My MIL and I did our Black Friday shopping online this year. We shopped Toys R Us at around 10 pm on Thanksgiving night to take advantage of the great deals. After more than an hour of trying to complete the order, the payment finally went through. The next day, we found out that my MIL bank had two separate holds placed on it for the same amount from Toys R Us. They had charged us twice. We assumed this was as a result of the issues with checkout and called their customer service department. They told us that it was not a double charge but that there were just two holds placed. What’s the difference? The money was not available for her to use. They assured us that the hold would be removed within 24 to 72 hours. While we were not happy with that response, we accepted it.
On Monday of this week (more than 3 days since the purchase) the hold had still not been removed. My MIL waited to see if one more day would make a difference. It didn’t. Last night (Tuesday night, more than 4 days after the purchase) the hold had still not been removed and the money was still not available for my MIL to use. As a result of this, she has not been able to pay several bills that are due this week. When she contacted customer service (again) she was told that the second hold is always done when a debit card or check card is used and that it is done by all companies that sell online. Falsehood #1. She was then told that this is done to make sure that the money is available in the account. So, it is necessary to have $436 available in order to pay a bill of $218? That’s the first time I have heard of something like that. They spoke to my MIL as if she was a moron and did not understand how banking is done. I’m sorry, we do most of our shopping online and are quite familiar with online shopping and banking. This has never happened in any of our shopping experiences prior to this one. Not even when we shopped through Toys R Us in the past.
The final result of the call last night is that the hold should be removed within 24 – 72 hours. Sound familiar? So far, Toys R Us has been holding an extra $218 of my MIL money for more than 5 days (that’s a total of at least 120 hours so far). The customer service reps that we have spoken with have been unhelpful, untruthful and rude.
We WILL NOT be shopping at Toys R Us again. That includes in store shopping. Any store that values a customer would try to make this situation right, not treat their customers like children or morons.
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If they get no complaints they will not change how they do business!
However when I checked my bank statement I was showing in the "hold" section the total amount of my order, the two other smaller amounts, so I of course called TRU and inquired.
They told me they placed the "hold" of the entire amount, which in a few days will drop off, however, as items ship, they will charge my card. I said that is NOT good, I allocated the money for the order but did not expect to start getting charged AGAIN as items shipped. Not to mention I did not expect a HOLD to be on the card at all, I shop all the time online with my Visa check card and this NEVER happens!
To make a LONG LONG story short, after getting through three customer service reps I still was not satisifed because the first two reps did not do as they said they would, the third actually agreed with me that this procedure is not normal but unfortunately it's the way TRU does it and finally after contacting my bank they were able to see the "hold" would drop off the same night I was talking to her, that is, however, three days after I had placed the purchase.
Now here is what pisses me off the most, Toys R Us rep asked his supervisor if a bank is allowed to charge overdraft fees on a "hold", supervisor said no, it's a Federal offense, rep said he did not know that, neither did I soooo I called my bank, I told them what TRU said, bank rep laughed at me and said of course we can! So who do you believe?
If I didn't have enough money in my bank account to cover the 'extra" charges I was enduring during this "hold" session, apparently I would have had bounced checks for other bills, overdraft fees etc. and apparantly neither my bank nor TRU would have felt they were to blame.
Where is a consumer to go when you do all you can to get things taken care of and you are either ignored or laughed at?
I love Toys R Us but I promise you I will NEVER shop online with them again unless they change this hold business. Why the hell didn't they just charge me for the whole amount at the time the order was placed and that be that? Just doesn't make any sense.
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