I ordered a software library from Poland. The price on the web site was 1590. The electronic invoice was 1590. The charge on my credit card was 1613.51.
I cannot expense a charge for which I do not have a proper invoice.
The company in Poland is saying it is due to currency exchange rates.
Do I have any recourse?
What currency were you invoiced in?
Does your credit card charge a fee for international transactions?
Were there any local taxes to be paid (VAT for instance)?
I’m not sure what recourse you have, but I can confirm that this can happen with international charges. A similar issue comes up occasionally at the Canadian software company where I work. The reason is that the equipment is only set up to charge in Canadian dollars.
For example, say the exchange rate is $1 CDN = $1.04 USD, and you buy a product worth $104 US. The company will do the math and charge your card $100 CDN. However, if there is a change in the exchange rate before the charge is posted, the USD price charged to your card will change as well.
It regularly happens. For instance, I was in Poland last month and the hotel room rates were posted in euros, although with a note explaining that they would be charged in zloty at current exchange rates. The amount charged to my credit card was not the same in sterling as it “should” have been - in fact it was less in this instance.
Surely if you submit the original invoice together with a copy of your credit-card statement showing the actual figure, you can claim back what you were actually charged? Unless your accounts department is more than usually vindictive, that is.
If your accounts department is indeed unusually vindictive, I assume the vendor would be willing to send you another invoice reflecting the actual charge made.
The vendor has been aggressive in telling me it is my problem. I don’t object to the currency exchange rate, but it seems to me that a proper invoice can and should be provided.
The invoice was in dollars. My CC company did not charge me a fee. There is no not of taxes on the invoice and none would be charged here in PA.
We do a lot of business with the government and the AR department is very careful about making sure we are billed what we were quoted.
I understand international business - I don’t object to the difference, I object to the fact that they won’t provide me with an accurate invoice.
If the invoice had been in zlotys, I’d be on their side. But not in this case. (borschevsky’s example is good, but only if the website and invoice had shown the price as $100 CDN. But not if the price shown was $104 USA.)
Did the website or invoice even have a number of zlotys that they were using for the calculations? If some, then maybe you can find a website with daily conversion rates, and show the calculations to your accounting dept.
But that won’t solve your frustation with the vendor. For this purpose, I suggest bringing it to the attention of the credit card company. Try telling them that you have the invoice, and the wrong amount was charged to your card, and they should reverse the difference. Let us know what happens.
What does your credit card company say?
So far they have not responded to my inquiry. This isn’t too unusual, it often takes a few hours.
I don’t know how it is in the U.S., but here in the U.K, if you buy via a credit card company, for certain things your contract is with the CC company, not the software company.
The CC company has admitted that this is caused by an international fee. When asked why their web site reports 0 dollars in the fee column they tell me it because they don’t report fees until the end of the month…
Thank you for the replies.