Wow...it's a wonder this lady hasn't had her identity stolen yet...

[Rock Hydra]

Okay...I work at a company called Classifieds Plus. We take classified ads in after hours or overflow situations for newspapers across the country (and even Canada) If you've ever placed a classified ad in a major newspaper (Miami Herald, New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Examiner(which is owned by the Baltimore Sun unbenknownst to many Sun haters in the Baltimore area), Las Vegas Review Journal/Sun, Orlando Sentinel...etc) and gotten the "extended". "overflow" or "after hours" office, that's our company.

Anyway...I get a call from this lady from the LV Review Journal. One of our disclaimers since we can't bill customers is that "All ads are prepaid by credit card" amongst other things. She agrees, I take her ad, then comes to the billing portion. I request her CC info, I type it into the field, and I say "Okay, your ad's all set to go for Friday." and i hear "So, you're going to bill me, right?" and I say "No, it will be charged to your credit card." I couldn't believe she just gave out her card number. I eventually convinced her to just let her use her card because she would have to call back, but damn...people are idiots.

Cliffs:
Lady gives me her CC info
Requests to be billed after the fact
Uh....WTF
that's the gist

 

[Sphexi]

So...you request her ccard info for payment, and she gives it to you, and she's the moron?

 

[Rock Hydra]

Hmm...I can't understand why she'd give her card out under the impression that she would be billed, instead.

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
So...you request her ccard info for payment, and she gives it to you, and she's the moron?

I'm usually pretty good at reading comprehension, so i'm guessing it's the OP's writeup that is poorly worded. I too can't figure out what she did wrong.

Edit: Okay, I understand now. Maybe she thought giving the credit card info was for verification purposes, or was required for her file in case she didn't pay her bill. I don't think this makes her an idiot, though she should have confirmed exactly why she was giving it to you... before she actually gave it to you. It's not like she gave the info to somebody who shouldn't have it though.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
So...you request her ccard info for payment, and she gives it to you, and she's the moron?

Yeah, I don't get it.

So she was confused about the payment...what's the big deal? What on earth does this have to do with identity theft?

 

[helloedchen]

You lost me.

You said:

"I request her CC info"

She gives it, what's the problem?

 

[MrDingleDangle]

i don't get it either...she just asked when she would be charged? why would this equal identity theft. I often give my credit card number when I want to purchase something.

 

[Sphexi]

Our local paper allows you to enter an ad online, and then a rep will call you back for confirmation and billing information. In that case, with someone calling you and asking for your ccard info, I can understand not giving it out, as you shouldn't ever give out info for someone calling you (cid info can be spoofed easily). But if she called a number from their website, she's talking to someone from the paper or an authorized rep, so there shouldn't be a problem giving out her info. If something did happen, it'd be pretty easy to find out who stole it, ccard companies are really good at tracking such things.

 

[biggestmuff]

sounds like she was asking if she'd receive a snail-mailed receipt for services rendered.

 

[Rock Hydra]

Hmm...maybe just the concept of just giving the card out even though she wanted to be billed seemed dumb. I dunno. Probably my poor fscked logic.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Rock Hydra
Hmm...maybe just the concept of just giving the card out even though she wanted to be billed seemed dumb. I dunno. Probably my poor fscked logic.

I understood you perfectly, not sure why others are having problems. The lady obviously thought she was getting billed, so why on earth would she give a credit card? It would seem the lady is a little too easy with giving out the CC# without expecting charges to be made, so this would make you think she'll give it out anytime someone asks for it.

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: blurredvision

Originally posted by: Rock Hydra
Hmm...maybe just the concept of just giving the card out even though she wanted to be billed seemed dumb. I dunno. Probably my poor fscked logic.

I understood you perfectly, not sure why others are having problems. The lady obviously thought she was getting billed, so why on earth would she give a credit card? It would seem the lady is a little too easy with giving out the CC# without expecting charges to be made, so this would make you think she'll give it out anytime someone asks for it.

Yeah, that was my take on the whole scenario.

 

[DrPizza]

Hmmm... that's odd... If I go to a hotel and get a room, I often have to provide a credit card number, yet I'm billed at the end of my stay, and quite often, pay using cash or some other means. OP doesn't realize that it's possible, and perhaps past practice of her local newspaper was to bill when the service was rendered?

Furthermore, are you charging her now for something that won't be done until Friday? I thought you technically weren't allowed to bill her credit card until the service was rendered...

Not that in this case it wasn't obvious that the card was for billing purposes, but it seems the OP finds it absolutely unreasonable to expect otherwise.

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Hmmm... that's odd... If I go to a hotel and get a room, I often have to provide a credit card number, yet I'm billed at the end of my stay, and quite often, pay using cash or some other means. OP doesn't realize that it's possible, and perhaps past practice of her local newspaper was to bill when the service was rendered?

Furthermore, are you charging her now for something that won't be done until Friday? I thought you technically weren't allowed to bill her credit card until the service was rendered...

Not that in this case it wasn't obvious that the card was for billing purposes, but it seems the OP finds it absolutely unreasonable to expect otherwise.

I do think it's unreasonable if I tell her straight out that thee method of payment is credit card.

It's similar to a scenario like this:

You have to pay for this with a creidt card.
Okay, here's my card number.
So, can I pay cash?


D'oh!