There are a lot of small issues that can happen when making purchases with Amazon, sometimes even misunderstandings that get unnecessarily unclear for one reason or the other.
If you are one of the few people to find yourself in a situation where you got an item for “free” because your payment was declined but your order still shipped, then it might be a good idea to read this article.
Amazon Payment Declined But Still Shipped
This happens occasionally, usually because you used a gift card and a secondary card to cover the remaining balance. Amazon pre-authorized payment on the second card during the shipping phase of the order but the payment did not go through and the package had already shipped by mistake
Still, it shouldn’t happen since Amazon states that:
If you placed an order on Amazon and your card was declined, we’ll send you an e-mail asking you to submit your card details again. If the card is again declined, the order will be canceled. If you still want to purchase the item, you’ll need to place another order.
Sometimes it may also show in your bank statements but not in your amazon purchase, so keep an eye on that as well.
Why Does This Happen and What To Do?
This is not a very common issue, and customers that face this issue might choose to stay silent and keep the product because Amazon doesn’t really have any guidelines or official rules about this.
It’s up to the customer if they wish to make things right, return the item or just keep it.
Most customer will just update their payment information and pay for the product to avoid any future problems with their account.
Whether this happens to you or not, it’s still an issue that shouldn’t happen so in order to keep everything in its right place and avoid this and other issues, keep reading..
Does Amazon Not Take Money Out Right Away?
When you use credit cards or debit cards, Amazon won’t charge you right away, however, some third-party sellers may charge you when you make the purchase or when your item is ready for shipping.
Amazon won’t charge you right away when you use credit cards due to the strict regulations from the Federal Trade Commission, which makes them wait until the order is beginning the shipping process.
It’s not illegal to charge before shipping, but Amazon waits until the order gets to the shipping stage to avoid any trouble during the transaction.
How Do I Know If Amazon Payment Went Through?
Usually, you get a notification or an email from Amazon stating that your payment went through successfully, however sometimes you may need some confirmation or you just didn’t get notified.
The fastest way to check is by going to “Account Balance” and “Account Activity”, which will show you the most recent transaction at the top and give you all the information you need on that transaction including your account balance.
If you want to check on your payments and more detailed information about your orders to see if everything is ok, request a report by following these steps:
- On the Amazon page click account & lists on the top right
- Click “Download order reports” in the “Ordering and shopping preferences” section
- There you can select a report type, if you choose “items” you’ll get a general report
- Then you can select the date range and “request report”
After you do this you’ll get an email with a spreadsheet where you can see your orders and any information you need.
How To Keep Track Of Payments On Amazon Pay?
If you want to make sure that your Amazon payment went through successfully, it’s very easy, just follow these few steps and you’ll be free of doubts.
To keep track of the orders in Amazon Pay, follow these steps:
- First, log in to your Amazon Pay account as a customer on your phone or desktop.
- On Your Account page, you can check Account Activity, which will show you the most recent transaction at the top with “Transaction Date”, Merchant, Status, and Amount.
- Then, to view specific transaction types, click on successful/declined/refunded links on the page.
- You can then view a specific transaction by choosing the date range and then clicking “Go”
- You can check the details such as transaction ID and the payment method that was used for the transaction.
Want to learn more about Amazon? Check out these posts to learn why Amazon has not yet shipped for days, does Amazon ship to Hawaii, and is it safe to order food from Amazon.
Conclusion…
With a big company like Amazon, there’s bound to be some occasional issues, and sometimes they’re more common than others, in this case, it’s not a very common one. It’s simply a logistical error where Amazon ships out the product and the card payment did not fo through in time for them to notice the error.
Keep in mind that most of the times people jump to conclusions too early and it might just be that Amazon is taking a bit more time than they should, to charge you. You can simply wait and see if Amazon reattempts payment or update your card information with a new one to avoid any possible delays in the future.
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