Just take my money!

October 19, 2014 8:28 PM

Mefites in Japan: What's the way out of this payment... difficulty?

Last time I was in Japan, I bought tickets to an event in Tokyo. Although the company itself is very old and well respected, the website seemed kind of amateurish. Otherwise it worked fine. I bought the tickets with my (US) credit card, it worked, I went, I had a great time.

More than two months later, back in the US, I noticed an unfamiliar charge show up on my credit card, from Japan, in a business name I'd never heard of. Googling the name came up with some anime production studio. (I should say I don't keep exact track of my statements; I just scan them once in a while for anything I don't recognize.) So I say to myself, Hey! That's something suspicious. I had the credit card company cancel the card and issue me a new one.

Two MORE months go by and I get an email from that company asking what's up. Yep, it turns out that was the event I bought tickets for and they didn't get around to charging my card (under a different business name for the payment processor) until much later. Whoops, my mistake.

They want me to un-dispute the charge: can't. It's been too long now.
They want to re-charge the original account info: can't. That card was cancelled completely and reissued with a different number.
I offered my new account info: they don't want that (for some reason)

I know the real answer is to talk to them; this could probably be solved with one phone call. But I don't speak Japanese and they seem to be struggling to get email to and from me in English figured out. (No judgment, I'm the dumb foreigner here)

So the actual question(s) are:
1) Is that normal for financial transactions to take on the order of months to be resolved/posted? I'm used to a few business days.
2) what can I suggest? Paypal? Personal check? I obviously can't just drive over there and correct my error like I would normally do.
3) If they get sick of dealing with this, what do they do, report me to credit bureaus, or what?

I'm really trying to pay this company any way I can, but communication has been frustrating. It's taking more than a week for each email reply.

posted by ctmf to Travel & Transportation around Japan (12 answers total)

Best answer: Can you have a message explaining the situation to them translated into Japanese? That would eliminate one obstacle.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:33 PM on October 19, 2014

Was an actual dispute open and closed on this charge? What did the bank report bank to you when they investigated it?
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:55 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Two months seems like a long time before charging your card. Are you sure the charge didn't go through already? I mean within a couple of days of purchase? Maybe double check your statements by the amount of the charge so you don't miss whatever business name they might have used. It sounds a little suspicious that they aren't willing to take your new credit card info. I'd certainly want them to explain why they can't or won't.

Are you positive you are dealing with the same company? Usually you can find a link between the text on the credit card statement, however it's abbreviated, and the actual business name. Maybe this is perfectly legit but I'm very careful about foreign transactions especially when there is a language barrier.

I'm not sure how much I'd be willing to do to correct their error. Website commerce isn't a new idea. It's not the customer's fault if they don't have it set up correctly. I'm guessing they wouldn't be able to report this as a bad debt to a US credit agency very easily.
posted by Beti at 9:41 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: JoeZydeco: I don't know? When I reported it on the phone the customer service person immediately saw that it was charged in Japan and was like *Gasp!* That's fraud! as if it was obvious. I had a new card two days later and thought it was all over with, crisis averted. I did call them when I realized it was a mistake, but they claimed there was nothing they could do to pay the charge from their end, with either the old or new account, because it had been over X time since it happened.

EC: Good idea. I'm going to have to find a Japanese speaker to make a phone call with me. After all, I'm the one trying to do business in Japan; I guess it's on me to use the standard language of business there. I don't know why I didn't think of that, thanks.
posted by ctmf at 9:43 PM on October 19, 2014

Nothing goes so far in Japan as an apology. Even if it is only in English, apologize. Do it via email then do it via a phone call. Then send a letter, handwritten, apologizing. Apologize. Profusely. Do not make excuses. Just apologize, apologize, apologize.

1. There is no point in answering this part of your question, so I won't. This attitude will not get you anywhere with the Japanese, not in business certainly. Take absolute responsibility and apologize. This is your fault and you need to apologize for inconveniencing anyone ever.

2. Send cash or a money order in yen. ASAP. Include with it a letter with yet another apology and no excuses, copies of any emails or bank statements you have so that someone can sort it out.

And in case I haven't actually emphasized it enough: Apologize.
posted by GoLikeHellMachine at 9:49 PM on October 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Beti: I'm sure now. There was no charge at the time of the sale until the "suspicious" one, and it's in the exact amount of the sale. The company checks out now that I've taken more time to research it. I don't want to name the company, but it's not a type of business known for being tech-savvy (analogous to maybe an opera company?) Maybe they're used to cash and handwritten letters? Old money just gets taken care of whenever? *shrug*

It was totally my mistake. I just jumped the gun when I wasn't expecting that.

GoLikeHellMachine: Oh, I've absolutely been apologizing and taking responsibility for the error profusely in every email, and they are being very nice.
posted by ctmf at 9:56 PM on October 19, 2014

Best answer: You needn't worry about your US credit, thankfully. Credit histories don't cross national borders. I suppose they could sue you here and then it might, but otherwise that's not something you need to concern yourself with.

All you can really do is offer to pay them with some other payment method, so the ball is totally in their court once you communicate that willingness to them.
posted by wierdo at 10:01 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The ticket sale could have been processed through a cooperative effort made up of the production company, the event planners, whatever company handled the ticket sales, and even the banks that processed the transaction. These types of committee arrangements are common in Japan: when everything's order, things go through smoothly; when the arrangement is new, or one of the parties is really inefficient or doesn't provide some piece of required information, things get slowed down easily and it can take a long time before anyone even notices the problem. Foreign transactions, sadly, are one of the things these systems don't always handle very well, especially if you're dealing with small companies that don't have a lot of foreign customers.

So my main piece of advice is don't worry about this getting you in trouble. It's a pain to get these things resolved in Japan--as much of a pain for the company as it is for you, so it's unlikely they're going to make a top priority of a $20 concert ticket. Keep being polite, show good faith about anything specific they ask you to do, but don't waste huge amounts of time trying to get this resolved if they're not being forthcoming about how you can. Their reticence doesn't mean they're going to report you anywhere; it just means they don't know what to do about this either and they probably don't care very much.

Finally, about payment methods: DO NOT send a personal check. Japanese banks don't use them and the people you're paying won't know what to do with it. Some sort of international money order or wire transfer is probably your best option. The company may even have a target account number that they give out for receivable payments; Japanese companies routinely give out this information on invoices when they need a payment from somebody, although I don't know if they'll do it for a foreign retail customer.

Good luck.
posted by urufu at 10:49 PM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

When I went to Japan in 2008 some of the hotel charges etc didn't go through for several months after I got back. I asked around my colleagues who travelled to Japan a lot and they said yeah, that's normal. So that part is not at all suspicious at least. In my case I was keeping track and waiting for the charge so didn't have any problems, which I guess is what you'll do in the future.

I'd make one good faith effort to talk with them and sort something out then leave the ball in their court. If you can get a Japanese speaker to help out that will be a good thing. But if they insist on you doing something your bank just won't let you do then *shrug*.
posted by shelleycat at 11:18 PM on October 19, 2014

I imagine that one reason they are concerned is that, to them, it's more than just the money. By disputing the charge, you may have brought them into disrepute with the credit card company, which resulted in the credit card company charging them penalties, increasing their rates on all transactions, or even refusing to process new payments at all. This may be why they are so keen on you reversing the chargeback.

Make an effort with the credit card company to remove the black mark against them, and then tell the event company that you did so.
posted by alexei at 12:46 AM on October 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

I would write two letters, on paper.

One is to the credit card company, explaining in detail what happened.

The other is to the Japanese company, attaching a copy of your letter to the credit card company and communicating your willingness to pay them the amount if they will accept a new credit card number or otherwise tell you in writing how they want you to pay.

Then stop all the email communication or, if the emails continue, refer them to the letter and reiterate that as your letter said, you will pay them once they tell you how.
posted by chickenmagazine at 6:46 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

For the record, I was thinking of something like, you contact the nearest university - either, like, the Japanese language department, or Asian history, or any department in which it'd be plausible to find a Japanese speaker - and ask if they can recommend how you could get a short email translated. You'll probably be speaking with a student worker who can suggest someone to do it for free for you as a favor, and then you send them the text of the email, they send you back the Japanese translation, you copy-and-paste into an email to the client and bob's-your-uncle.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:42 AM on October 20, 2014