Complaint Review: Second 2nd Floor Mexican Market - San Antonio Texas

"On Easter Sunday, I made a $75 purchase from a popular Tourist stop called the Second Floor Mexican Market, (upstairs from La Tienda, 123 Alamo Plaza, downtown across from Rivercenter Mall and a couple of blocks from the Alamo). According to my bank statement, on the 19th of April the charge showed up on my account. I expected the first charge, but I did not expect the charge to show up again on my account on April 27th, eight days later. I was unable to find a phone listing for this store. I called my bank, and was told that it was no accident, it was charged twice...and the bank was not provided with a phone contact for the merchant either. On the 8th of May, I made my way back downtown so that I could talk to someone at the store. The girl working that day, Sandy, is just an employee and could not do anything for me, other than make the owner aware of my complaint. I understand that, but I do not understand how there is no phone number for the store or any other way I could have been given to contact the owner or manager, not even their name(s). " What kind of bank did you get yourself stuck with? Any bank employee, supervisor or manager would be able to see that it was an obvious mistake and reverse the second charge after you fill out the usual paperwork. Furthermore, if you complain enough then that merchant can lose their credit card processing priviledges. And if you want to be really REALLY nasty you could just claim that both are fraud and use bank regulations already in place to have both reversed. Don't be a victim and don't let merchants like that move slowly when it comes to duplicate charges. "I gave them all of my contact information and waited. On May 12th, I was called by Aurelia Gonzales who told me she handles payroll for "John", and that she was the person who took my Debit Card for the purchase. She insists that their records show that my card was only charged on the 19th, and that I was wrong. I asked if I could fax my bank statement as proof ~ but they have no fax machine, or phone line for that matter. I again requested contact information so that I did not have to go downtown again to show them my records. But no, they cannot be contacted at all other than physically in the store. Today, May 14th, I made another trip to the store to provide proof and was told by the worker on duty, Maria Gomez, that the owner was expected in an hour or so." Oh boy....The merchant sounds like a total flake and being a regular downtown I can attest to that....most merchants downtown in that area are complacent and somewhat lazy because there is NO competition around to be any threat. Working at a bank here in san antonio I can honestly say that getting a charge reversed from another STATE can be pretty easy and handled well when done through your bank. If your bank wants to side with the merchant then fine...take all your money elsewhere. "By this point I was running out of patience and I asked her how my card was charged the second time after 8 whole days, and how they could get a merchant account to run credit cards without a business phone number. I expressed my concern that this charge was in fact fraudulent and not a mistake at all. I expected them to take care of this in a business-like manner. When I gave the phone back to Ms. Gomez, she talked to her some more. When she hung up, Ms. Gomez told me she was told not to sign anything for me, but that she was going to sign my paper anyway because she knows it is wrong." This "Mrs gomez" character sounds like a mental slug that knows she was caught and that smart a*s comment about "being told not to sign your paper" and how she was "going to do it anyways.." sounds to me like cause enough to place the souvenier back in front of her and tell her to give me ALL my money back and to make it snappy. And.... this mrs. gonzalez woman can stuff it because if that happened to ME without an apology and admittance that they dropped the ball and screwed up...then I would walk outside and file a police report. This is ONLY if they are really putting up a front. Trust me, the SAPD or any police department officer for that matter is going to be REALLY annoyed once you explain everything. Remember, cops are consumers too. They have wives, daughters, sons, you name it....and cops seeing a person treated in such a way will only add to their anger of being called out on such an incident in the first place after YOU were'nt able to handle the situation on your own and having no other choice but to call them over. Cops can be very helpful when their services are used properly. "I am curious to know if this may be a regular occurrence. Maybe a lot of the people they sell to wouldn't even notice a second charge or wouldn't pursue it after not being able to contact them. I think their 8-day wait before charging the card again is because most tourists have returned home by that time. What a wonderful way to treat this tourist-town's lifeblood! (sarcasm)" A regular occurence? Not really....although it does happen quite a bit. But most businesses are wise not to let such things happen because we are no longer a "cash" society and losing the ability to process debit cards and credit cards would hurt them alot. With all the tourists swarming around it's simply a must to be able to take their credit cards....and NOT wise to be screwing around with their money. MC, Visa, Discover and AMEX charge alot to allow merchants to process and they keep track of chargebacks. Once they see dozens of chargebacks from multiple customers and their respective banks and/or credit unions they will focus on that merchant and begin investigating. Not to worry about tourists.....Working with a local federal savings bank and processing disputes has proven to me that it works when you do it right. There were alot of customers from other states disputing charges from merchants around the WORLD. Once a military officer was disputing a debit card charge from a shop in some third world country and we had the charge reversed within 72 hours. It's banking regulations and any bank can do this. I understand you are upset about this incident however you should have called the merchant once with your issue and left it at that. Give them a couple of days to give your money back then start pounding away at your bank. No reason to waste your time with their mind games. Then that'll teach them to be more careful in the future when taking peoples money. They are helpless ( I mean that...HELPLESS ) if and when a charge is reversed. And if you are in another STATE? Forget it...their money is gone and they are'nt getting it back unless YOU feel the grace of god within you and want to send them a check. Well, if you are like me and a merchant does such a thing then not even god himself can get their money back. lol. Anyways, glad to hear you got it taken care of. At least you tried to be civil and take it up with the merchant directly. I just hope more people are aware of their rights as consumers.