

Happened to me a couple months ago. Nothing wrong with my CC. Had to call and have them run it again. Went right through but they wasted my time chasing down a human to talk to.

BStrauss3

Credit card approval involves several steps between the merchant and your issuer. A hiccup anywhere along the way can lead to a decline. The next request might take a different path due to load balancing and fault tolerance, which makes an intermittent problem the hardest to diagnose.

We had one of these the other day.

Process A talks to Server B using service account C and was intermittently getting an "account locked" error. We checked and A had the correct password for service account C.

Turns out there was some other process X talking to server Y but using service account C that had not been updated when the passwords were rotated. IF there was enough traffic on X->Y, 3 bad password attempts in 5 minutes locked the service account C for five minutes (extending the lock each time another attempt was made). But X->Y is completely unrelated (to the end user) from A->B. And most of the time X->Y was low traffic, so the lock was automatically unlocked and the next attempt for A->B worked.

The lockouts weren't quite bad enough to be a Sev1. Most of the time a retry of A->B worked so it was a Sev2. Took **three ** days to find it.

ProofCollection

@BStrauss3 said:
Credit card approval involves several steps between the merchant and your issuer. A hiccup anywhere along the way can lead to a decline. The next request might take a different path due to load balancing and fault tolerance, which makes an intermittent problem the hardest to diagnose.

We had one of these the other day.

Process A talks to Server B using service account C and was intermittently getting an "account locked" error. We checked and A had the correct password for service account C.

Turns out there was some other process X talking to server Y but using service account C that had not been updated when the passwords were rotated. IF there was enough traffic on X->Y, 3 bad password attempts in 5 minutes locked the service account C for five minutes (extending the lock each time another attempt was made). But X->Y is completely unrelated (to the end user) from A->B. And most of the time X->Y was low traffic, so the lock was automatically unlocked and the next attempt for A->B worked.

The lockouts weren't quite bad enough to be a Sev1. Most of the time a retry of A->B worked so it was a Sev2. Took **three ** days to find it.

I'm sure it's something like that. I just want PCGS to recognize that they have this issue and start looking for it rather than telling each customer to contact their credit card company who can do nothing about this. Surely PCGS would like to eliminate these extra calls and emails.