Laptop or NO Laptop.

August 7, 2012 11:24 AM

Has my father messed up this online order?

Very simply, my father has ordered a laptop online (for me). This is his first time ordering anything online and I guided him through the process, since we're in different countries and didn't understand the language the website was in.

Either way, he did it and the order has (apparently) been processed with no problems.

Problem is... he paid using his Credit Card and, on the billing info, instead of writing his address down he used mine.

Is this something I should be looking to fix? I'm worrying quite a bit about this, mostly because this laptop is pretty important to me (and a rather expensive gift).

posted by Trexsock to computers & internet (6 answers total)

If they haven't already verified the info, then most likely, what will happen is they'll check the billing info when the bill it (probably upon shipping), and either get in touch with him to verify/fix the information, or just cancel the order and then it can be easily re-ordered. There's no way in which this ends up with anything worse than an order cancellation. Proactively, he/you pretending to be him may be able to call and correct the information.
posted by brainmouse at 11:28 AM on August 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

Problem is... he paid using his Credit Card and, on the billing info, instead of writing his address down he used mine

Did he put your address in the "Ship To" area? If so, best case scenario is the order goes through anyway, worst case scenario is they cancel the order.
posted by Rock Steady at 11:36 AM on August 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm worrying quite a bit about this, mostly because this laptop is pretty important to me (and a rather expensive gift).


They're not going to take the money and not send it because the billing address was wrong, and they're highly unlikely to give up on a sale (especially of an expensive item). Either they wont check the billing address (they don't always) or the card will be declined and they'll contact your father to get the correct address. It probably wont be the first time this has happened.
posted by missmagenta at 11:42 AM on August 7, 2012

Yeah, worst case scenario is probably that they'll cancel the order without notifying you or your father, though I guess maybe your dad's credit card company might also take some action if their fraud protection is triggered. If it hasn't been shipped or billed yet, you might be able to change the information by editing your order. If not, you can always contact the vendor's customer service and say you'd like to correct the billing address.
posted by yasaman at 11:43 AM on August 7, 2012

This is a non-issue.

I mix these up all the time (I usually have things shipped to my work address and, given how much ordering I do for my company, I often accidentally type my company address into billing on autopilot).

My experience has been that either 1) the website insta-checks the cardholder information--meaning the order doesn't process at all and won't complete--or 2) they don't check the cardholder information at any point and the order goes through without a hitch.

As long as your dad got the shipping address correct and was purchasing from a major retailer (and not some sketchy, scammy reseller website), I'd say you're in the clear.
posted by phunniemee at 11:54 AM on August 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

I work in e-comm. Odds are nearly 100% that if the billing address had been checked, it would have been checked automatically at the instant the order went through, and authentication would have failed. Many systems don't check the billing address if the CVV2 (code on back of a bank card, or printed on front of an AMEX) is correct.
posted by randomkeystrike at 4:50 PM on August 7, 2012