Nightmare for you Peter But many thanks for the heads up.

Hope everything is sorted satisfactorily for you soon. Please let us know the outcome.

Good Luck

The outcome:

Interesting, to say the least.

Following the initial problems, I noticed that the available credit on my card had been reduced significantly. It had effectively maxed out this particular card - several thousands of pounds.

On investigation, this morning, it would appear that the rogue system had debited my card 3 times:
Once when making the booking (anticipated)
Once (45 minutes later) when I tried to print off details whilst talking to EVA customer service
Once when I closed my browser, about 1 hour later.
All 3 transactions were authorised, by VISA and were "waiting collection" by EVA.

EVA, this morning have cancelled these transactions. I have told EVA that I no longer wish to travel with them

The result:

1. All 3 transactions are in authorised and are therefore pending on my card account.
2. EVA’s cancellation effectively means that they are cancelled only within the EVA system and will not be collected by EVA. Had they fully collected and credited, there would be no problem.
3. But, as the transactions were never completed, they remain on the VISA system as “authorised, awaiting collection” (standard on all card systems)
4. As they will not be collected, they will drop off the VISA system automatically (cannot be done manually) about MONDAY OF NEXT WEEK! (4th February)
5. Even if EVA were to put through a further manual transaction it will not be authorised (no further credit available on my card) - so could not manually issue tickets, unless I provide alternative card details
6. My card issuer has registered that I will decline any further EVA transactions

I have therefore advised EVA to cancel the flights and that I will not accept manual issue (yes i have plenty of credit on other cards - but, after my problems since Friday have no faith) and will use another carrier and a different card.

EVA, tell me that their booking system clearly advises use of IE. I have checked again this morning and cannot see any such notification - they are still trying to tell me that it is all my fault.

As a matter of interest, I have been in IT since the early 70s, have designed, managed and installed financial systems for the manufacturing, commercial and banking sectors (for major UK and US banks) and for the past few years have designed and administered web sites utilising card payments.

Obviously reaching my dotage.

Peter

What a mess.

Thanks for keeping us informed Peter.

Have never flown with EVA but had heard good things about them. You can't be alone in having this happen, hopefully they will fix their system.

Judith

Hi

In the interest of fairness and just to clarify that this is not a complaint about EVA Air flights.

We have travelled to SE Asia many times by EVA - in fact this was to be the 5th round trip in the last 2 years.

We have never flown EVA economy, always using Business or Premium Economy and have always found their flights to be good; sometimes we have been extremely impressed.

Their prices are good and their safety record very good.

This is advise to use Internet Explorer, when booking on-line.

I resented the fact that their customer service were implying that it was my fault - no apology, not caring about the inconvenience when my card was rejected and then blaming the Bank for being unable to re-credit "approved" transactions - obviously not understanding how the Visa system works.

If this is coupled with the problem of the London sales office having to contact Taipei for IT matters, the resultant customer "service" regarding bookings, leaves a lot to be desired. Booking through an agent may alleviate these problems.

I dare say that we will use EVA in future. We will, however, make this next booking with an alternative carrier. I just don't want the hassle.

The bottom line is that, value for money, EVA is a good choice for direct flights LHR to BKK or TPE

Cheers

Peter

Thanks for the update Peter. Very stressful situation you were placed in though.

I had problems with Firefox and the Verified by Visa system a year or so ago, both with Thomson web site and an online retailer for PC bits. Appeared to be something to do with the default way Firefox was set up for 3rd party cookies. I ended up in the same position with several large amounts on my card authorised but not completed successfully by the merchant.
Sorry,can't remember exactly how I got round the issue...but I'm sure it must be a related problem

I too had computer problems with Opera and Verified by Visa when trying to book British Airways tickets last year. After 30 hours of telephone pingpong between HSBC and BA, I finally had to ask a third party to book my tickets and reimburse this person by bank transfer.

No satisfactory explanation ever came to light, HSBC compensated me for my time and stress, and when I did a dummy booking to get a screen shot of the transaction, it went straight through leaving me with duplicate tickets. BA said that I could only get a refund of taxes, leaving me with a short fall of over £2000, and it was only by speaking with a sympathetic supervisor that I eventually got a full refund, with a slap on the wrist to tell me not to do this again. I explained that it was at HSBC's request which probably explained this one-off leniency.

I've not had the problem since, but it was a horrible time ... and I learned that you can only make 3 attempts to pay by credit card in a 24 hour system before your payment is automatically refused and you have to wait a full 24 hours before trying again.

Also, I've found that KLM's direct ticket booking website doesn't like Opera, but loves Google Chrome ..