John Lewis/Paypal order need some clarification

philstanbridge · 22 Jun 2017 at 10:49

Has anyone had this happen before?

Placed an order with JL this morning for an item worth £528. Used my debit card to pay - debit card was promptly blocked by the bank. In the mean time JL asked me to use a different payment method, so I went with paypal. There is no available balance in paypal but the same debit card is linked, so I thought it would be fine. I didn't receive an order processed from John Lewis, but I did receive an order pending from Paypal.

Anyway, I give JL a buzz a bit later on to see what the hold up is - I have had no email. Turns out there is no order for me at all. Not a trace of anything. But Paypal is showing the order as placed.

I call both JL and Paypal. JL say Paypal is holding funds and they need to release it, Paypal say there is no order with JL. You need to place it again.

So I order again, using my debit card and it goes through fine. But this 'ghost' transaction is still showing as pending/order placed on Paypal. Paypal say this is perfectly normal and because there is no order linked to their transaction nothing will happen. But it will stay on my account for 12 months.

Now is there anything to worry about here? It's all rather confusing. JL admitted today they had technical issues yesterday. I also noted when I placed the order for the camera first thing there was a £100 redemption offer, when I re-submitted the order later the redemption was down to £50. It sounds to me like JL have made a mistake on their site, and pulled the orders whom this effected. My concern, obviously, I don't want to be stung another £528 from paypal for an order that doesn't exist.

Avenged7Fold · 22 Jun 2017 at 10:59

Is this right:

1. a debit card you used for JL was blocked
2.You use the same debit card through PP
3.since it is blocked, the payment is still pending for authorisation from the bank and so the order was not created
4. JL say and PP say you dont have a completed order.

Sounds to me that JL never got payment so an order was not made on their side. Paypal may have a record of the transaction but nothing went through. Check your bank statement to see if there is anything on there. If there is, check if it is a pending payment for authorisation (something that wont be taken unless the order is confirmed) or if it an actual payment.

philstanbridge · 22 Jun 2017 at 11:05

Yes, that's how it is. But I had to authorise the John Lewis payment via text. They sent me a simple Yes/No text. This unblocked the card apparently, and the second order went through. I've never had to do that before.

I've checked my bank account and it looks as if one transaction of £528 is going through, but as yet there are no details.

Avenged7Fold · 22 Jun 2017 at 12:08

I would ring the bank and make sure whether the transaction is actually a transaction or authorisation. It is a fairly common thing when there are security issues and it can appear to be a payment on a statement.
If the bank confirms it as a transaction as you suspect, request some sort of identification number for the transaction and give it to JL support to chase up. Things should go a lot quicker that way compared to asking JL to contact the bank themselves.

Siliconslave · 22 Jun 2017 at 12:29

there are three states for a purchase in paypal (well, there are more, but only 3 are relevant here) - Order, Authorisation and Payment (capture) - what does your paypal account say against the transaction details?
If its in 'Order' then it won't hit your card, yes JL could later capture the order, but if they don't see it on their order system (I very much doubt they've actually looked in their PayPal account, nor would they) then chances are they won't go and do it manually.

If its in Auth it hold the money on your card for 3-5 days (depending on the card) the release it - again they probably won't actually go and capture this manually - sounds like the api link between paypal and JL's commerce engine failed somewhere.

If the order is actually paid then dispute it in paypal and get a refund

Xire · 22 Jun 2017 at 12:32

I had a similar thing happen to me when I ordered from John Lewis using paypal. They rejected my payment, i contacted them and re ordered, I cancelled the first order but the first order stayed in my pending payments in paypal for over 2 months, its only just gone.