Update: Petrona's future uncertain

Thank you, everyone, for your kind support in my "payment issue" with Typepad. I have always found Typepad to be very professional and courteous, so I am not going to yell at them or sue them (yet!). I haven't had a response to them to my overnight help ticket asking them to check their facts and please not to delete my blog, though as you can see I am still here (just? California's day starts later than mine).

I called my credit card company this morning to check on this regular monthly payment, and they have no record of Six Apart trying to take a payment in the past few days. They say that if payment was declined, they would have a record of it, with a reason as to why, but they don't have any such record. As far as they are concerned, Typepad didn't try to take payment. They suggested "internet glitch" (I quote) at the biller's end. So I've asked Typepad to try again and to let me have a copy of any error message they receive if they get another one.

Crimeficreader: yes I immediately suspected fraud when I received the first email from Typepad saying that my payment had been refused, as these payments have been going out each month for over a year with no problems, so rather than respond via email I opened a Typepad help ticket. They confirmed via that route that the email is genuine. I am continuing to deal with them (including respond to their emails) only via the help ticket system in the Typepad dashboard so I know that I am interacting with the real organisation.

Comments

[Stephen]

I would strongly suggest ditching Typepad at the earliest opportunity, setting up your own domain and exporting your content to either Wordpress or Textpattern.
Sounds scary, but it isn't. Drop me a line if you need any help.

[Art Durkee]

You may have been the victimm of "phishing," a kind of spam designed to get people to panic and reveal their personal ID and account numbers. The way to check is to verify the truth of the request from the actual organization, which you have done.

Phishing is very common nowadays. If you were to join eBay or PayPal, for example, as I tried to do almost a year ago or more now, you would get phished. I have yet to successfully conclude my signing up with PayPal, for example, yet I get approximately 20 fake email notifications from eBay every week. I have never sold or purchased, or even bid upon, any item on eBay, ever. Period. And yet, I get all these emails.

That's the sort of pattern to watch out for.

Best wishes—

[Maxine]

Yes, indeed, Art. These phishing emails are to do with the length of time you have held the email account, also. My account at work gets lots of eBay and PayPal spam into it (even though we have spam filters that catch vast quantities every day) -- and I've never bought anything from eBay either. I also get them from various banks and credit card companies. And all the other activities that have nothing to do with money!

[Art Durkee]

Ah, that makes sense.

My email address is the only "permanent" address I've had for the 14 years I've had it. LOL That and my cell phone are far more permanent than my domicile. That's what I get for being a semi-nomadic artist, though.

[Sally Crawford]

Listen, Petrona,

I have had in the past a full-screen personalized message from AoL, from whom I purchase my Internet access - and they finally got my attention.

I had forgotten to update my credit card details after I got a new card.

[Maxine]

Not the case on this occasion, Sally. Typepad had no problem when they tried again. It seems as if they have a set-up where they send a threatening email before they try twice. (My credit card company had no record of any attempted payment attempt by Typepad, so the failure was in their software, somewhere.) I think Typepad should set up their system so they try to take payment twice (if you are a good payer usually) before sending emails saying things that are not the case.

[Sally Crawford]

No :)), I was citing my own silly-billyness over these online payment things.

They seem to be relatively admin free but they're not really.

It's the reason I refuse store cards.

Who wants 'more' admin?

Hope you resolve your diffs with the fair Typepad.

[Maxine]

Thanks, Sally-- all seems to be OK now with Typepad. And I do agree, I use only one credit card despite the plethora of offers. Every time one buys something in a store, one is urged by the assistant to sign up to that store's card. The assistant is on commission, of course.

[Elaine]

Ihave just had the same problem so went into my typepad account and updated as I had changed my card but then the cardholder security department got in touch with me to check that this payment should have gone out. Was pleased that they were on the ball so quick about possible fraud.