Although I haver credit card in hand I can't seem to purchase BiaB 2014.

None of the retailers will have it in stock for awhile. I'm not in panic mode since I have other music projects to complete, but Matt And Mac are so good at promoting BiaB, ( Note to PG: They deserve a commission), I decided to order the EverythingPak online from PG Music.

Last night I filled in all the info including CC number, then hit the "Go for it" button. It came with an error message saying that my credit card could not be accepted.

I've been using it all over on my visit to Nashville with no issues so I assumed the card was still good. (I have a high limit and pay in full every month.)

This morning I called PGM sales and was immediately put on hold. After a 9:55 minute wait (my max is 10 minutes), a very nice Lady started taking my info.

The credit card was again rejected. I was told that it happens a lot because they are in Canada. (I buy stuff in Europe all the time with no problems).

I was told to contact my credit card company to authorize the transaction and then call back again.

Since I'm on vacation, I'll just wait for my vendor to get it in.

Wally G

Credit card companies will put a hold on your card if a bunch of purchases start showing up from places other than your home area until you call them. It might be worth the call now just so it doesn't happen to you while on vacation (like it has to me a couple of times - a pain but a nice service from the cc company).

FWIW - I work with many customers that phone in orders and pay with a credit card. We are an American company.

This issue presents itself occasionally, especially with VISA. It typically means a vendor is not recognized by the credit card company as one you have done business with in the past and in the case of VISA they have imposed some more strict purchasing rules in effort to protect their customers (and themselves) from fraudulent purchases.

A quick call to your credit card company to authorize the transaction will satisfy them to allow the sale.

HTH

Happy Musiking,
Dennis

Very annoying but most likely not as strange as you think.

I worked as a field engineer for a cash register (point of sale or pos for those in the business ) manufacture and dealing with all the multitude of card processors and their strange rules occupied much of my time.

Every time a card is processed a transaction code is issued by the card proccessing network. In addition to a straight approval or disapproval code there are many other codes. Many of these more obscure codes only show up in specific situations that the processing network define. For most of the obscure codes the code is interpeted by the pos as "have the card holder contact the network or card issuer". Normally, the only thing they want is to verify the card holder is aware of the transaction. Unfortunately, the retailer comes off as the bad guy in most of these transactions.

One way to assign the blame for the unsuccessful transaction to the correct offending party is to request the three or four digit transaction code as well as the tollfree telephone number to call. When you do call you can ask for a definition of the transaction code and why the retailer got that transaction code instead of an approval code.

O

Thank you for sharing.

Hey, thanks, appreciate it. I was a computer science prof and adjunct lecturer in music, so you can't blame me for still trying to talk! But you did give me an idea: I'm going to demand double what I've been paid for the next beta testing!

Well, if curriculum vitae is going around, I was once a pro Trumpet, Piano and Guitar player, then spent about the middle third of my life as a Research Technologist in the field of Robotics at a major university, then performed basically the same as R&D as Chief Hardware Engineer for a private firm.

The PGMusic motto describes my entire life, though.

Basically I've always just been Having Fun.


--Mac

Hi Wally,

Sounds to me like your credit card company is trying to protect you. While this is annoying, it's also a good thing. Out of curiosity, what is your card type (Visa, American Express, etc.)?

If I were you, I'd be ringing the card company and asking them why they wouldn't let you buy from PG Music. I'd be very interested to find out about their reasoning because I'd like to be prepared if ever this happens again. I'm pretty sure your credit card company would be happy for you to spend money. They'll co-operate

Regards,
Noel

P.S. Mac and Matt, now I see why you both know so much across so many areas!

Credit Card Security these days often relies on heuristics to prevent losses.

That means that if your card rather suddenly out of the blue is used to make a purchase - and such purchase does not meet the heuristics curve of your "normal" card use, they may decline it unless and until they hear from YOU.

They most likely are just trying to prevent some baddie who may have just stolen your card from emptying out your credit limit, account balance or whatever.

Yeah, I know that if you call 'em in time you aren't responsible for the baddie's purchase, but think about the card company. They still gotta pay up for it. Happens enough times, their operating costs increase - and increased operating costs are always passed on to all customers in the form of raised rate percentages, service charges, etc.


--Mac

Same problem here. Support told me the problem was fixed but now are not allowing downloads due to server saturation.

>> Although I haver credit card in hand I can't seem to purchase BiaB 2014.

Hi Wally,

Sorry to hear that you had that problem. We take credit cards from customers all over the world, and obviously lots of them are in the USA. This might have been some glitch between your bank and our credit card system - if so you might try an online order later today. Also, we take PayPal, and maybe that's an end-around the problem (if you have Paypal)

Peter,

I assume you know of the problems some of us are having purchasing and downloading 2014. I tried for hours with my order being rejected as with Wally. I finally got my order through and now have been told the link(s) will not be available today due to server saturation.

Rachael

Hi Noel,

We got back from our vacation traveling and I decided to give my CC company a jingle (Christmas spirit) and here is the what I found out.

Me: I tried twice on 12/5/13 to order the software. Both times the WEB site came back saying there was an error and my credit card was refused. I double checked my numbers and no I did not have any spiked egg nog. :-)
CC Company: We did not receive requests from PG Music to authorize any charges on 12/5/13.
Me: Sounds like an issue with WEB site.

Me: This morning I called PGM sales and placed the order verbally. I was told that the card was rejected.
CC Company: We did receive the transaction but it was declined since the expiration date (month) was incorrect.
Me: The expiration month is my birth month and even at my age I tend to remember it. Since the number the sales gal entered is one keypad away from the correct keypad, I'm assuming it was a typo.

I travel around the world and am aware and appreciative of the security measures that credit card companies have in place. (CC Company questioned a $30K charge made in Egypt, while we were in Sweden)

It appears that the root causes are a technical problem at the time with the WEB site and a sales person playing in the wrong key. (Been there, done that myself)

Since we're introducing ourselves in this thread...

Had a five piece Polka Band on the East Coast for 40 years. My main "gig" was as an Electronic Engineer designing Analog Integrated Circuits (silicon chips). 48 US Patents. Still have a consulting company that generates extra income for my musical toys, sorry I mean musical tools. :-)

Wally G

Hi Wally,

That's interesting information. I can see how a typo would lead to being declined. I wonder if that was Rachael's problem too?

Anyway, you're going to love 2014 when you eventually get it. It's incredible!

I see you have a very impressive resumé too!

All the best,
Noel

And I gotta hunch I've put a lot of 'em to good use over the years...

Salute!

Oh, and thank you, sir.

It made good money.


--Mac

We'll we were going to go out for dinner tonight, but the freezing rain changed our plans. Our host (my cousin) agreed to cook dinner. While dinner was being cooked, I watched some of the 40 videos PG put up, and after I stopped drooling, I knew I had to have this now. I tried calling sales again.

Forgettaboutit! The product is too successful and the operators are having problems keeping up.

I tried ordering it online again and lo and behold...success!

Welcome to "Funland"...

Wally G

Awesome!

Thanks Wally

...and Salute to you! The harder you work, the luckier you get.

Wally G

No Peter. Thank you!

Wally G

Success is always the sweetest the last time around. Glad your order went through. Perhaps Rachel will soon be successfull.

Sorry if my earlier posting read like a resume. Sometimes I provide more background details than I need to.

All inputs are appreciated as we can all learn some new tidbits We have a credit card machine in our home for my wife's business, so we're aware of some (but not all) of the issues.

After viewing more of the videos and working with a new DAW (Sonar X3 with a 1900+ page manual that I have read) for a year, I found that there is a lot of operational similarities between the two programs and I think I'll be hitting the ground running with BiaB.

For me BiaB fits a nice niche between recording with Sonar (longer turn around time, but totally custom sound, i.e. a recording studio), and the Roland BK-7m backing module (quick and spontaneous, just follow my right hand.) BiaB also seems to offer a lot more styles than the BK-7m.

Wally G

Just an experience-report in case it adds anything to PGM's order/delivery system-awareness for future transactions.

Pretty much the same results here too when purchasing 2014 upgrade yesterday am. UK time for download delivery.

I had 5 attempts fail, each with a different credit card and the same "verification could not be obtained ...." remark returned (2 Visa, 1 MasterCard, 2 different Amex accounts - personal and business.)

Three of those were also second-attempts with the same card (one Visa, one Amex, the MasterCard.)

I knew however that my card accounts etc were all in order, and it is also the case that as I travel quite widely for business including to the US, a purchase of this size/nature/location isn't out of my spending pattern so shouldn't have triggered a hold/query, most certainly not with Amex.

Reading between the lines it appeared that nothing was being onward-processed by PGM for issuer-verification. I have subsequently checked with all, and it appears that no payment requests were received from PGM.

My getaround at the time was simply to use Paypal, and that went through instantly.

I will nevertheless be checking future CC statements for a while in case any of the 5 made it through the payment system regardless of what appears to be indicated, and an accidental duplicate charge has been taken somewhere. This is just a precaution on my part however and is not aimed at PGM in particular with whose services etc I have always been more than happy, but no system is infallible regardless of whose it is and what is claimed.

In the event that there might be some arising-thoughts about possible system-engineering I hope this might usefully contribute.

hannay,

FWIW I think that your thorough explanation might be of help to PGM, they may not be aware of something that is not working as it should. These services are often part of a third-party solution or whatever, but you obviously know that.

It also helps to have more than one user report about such issues, simply a statistical help as proof.

Good report.


--Mac

Thank you Mac, that was my thinking also.

People often don't care to get complaints, or try to deflect them with just a band-aid response. For my part however I am pleased if someone with a genuine complaint brings it to my attention. Information always has value even if negative - in fact especially if negative!

I'm grateful to have an awareness of something I otherwise wouldn't know about, and be able to do something to correct it. I'll probably never reach perfect, but I'll hope to get close enough to see it.