Library management issues after editing metadata

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by stumped

sure, but accidents can still happen. the notices go to some email you used at the time, but have moved on, so it's defunct or you don't check it... or your bank gets over-zealous about online fraud and declines a payment...
e.g. my 15Gb dropbox email ( built up with lots of referrals) is years obsolete, but I can't change it to my current email as I already have a different small free dropbox on that.
if you read trustpilot reviews of cloud services, you will see many unfortunates reporting that all their data was wiped after payment hassles.

[ the declined payment is a genuine problem now in UK. Covid came along just as banks were upping online card payment security, with texts, PINs, that have to be responded to before payment is allowed. I have read actual horror stories from self-isolating folks ordering groceries on line- they put in a order, the online retailer goes for payment authorization not until after midnight the day before, just in time for the am delivery. Bank sends a text to customer saying please confirm the payment, but customer is sound asleep by then. Payment fails, delivery is cancelled, and the next available delivery slot is 3 weeks away if you are lucky... ]

a more mundane example _ i was sharing my son in law's google play music family plan. it suddenly stopped working and started asking me to subscribe. I thought I must have upset him & gotten ditched... turns out there was some glitch with his credit card number changing or expiring and google had instantly pulled the subscription until it was sorted. no grace period, no benefit of the doubt...

Well, yes, but a person should be at least somewhat responsible in their financial matters and keep an eye on their subscriptions. Everyone can forget occasionally, but that doesn't mean you should blindly leave everything to banks and credit card companies. I use PayPal for subscriptions wherever possible, because it's easier when all your subscriptions are in one place. You can't use PayPal with Amazon or Google, of course.

As to online ordering, here your card is charged right away, otherwise your order won't even go through. The practice of charging when shipped is unknown among our local merchants.

[stumped]

I appreciate we are rabbiting off topic, but couple of rejoinders.
When I worked for many years in bankncard payments, visa rules were that payment should not be taken until goods were shipped. Lots of merchants ignored that but still..
The one time issue now for groceries is that with all the panic buying , retailers don't know what stock thay can actually ship until just before, so they are holding back with authorizations, until orders are packed and ready to load onto vans.
And , or banks are applying their newly automated anti fraud systems to folks who maybe never ordered food online before, so a big on line grocery order looks suspicious to a dumb computer...we have had the letters from card issuers saying next time you shop online we may text you a pin to verify with, but you don't expect those texts to come at 2am!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by stumped

I appreciate we are rabbiting off topic, but couple of rejoinders.
When I worked for many years in bankncard payments, visa rules were that payment should not be taken until goods were shipped. Lots of merchants ignored that but still..

I've never worked in that area, but obviously our local banks and cards must have different rules, because our merchants have always charged at the time of placing the order, never later. If they don't have something in stock and they don't know it beforehand, they'll just refund that part of the payment. Perhaps it's another "small country" peculiarity, I can imagine how bothersome it would be with millions of customers.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I've never worked in that area, but obviously our local banks and cards must have different rules, because our merchants have always charged at the time of placing the order, never later. If they don't have something in stock and they don't know it beforehand, they'll just refund that part of the payment. Perhaps it's another "small country" peculiarity, I can imagine how bothersome it would be with millions of customers.

Continuing

My grocery provider in the UK, Ocado, puts a hold on the amount computed at time of order. After delivery they take payment, taking into account what was actually delivered and whether anything was returned/rejected. This process means that they check with the bank at time of order and this check seems to suffice for when they actually take payment.

Of course, if you are using a debit card then a hold is almost indistiguishable from a payment.

[theducks]

The 'Merchant card Agreement' for the 4 major US (cards start with 3,4,5,6011) all have rules about billing before shipment. That applies to goods that ship per the order. OTOH A subscription is what you purchase, not a individual issue/item, so the charge at purchase time would not be in violation.

OTOH there is a few special cases: Special Custom built orders, Special pre-orders (in both cases the terms are up front). Refunds are generally not permitted after X event. Local laws may add additional terms.

A line in one agreement I had:
'Thou shall not disparage the card'

[stumped]

Asda leave it until just before delivery. Regular on line shoppers are probably ok. Someone who has never bought groceries online before and now places a £100 order trips the banks suspicious activity process so we get the midnight text scenario...

This from Asda:
"We'll authorise your card for the full amount the day before or on the day that your delivery or collection is due. If you take advantage of our same-day delivery or collection service, we'll authorise your card a few hours before your slot."

Ocado have other problems .see trustpilot where the damning 1 star reviews are rolling in day after day.
I am one of those frustrated ex customers who is now unable to get any deliveries at all.

Sainsbury credit card has a hair trigger threat detector. I have had several rows with them for declining a replacement dishwasher ordered online, and other similar "suspicious purchases". Yes, buying a dishwasher is not something I do regularly, but if I was on a spending spree with a stolen card it would not be my 1st choice of target!

We have drifted just a little from "library management issues after editing metadata". Stir crazy beginning to set in after 2 weeks of lockdown?

[stumped]

Originally Posted by theducks

The 'Merchant card Agreement' for the 4 major US (cards start with 3,4,5,6011) all have rules about billing before shipment. That applies to goods that ship per the order. OTOH A subscription is what you purchase, not a individual issue/item, so the charge at purchase time would not be in violation.

.....'

Putting any sort of regular subscription onto a credit card is unwise. It grants a "continuous authority" for retailer to keep billing the account. Dying is no excuse and your bank cannot cancel it either. The only way out is to convince the retailer to drop it.

Paypal is much safer, you can go there and zap any subscription.

Update. UK and EU i law changed, a few years after I retired from working for banks. You can now force cancel a CA but many retailers and even bank staff may still claim otherwise. https://www.choose.co.uk/guide/cance...nt-rights.html

[BetterRed]

The previous couple of posts about cloud services are why I use the same commercial rock solid FTP service I've been using for the past 30+ years, it just works.

Added: I pay them yearly, via bank transfer, in arrears.

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

free file sync is amazingly fast.
I had been using Synctoy, but it would not run on my new Dell because it wanted an older dot net than is available from MS. FFS is ~10x faster.

Setting a sync pair is pretty straight forward. Choose the source folder, choose the Target. Set the sync to MIRROR (2-way will corrupt the Library over time)

I agree with FreeFileSync 100%. Awesome program.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by stumped

Putting any sort of regular subscription onto a credit card is unwise. It grants a "continuous authority" for retailer to keep billing the account. Dying is no excuse and your bank cannot cancel it either. The only way out is to convince the retailer to drop it.

Paypal is much safer, you can go there and zap any subscription.

Update. UK and EU i law changed, a few years after I retired from working for banks. You can now force cancel a CA but many retailers and even bank staff may still claim otherwise. https://www.choose.co.uk/guide/cance...nt-rights.html

My wife has a recurring subscription order from Amazon. If she was to go, I could log in and cancel it. I can get into her computer and as long as she has the UN?PW saved there, I could get in to anything I cannot get into now. So I'm all set in that regard. And her kids could help with this if need be. At some point. we'll sort out our account passwords so access is available if needed.

[theducks]

I was aware of the 'You need Permission from the subscription service" to cancel the card charges.

Honest businesses allow this. Your contract with them may have a minimum period or early cancel fee (eg Gym), but My old ISP just closed my (10Y. I owned the equipment) service upon request.
Know your contract BEFORE you signup

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by theducks

I was aware of the 'You need Permission from the subscription service" to cancel the card charges.

Honest businesses allow this. Your contract with them may have a minimum period or early cancel fee (eg Gym), but My old ISP just closed my (10Y. I owned the equipment) service upon request.
Know your contract BEFORE you signup

When I first got broadband, it was DSL. I had lots of drops with it. I called and even if it came back on before I got through, I would still report it. When cable came into the neighborhood, I switched. But because of all the trouble I had with DSL, I was able to cancel without an early termination fee.