Apparently VA can be a little slow sometimes, so Mrs. L.A. ordered some medication online about a month ago. The next day or a couple of days later she gets a call from her bank, informing her two charges on her debit card had been declined, and would she verify whether they were actually legitimate. The two amounts were different from each other. They were close to, but more than, the amount of her purchase. One was to a clothing store in China, and the other was to a toy store in China. Since she hadn’t bought any clothes or toys or anything else from China, and since the amounts were a few dollars greater than the amount of her order, she told the bank that she hadn’t made the charges. They cancelled her card and issued her a new one, which was an inconvenience because she never carries cash and doesn’t like using her credit card.
Now the online pharmacy keeps calling. She’s never here, and I have to listen to the bloody phone ringing while I’m trying to work. I guess it was last week that I picked up the phone and told them their business practice of charging more than the selling price and making payments to toy stores and clothing stores was unethical, and don’t expect to hear from The Wife. I thought that would be the end of it. Just got off the phone with them again. (It sounded like the same guy I’d talked to before.) He explained that the amounts are different because international banks have different fees. I told him that’s their problem. He said they charge through non-medical stores to ensure people’s privacy. ‘Someone might not want to know his family is buying medicine.’ I explained that these are shady business practices. The guy transferred me to a ‘supervisor’ with a heavy Indian accent, with the improbable name of John Smith. He explained why they operate that way, and I explained their business practices are unethical. He tried to explain once again why they operate that way, and I tried to explain why legitimate businesses don’t operate that way. I told him their business practices caused no small inconvenience, and that I really have to get back to work. He said Mrs. L.A. needs to call and tell them herself that she wants to cancel the order. Fat chance. I told him she’s not going to talk to them. Blahblahblahblahblah… I cut him off and went back to my accounts… which I need to get back to, but I wanted to vent.
(And yes, she did finally receive her medicine from the VA.)
So you violated the law by buying prescription meds from random websites overseas and were then surprised to find yourself dealing with shady suppliers.
I’m shocked – Shocked I say.
Normally I’m sympathetic to the foibles of modern e-commerce. Not to mention the never-ending adventures of our intrepid Johnny L.A. Not this time. Your outrage is IMO misplaced.
You (she actually) are probably better off to have not received the counterfeit medications anyhow.
Welcome to the international sucker list. She will never, ever stop getting scam calls from “pharmacies,” and God knows who else, on that number. She should either get it changed or prepare to be robocalled constantly until the day she dies and far beyond.
And is ordering meds from a shady online pharmacy because… ?
It’s a tangent, but the OP made me remember this. A few years ago when my hard-ass insurance company started forcing me to use their online pharmacy, I once had to call the doctor to request a new rx for a refill. (A refill in my eyes, a new rx from their perspectives.) I made the mistake of telling the doctor’s office staff that I needed the rx faxed to an online pharmacy. They freaked out and wouldn’t do it. Apparently it’s coded language. I should have used the term “mail order pharmacy” and that would have been fine. The term online pharmacy to them meant some shady gig in Cambodia. So yeah, even though the officially blessed and authorized pharmacy is online (and also mail order but that’s old school), never, EVER call it an online pharmacy. :rolleyes:
Next time she really shouldn’t use her debit card. The credit card is a much better choice for that kind of a transaction since she’d have some consumer protections and wouldn’t be giving strangers access to your checking account.
If you shop at Costco and don’t have their issued credit card, the only card they will take is a debit card. I don’t want or need another CC, so DC it is. I see nothing wrong with that.
Right now, Costco will take any American Express, not just their own. Come February, they will take any Visa card. WRT the original poster, I’d never buy anything on-line with a debit card. User protections are significantly weaker, at least under US laws. Actually, in general I won’t use a debit card, but that’s another story.
In the US, the critical difference is not one of desire or avoidance of debt. It’s that the consumer protection laws are completely different.
If somebody somehow steals your *credit *card info and goes on a buying binge, for all practical purposes the banks eat all the fraudulent charges and you pay nothing.
But if somebody somehow steals your *debit *card info and goes on a buying binge, for all practical purposes you eat all the fraudulent charges (potentially including overdrafts) and the banks pay nothing.
That difference is why many Americans, myself included, steadfastly refuse to use debit cards.
Taking the side of the pharmacy may not be popular, but could fluctuations in the foreign currency exchange rate account for the price difference?
I deal with that frequently and it is maddening to deal with my bank because of it. Bank calls to verify if I made a purchase for $124.17 from a store in Colombia. I try to explain that I did make a purchase for 500,000 pesos but can’t say what that would convert to in Cayman dollars. Bank subsequently freaks out.