Credit Cards - Any Known Date For Possible Chargebacks Etc?

[Dingo_aus]

Ok, I get that no one in charge of Pandora has as much control over Bank issues as they would like so this is not a rant thread and anyone posting should try and keep things constructive.

I am wondering if any more details of the credit card charge back are available?

Specifically, when will it happen? What currency will it be refunded in and is it a rollback of the transaction or a new reversing transaction (ie am I going to get slugged for the foreign currency transaction fee both ways by it being reversed?)

Since I am paying Australian Dollars and it has moved ~15% against me since my credit card was charged and I get slugged Visa's and my bank's foreign currency conversion each time, I am concerned about the details of what is likely to happen.

All of that aside I do thank the Pandora team for dealing with all of this stress of international payments, contract manufacture, design etc. Hopefully the second batch will be all gravy for you guys.

 

[Yigguth]

This has been asked countless times and the answer is nobody knows. They may not even go ahead with the bank change at all, but if they do I'm sure they'll let us know

 

[lucidchaos]

All the answers that we have at current time, directly from the only source that has answers, is located Here.

Similar threads were closed as anything not found in the above link is pure speculation.

I would recommend checking this summary thread on a regular basis as I'm sure Chip will update it as new information becomes available.

to sum up the summary, in large and friendly letters,
Don't Panic.

 

[kloplop321]

I just wish it could be redirected instead of being refunded and reordered, for one, I don't want to pay more money due to currency fluctuation; two, I don't want lose my slot on the pre-order I REALLY don't want to lose my slot...

 

[masoukishi]

QUOTE
I know the exchange rates are a mess at the moment, but we will try to make it whatever you paid last time you will pay this time and any slight mismatch we hope will be made up by the fact you have 256MB + 512MB (and that's coming out of our pocket).


It's also been discussed countless times that your place in line is probably recorded somewhere based on order number and time so just chill and relax. Also, thinking logically, Craig and co decided to give us compensation for all these unavoidable issues, so it is unlikely that they would just let those poor people who needs to go through the reorder process end up at the back of the line. That would just be cruel and mean because people who don't have to go through the trouble are rewarded with more ram and NAND for no real reason (I'm not saying they did that just for that reason. It is definitely a great move IMO and I would gladly pay extra for that). So just have faith.

 

[WizardStan]

15% !?! What currency did you buy in?
http://finance.google.ca/finance?q=AUDGBP
It was down several days ago, but it's only out 7% today, and making a steady comeback. By the time refunds are issued, it may be back, or even above what you purchased at. This is the way of the money markets, and panicking will only make it worse. Trust me. Continue on your merry way, act as if nothing is wrong, ignore the doom and gloom the news is spouting, and it will all work out fine. Unless you live in the US. Then you're probably screwed.

 

[Mjlink]

15% !?! What currency did you buy in?
http://finance.google.ca/finance?q=AUDGBP
It was down several days ago, but it's only out 7% today, and making a steady comeback. By the time refunds are issued, it may be back, or even above what you purchased at. This is the way of the money markets, and panicking will only make it worse. Trust me. Continue on your merry way, act as if nothing is wrong, ignore the doom and gloom the news is spouting, and it will all work out fine. Unless you live in the US. Then you're probably screwed.


Saw a co-worker on the State Departments website today looking at Passport info.

I asked him if he was getting ready for Tuesday.

Sounds like Bank A is not gonna surrender the lewt.

Bank B might be batch 2, especially with lack of update other than Chip's Reader's Digest.

Or stalling for a market bounce back.

Speculation and practicing what remains of my 1st Amendment right

Peace. VOTE. Riot

Link

 

[gruso]

15% !?! What currency did you buy in?
Aussies paid the USD price, which was then converted to GBP. Not only was this significantly more costly than just converting directly from AUD to GBP, we had the additional pain of watching our dollar slide from 96c US to ~68c US in the lead up to preorders. Now they're forecasting a further slide to 40c.

I'm just talking general economic stuff though, I'm not in panic mode about Pandora. There's an aptly named community game for that, which is where people could be putting some of this energy in the meantime.

 

[White Demon]

Aussies paid the USD price, which was then converted to GBP. Not only was this significantly more costly than just converting directly from AUD to GBP, we had the additional pain of watching our dollar slide from 96c US to ~68c US in the lead up to preorders. Now they're forecasting a further slide to 40c.



That's not entirely correct. Yes, we were charged the US price for the Pandora, but our cards were charged for currency conversion directly to GBP, with no conversion to USD first.

HOWEVER

When working out how much the Pandora costs for us, yes the amount is converted from USD to GBP, which is what we are then billed in. At the moment, USD$330 works out to around 204 pounds, which then convered to AUD is around $500, which is around $40 more than I paid (not including the currency conversion fee). Then of course there's the airmail postage on top of that to consider too.

If craig refunds our money at the current rate, then I should get around $490 back, which means after everything is said and done I'll proabably be looking at around AUD$550 (including postage) to re-order if I am one of the unlucky ones, meaning I'll be $60 more out of pocket. And with more currency conversion fees, I can bump that up to $85 easily.

So, looking at thos calculations, IT AIN'T GONNA BE CHEAP ANYMORE.

 

[hobbyman II]

I think peoples are getting stressed over nothing, afaik this is just like the big finance houses do with their money, you won`t lose a thing, think about it

you pay 500 krupnicks (hypothetical currency)
in UK 500 krupnicks is worth £200
Krupnickian economy tanks and suffers 1000% inflation
Craigs bank acts idiot so Craig asks UK bank to refund £200
£200 is now worth 5000 krupnicks
bank sends you 5000 krupnicks at current exchange rate
you instantly send 5000 krupnicks (worth £200) back to Craig
success !!!!!!

you just need to be on the button, if you send the funds back instantly then you at the most will suffer the difference in one days exchange rate variation.

you can actually make a living doing this, a lot of the "international money market" involves swapping money around as exchange rates vary, you get to benefit from the same thing.

hobbyman

 

[mali]

Craig:
QUOTE
As for the credit card thing, yeah it's a pain but we want to move banks and the old bank won't let us take the card orders with us.

Moving to a new bank is essential now the project is bigger and we need a bank which can let us grow and manage us in a professional way, the current bank is unwilling to do this. It could be effects of the banking crisis on them, I just don't know, but we will write more about it once it's done.

Thanks for all being so understanding about it, and we will handle it in a neat and tidy way, keeping you in your original order - and the 256MB will pay for itself in the coming months I'm sure! We can really go head to head with some of these bigger x86 machines now. Fun times!



Read Chip's new sticky

 

[White Demon]

I think peoples are getting stressed over nothing, afaik this is just like the big finance houses do with their money, you won`t lose a thing, think about it

you pay 500 krupnicks (hypothetical currency)
in UK 500 krupnicks is worth £200
Krupnickian economy tanks and suffers 1000% inflation
Craigs bank acts idiot so Craig asks UK bank to refund £200
£200 is now worth 5000 krupnicks
bank sends you 5000 krupnicks at current exchange rate
you instantly send 5000 krupnicks (worth £200) back to Craig
success !!!!!!

you just need to be on the button, if you send the funds back instantly then you at the most will suffer the difference in one days exchange rate variation.

you can actually make a living doing this, a lot of the "international money market" involves swapping money around as exchange rates vary, you get to benefit from the same thing.

hobbyman

That's all good and well when going directly from one currency to another, but we've got to deal with USD-GBP as well as AUD-GBP.

I've done the calculations, and believe me, us Aussies are gonna get boned.

 

[TaG]

That's all good and well when going directly from one currency to another, but we've got to deal with USD-GBP as well as AUD-GBP.
Surely you mean AUD-USD and USD-GBP.

I've done the calculations, and believe me, us Aussies are gonna get boned.
You don't know that. Wait and see what is announced.

This thread is pointless. What is known and has been stated, the rest we have to wait for.

 

[WizardStan]

15% !?! What currency did you buy in?
Aussies paid the USD price, which was then converted to GBP. Not only was this significantly more costly than just converting directly from AUD to GBP, we had the additional pain of watching our dollar slide from 96c US to ~68c US in the lead up to preorders. Now they're forecasting a further slide to 40c.

Oooooooh. See, I didn't know that. Having a complete picture is useful.
I'll just shut up now.

 

[Chip]

As soon as there is new information, it will get posted in the sticky. Threads like this do nothing besides spread FUD. They certainly don't make answers happen any faster.