Placed a $330 order with Brownells. They put a security/fraud hold on the order, and required me to call in to verify that I placed the order. WTF?

I have a 10 year history of prior orders, I've lived at my current house for more than 5 years, and I have thousands of dollars in orders in the past 10 years, and the credit card I used is not new and I have been using for years. Really Brownells? THIS looks like a fraudulent order??!! Whatever.

Thanks for delaying an item even further that I needed ASAP.

They used to be one of my favorite online retailers. Not anymore. I prefer B0$*@& to these clowns now.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Placed a $330 order with Brownells. They put a security/fraud hold on the order, and required me to call in to verify that I placed the order. WTF?

I have a 10 year history of prior orders, I've lived at my current house for more than 5 years, and I have thousands of dollars in orders in the past 10 years, and the credit card I used is not new and I have been using for years. Really Brownells? THIS looks like a fraudulent order??!! Whatever.

Thanks for delaying an item even further that I needed ASAP.

They used to be one of my favorite online retailers. Not anymore. I prefer B0$*@& to these clowns now.

Your post got me thinking, looking for possible explanations.

Is there any chance that there was fraudulent activity, unbeknownst to you at this time, involving the credit card that you used? Maybe a miscreant tried to buy something using that card number, and VISA or MasterCard or whoever, has flagged the card?

That happened to me once. I purchase was denied, I contacted the card issuer, and was told that they caught somebody trying to buy $1,700.00 worth of wedding supplies in London (England), they had put a freeze on my card, and the replacement with a new account number was already in the mail to me. Somehow, the process of notifying me, fell through a crack in their system.

First world problems.

The gall of them - but maybe they've been hacked recently and need to keep their business running?

I had that with BCM once. I had parts shipped to another address that wasn't my billing address. They actually called me.
I'm sure it's brownells just being careful, but it sucks to have an order delayed especially with the XMAS shipping season coming.

I respect when a company takes the time to verify the order with me. It may be a few hours or a day inconvenience but at least I know they are looking out for their customers. In this day and age criminals are using people identity and credit cards everywhere.

Just because you are a repeat customer it doesn't mean you become less of a target.

Likely bank initiated and nothing to do with Brownells. For some reason banks and credit cards seem to be halting sporting goods outfits for fraud.

It's not you - it's the bank that does it.
I have had it few times - a bit of a hassle but I respect them being security conscience.
Don't make it out to be more than it is.

What Credit Card do/did you use? Maybe they've decided to take an Anti-Gun/Anti-2A stance recently....You know, if it saves just one life!

USAA Bank cash back VISA.

Nothing wrong with my card. They text me immediately when they find a transaction weird.

This was ALL Brownells policy.

quote:

Originally posted by squad13:
I respect when a company takes the time to verify the order with me. It may be a few hours or a day inconvenience but at least I know they are looking out for their customers. In this day and age criminals are using people identity and credit cards everywhere.

Just because you are a repeat customer it doesn't mean you become less of a target.

I agree, Brownells was just looking out for you, appreciate it, and the delay will seem trivial.

Minor thread drift:

Rush had a similar delay he talked about last week, he also had to call customer service (in his case it was in India...) about an electronics gadget shipment. His order got delayed because it had different billing and shipping addresses, also different names on the bill to and ship to lines. IMO he got bent out of shape over nothing, the company (or maybe the credit card people) was looking out for him.

Oh. I am sorry. I called in to Brownie's and ordered a "Sig Sauer SOT41002 TANGO4 1-4x24mm Riflescope with 300 Blackout Horseshoe Dot Reticle" that I expected to hate because the 1x reticle is unusable, never return, and used your name. Want me to blame Mark LaRue's exwife since he declared a divorce sale today?

Honestly. It ain't Brownell's. Even if it is, they're protecting your cornhole and their cornhole with good reason.

(ETA: Hai SIG. Please publish reticle subtensions.)

My neighbors mail got stolen and the thieves got a credit card number. They started ordering jewelry and getting it delivered to my neighbors house. How? Both of my neighbors worked. The thieves would drop someone off, he'd go behind the house and wait. Once the delivery arrived, he'd walk out and sign for the loot. A bank finally called to see why they were ordered so much.

(Yes, reviving a four-year-old thread.)

Brownell's just pulled the same stunt on me they pulled on bubbatime. No, it wasn't my CU or card issuer that did it, it was Brownell's.

$400 item, for which I paid for expedited shipping, placed "on hold" for two days. They couldn't say why it was on hold, but could only guess. Nor had they any guess as to when it might actually be, you know, shipped.

I've never had that happen anywhere else ever before.

I cancelled the order. Going forward, I'll use Brownell's only for things I cannot acquire elsewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
(Yes, reviving a four-year-old thread.)

Brownell's just pulled the same stunt on me they pulled on bubbatime. No, it wasn't my CU or card issuer that did it, it was Brownell's.

$400 item,

I was following another thread and I suspect we ordered the same item. I did mine expedited as well and it will be delivered today (ordered Monday). No problems at all.

I checked out as a "Guest" rather than logging in. I wonder if that made a difference?

How much time will it add?

I'm sure I'd be very unhappy if it happened to me. Hope it gets to you soon.

We go to Hawaii every year, have for a long time.


Went one year, picked up a Mustang Convertible at the airport and went to the Hotel. Gave them my Card to pay for the room and it was denied. Tried again and it was denied again. Fortunately, that account issues 2 cards, one for me and one for the wife, and they have different numbers. Hers was accepted.

Went to the room and called my own answering machine back home. Found a message from the Card company stating that someone just rented a Mustang Convertible in Hawaii using my card so they put a hold on the Card. I called them and straightened it out. Then I gave them my cell phone number, which they didn't have until that time. Never happened again.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I checked out as a "Guest" rather than logging in. I wonder if that made a difference?

One would think things would be the opposite.

Problem solved: I ordered directly from OTTO. Actually cost me a couple buck less for shipping and, being as they're actually just over in Illinois, I'll probably receive them tomorrow. Better shipping, too: UPS Ground rather than FedEx Ground.

In the end Brownell's did us a favor. When this happened my wife started looking at the CC I used. Found a small mystery transaction that could not be explained: "Foreign Transaction Fee." Called the card issuer. Turned out to be fraud. Card cancelled.

I had a couple other on-line transactions on the same date and they all went through.

I had a card issuer call me once about 2 attempts to use may card in eastern Europe. The one that got the card issuer's attention was for 'extruded steel' or some such crap.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Found a small mystery transaction that could not be explained: "Foreign Transaction Fee." Called the card issuer. Turned out to be fraud.

Ah yes, the 'toe in the water' transaction that crooks use to verify a working card and account. When the card rep called me, we went over all transactions from the previous 2 months. One of them was for less than two dollars (equivalent). It turned out to be the first fraudulent transaction.

quote:

In the end Brownell's did us a favor. When this happened my wife started looking at the CC I used. Found a small mystery transaction that could not be explained: "Foreign Transaction Fee." Called the card issuer. Turned out to be fraud. Card cancelled.

I can't imagine that Brownell's is doing all of this because they are dicks or inept.
Something must be up.
You could always call to get the true story.
There may be some things going on (like an overall investigation) they can't talk about.
It just seems odd and have never had a bad moment with them.
YMMV