Entering/updating card details

Something I posted in another thread in reference to the 3 digit security code on the back of a card was wrong:

In reply to a post by jelv:

That would only appear when you make an actual payment, not when you put the card details on to Plusnet's system.

I'm surprised nobody pulled me up on this!

When you go to https://portal.plus.net/apps/paymentdetails/manage/c... to enter details of a new card it does ask for the security code. It does also link to Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode.

However...

There are peculiarities of the way Plusnet's system works which probably contributed in a large part to the difficulties hk11 faced when he attempted to do it all on-line. It was because of these deficiencies that PN wanted to talk to him on the phone and take the payment that way.

I think I've got all these facts right:

1. When you enter new card details and you have existing card details they will be stored as a secondary card. They are just held and never used until the primary card expires when the existing primary card is deleted and the secondary becomes the primary. In fact the update button below the existing details is very misleading in that it doesn't! It takes you to the add new card dialogue linked above.

2. You can't actually see or edit the full details of the primary card - so if you have got an error on the existing card you can't correct it. Entering the details as a new card won't work because it won't be used until the wrong details reach their expiry date.

3. The only way you can edit an existing card or set up a new card to be used immediately is to contact Plusnet and ask them to delete all the existing card details - you then set up the correct details as a new card.

What would be interesting is whether during the hk11 saga he was asked to do as I've said in the last point which if there were errors on his existing card details may have resolved the issue, and if not, why not?

My head hurts.

I've still not heard from my bank, so can't give any definite answer on what went wrong. All I can say is that it shouldn't be so difficult to get a company to take a payment from you! Their system does seem to be a bit more buggy than most, but perhaps they do/try to do more than others?

Did they at any stage do through deleting your existing card details and asking you to re-enter them?

Online was done by myself, everything else was via the phone as they requested.

I think your post has also nicely summarised one of the problems with PN (as I've already indicated in another post).

Both online & in their Customer Service they have made extensive use of automated systems.

Generally these work well & are efficient (helping to keep PN's costs low).

However, IMHO, when something does happen out of the ordinary their systems seem to be unable to get away from an A-B-C mentality. Once something is screwed it seems to just career out of control!

That certainly was my experience, when I had problems with them!!

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

Once something is screwed it seems to just career out of control!

Not really a problem if a human can step in, but staff seem unable/unwilling to do so early on.