How long can a company wait after billing my CC to ship my goods?

[Khadaji]

I have ordered something. They have billed my credit card. How long can they wait until the ship? Is there a legal limit?

[mks57]

@Khadaji

I have ordered something. They have billed my credit card. How long can they wait until the ship? Is there a legal limit?

I’m not sure about the law, but their merchant agreement with the credit card company should cover this. Normally, they aren’t supposed to submit the charge before they ship the product.

[ultrafilter]

I seem to remember hearing 30 days, but you should wait for an answer from someone who actually knows.

[Bambi_Hassenpfeffer]

@Khadaji

I have ordered something. They have billed my credit card. How long can they wait until the ship? Is there a legal limit?

According to the Visa Merchant Manual (and this is the third thread this week I’ve had to reference this thing):

For card-not-present transactions, cardholders should be informed of delivery method and tentative delivery date. Transactions cannot be deposited until goods or services have been delivered.

Translation: They need to tell you up front when you can expect delivery, and they can’t charge you until they’ve handed it off to their courier. Also keep in mind that the transaction will show up on your account as “unbilled activity” before they deposit the transaction to their bank. If that’s what’s happened, then they are not in violation of their agreement until it actually hits your statement without the goods having been shipped. However, merchants regularly disobey these rules either through ignorance or negligence, so expect some resistance if you try to hold them to it.

Alternatively, report them to Visa or MC as outlined in my post over in this thread.

Keep in mind that I’m not an expert on this end of things at all – I’ve always been more involved in the authorization and point-of-sale side of the business. Chargeback procedures and authorization codes and identity verification processes? Sure. Card-not-present shipping procedures? Not so much.

[Khadaji]

@Bambi Hassenpfeffer

According to the Visa Merchant Manual (and this is the third thread this week I’ve had to reference this thing):

Translation: They need to tell you up front when you can expect delivery, and they can’t charge you until they’ve handed it off to their courier. Also keep in mind that the transaction will show up on your account as “unbilled activity” before they deposit the transaction to their bank. If that’s what’s happened, then they are not in violation of their agreement until it actually hits your statement without the goods having been shipped. However, merchants regularly disobey these rules either through ignorance or negligence, so expect some resistance if you try to hold them to it.

Alternatively, report them to Visa or MC as outlined in my post over in this thread.

Keep in mind that I’m not an expert on this end of things at all – I’ve always been more involved in the authorization and point-of-sale side of the business. Chargeback procedures and authorization codes and identity verification processes? Sure. Card-not-present shipping procedures? Not so much.

Thanks for the reply. Actually, it is a Discover card. I’m sure that their rules are similar. From the statement it looks as if the company has billed me. When quized about the whereabouts, they told me that it was “in process” and that this was their busy time of year. It was bill on Feb 19th. I will give it one more week, then I will complain, first to them, then to Discover.

[Quartz]

It was billed over three weeks ago? Two weeks is reasonable, three isn’t. They’re taking the piss. Sorry mate, but you need to ring them and say that if the goods don’t arrive the next day (adjust for reasonable shipping) you’ll consider the order cancelled and report them to both Discover and your local equivalent of Trading Standards.

[mks57]

Be wary of companies that bill now and ship later. It can mean that they have cash flow problems and are headed towards bankruptcy. I’ve been a victim of this in the past.

[Duckster]

The Mail or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule
This rule covers merchandise you order by mail, telephone, computer and fax. It requires merchants to have a reasonable basis for claiming they can ship an order within a certain time.

Ship Dates

* By law, a merchant should ship your order within the time stated in its ads or over the phone. If the merchant doesn't promise a time, you can expect it to ship your order within 30 days.
* The shipment "clock" begins when the merchant receives a "properly completed order." That includes your name, address and payment (check, money order or authorization to charge an existing credit account - whether the account is debited at that time or not).
* If the merchant doesn't promise a shipping time and you are applying for credit to pay for your purchase, the merchant has an additional 20 days (50 days total) to establish the account and ship the merchandise.

Delays

If the merchant is unable to ship within the promised time, it must notify you by mail, telephone, or email, give a revised shipping date and give you the chance to cancel for a full refund or accept the new shipping date. The merchant also must give you some way to exercise the cancellation option for free, for example, by supplying a prepaid reply card or staffing a toll-free telephone number.

* If you ignore the option notice, and the delay is 30 days or less, it's assumed that you accept the delay and are willing to wait for the merchandise.
* If you do not respond - and the delay is more than 30 days - the order must be canceled by the 30th day of the delay period and a full refund issued promptly.

If the merchant can’t meet the revised shipping date, it must notify you again by mail, email or telephone and give you a new shipping date or cancel your order and give you a refund.

* The order will be canceled and a refund issued promptly unless you indicate by the revised shipping date that you are willing to wait.
* If you do not respond at all to the second notice, it's assumed that you are not willing to wait, and a full refund must be issued promptly.

Refunds

If you authorized a charge to your credit card account, the merchant must credit the account within one billing cycle - not give credit toward another purchase. If you pay by cash, check or money order, the merchant must mail you a refund within seven working days.

Source: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/billed.htm

[Joey_P]

@Quartz

It was billed over three weeks ago? Two weeks is reasonable, three isn’t. They’re taking the piss. Sorry mate, but you need to ring them and say that if the goods don’t arrive the next day (adjust for reasonable shipping) you’ll consider the order cancelled and report them to both Discover and your local equivalent of Trading Standards.

Ditto on this, I wound’t even worry about what the Merchant Agreement has to say about it. It’s a Merchent Agreement, not a cardmemeber/consumer agreement. You have no reason to know what rules a merchant has to follow. I would call them up, if they tell you they’ve shipped already, get a tracking number and look it up (mistakes DO happen from time to time). Anyways, if they give you the runaround, call up Discover and dispute the charge. If they did ship it out all they have to do is tell Discover that it was indeed shipped and Discover will come back to you and ask you somemore questions, if by then you’ve received it you can 'un’dispute it.