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Overcharged for Mandrake Linux Club


barneyt
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This is the latest statement from Mandrakesoft:

Some of our customers who paid by credit card during the month of May have recently encountered problems. We realized the problem before the week end and have done our best to fix it. We identified that the problem was not with our system but with our payment platform provider, Natexis.

 

This morning, Monday May 17, Natexis informed us that they had identified the problem. A software bug on their side caused the amount to be debited to be multiplied by 100 (by interpreting cents as dollars). Over the month of May, 261 Mandrakesoft customers were affected. Natexis confirms that the problem has been fixed and that the platform is now functioning correctly, so we have reopened our standard payment platform.

 

Natexis is notifying the banks today. So, if you were affected by this problem, your bank will be informed today of the problem and it will be fixed.

 

Mandrakesoft deeply apologizes to its customers for this problem.

 

We will contact all the affected customers individually.

 

François Bancilhon

 

CEO, Mandrakesoft

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it really sucks when one company gets a bad rep because of another company which is providing them with a critical service.

 

hopefully the quick response will make the situation no-quite-so-bad, but keep in mind this was not something that was Mandrake's fault.

 

Let's hope they decided to shop elsewhere for their "payment platform provider".

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Hi Everybody,

 

I agree with all of your positions. I must say that I got my money back almost one week to the day after it was taken out. As you read, there were 261 people who lost a substantial amount of money through this transaction (albeit temporary).

 

I do not blame Mandrake, but my statement shows the money went to them, so since they have received it in their account, they need to be the one to return it, and then go after the accounting firm that screwed it up.

 

As a result of this error, I had to cancel my debit card (it was not just a credit card), get it re-issued by my bank, repay all of the overdraft charges from bills that cleared since the money was taken out, and halt my bank's investigation that has been launched because of this.

 

Mandrake wrote to me and said once my money was returned (all $6.600 of it) they would then turn around and re-debit the $66 from my account. Somehow I do not think that this is really a good business practice (from a customer relations point of view).

 

Anyway, I still love Mandrake (the software) and will continue using it. I also appreciate folks on this board coming to my help even though I know it is only a community forum. I had no where else to turn, and you all helped me a lot!

 

Thanks so much again!

 

Barney

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Man that really sux. I have been in a similar situation with DirecTV. They had a company that handled the selling of THEIR equipment but when I had a problem they said, "oh that company doesn't represent us just sells our stuff. It isn't DirecTV's fault." Of couse the other company said, "We only sell equipment not service that is DirecTV's fauilt." Well about a month worth of time and a butt load of aggravation I finally talked to someone in the president's office of DirecTV and got it handled.

 

My point is this: Even though it may have been Mandrake's payment company who messed up Mandrake it seems could have still had better customer service. He got a recording and could not talk to a person for help. That should not happen. Here is one of my problems with how I see that Linux systems are run. With it being open source and stuff who in the end is responsible? I admit I don't know all the ends and out of it but...this seems to be one of the disadvantages to the system.

 

I am sure glad they got it fixed for you though, man.

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From Mandrake:

 

Paris, May 19.

 

Quick update on the payment problems with Mandrakesoft

 

1. Natexis, our payment platform provider, is responsible for the software bug that essentially multiplied the amount due by 100 for some orders.

2. The bug is fixed now and the platform is once again safe and operational since Monday May 17.

3. To our knowledge, this bug affected about 250 customers who paid by Visa card essentially in North America during the month of May 2004.

4. At no point, was the wrongfully debited amount credited to Mandrakesoft, we always received only the correct amount (which partly explains why it took us some time to notice the problem).

5. Natexis gave us yesterday (Tuesday, May 18) a set of files from which we have identified the affected customers. The information provided by Natexis in those files is not of great quality (they were not able to provide us the transaction number). So it is possible that some customers we believe affected are not (which would be good) and that some customers we do not know have been affected (which would be bad).

6. Natexis tells us that they have contacted Visa and your bank on Monday the 17th. They will credit the amount wrongfully debited from the customer account, then will debit again the correct amount. This process should happen ?within one or two days?.

7. We have sent an e-mail to all the customers we believe have been affected. So if you had billing problems and did not receive an e-mail from us, please write to us at sc.uscan.misc@mandrakestore.com, with information about your order.

8. We apologize for the inconvenience suffered by our customers and will keep working on this untill all problems are solved.

 

Mandrakesoft Team

 

Barney

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And I bet MDK did not wait until they shipped to charge your account. That is the only reason (up to now) that I won't pay any money to MDK....they do not have their customers at the top of their mind. They are only a revenue stream in their mind.

 

I hope that you did not have too many over-draft fees.

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Igutty. Apparently you cannot read. If you did then you would have read that the incorrect amounts WERE NOT CREDITED to Mandrakesofts Account . The wrong amounts were debited by the bank against the customers account.

 

Cheers. John

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Hi John,

 

I can read a little :) MDK is a good distro, but all people considering the distro should be aware of its shortcomings. I am sure that this board is a good forum for their education. From my past experience, MDK is not a 'best practices' company.

 

Based upon my past experience, and this unfortunate's story, I surmised that MDK did not wait until they shipped to charge that poor guy's account. This is not the practice of a sound company, and is risky.

 

I have learned from past experience that MDK does not have their customers at the top of their mind.

 

(BTW, nice picture)

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jgutty: you might want to read again. there was not product to be shipped. this was a mandrake club membership, with which you get internet access to rpms/their forums/a variety of other ONLINE perks, but no product is shipped with the purchase of a Mandrake Club membership. thereby, you are quite apparently making false accusations and i suggest you apologize ;)

 

what happened was not MDK's fault, and hopefully they will find a new company to take their online transaction business too.

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jgutty

 

i second tyme's and john's notion of you rereading this entire thread. my post will make this 27 posts in this thread.

 

just a quick summry

 

Quick update on the payment problems with Mandrakesoft

 

1. Natexis, our payment platform provider, is responsible for the software bug that essentially multiplied the amount due by 100 for some orders.

4. At no point, was the wrongfully debited amount credited to Mandrakesoft, we always received only the correct amount (which partly explains why it took us some time to notice the problem).

6. Natexis tells us that they have contacted Visa and your bank on Monday the 17th. They will credit the amount wrongfully debited from the customer account, then will debit again the correct amount. This process should happen ?within one or two days?.

 

 

Some of our customers who paid by credit card during the month of May have recently encountered problems. We realized the problem before the week end and have done our best to fix it. We identified that the problem was not with our system but with our payment platform provider, Natexis.

 

This morning, Monday May 17, Natexis informed us that they had identified the problem. A software bug on their side caused the amount to be debited to be multiplied by 100 (by interpreting cents as dollars). Over the month of May, 261 Mandrakesoft customers were affected. Natexis confirms that the problem has been fixed and that the platform is now functioning correctly, so we have reopened our standard payment platform.

 

Natexis is notifying the banks today. So, if you were affected by this problem, your bank will be informed today of the problem and it will be fixed.

 

and a quote from the original post

 

I gladly joined Mandrake Club for the regular price of $66 US dollars

 

and from the q&a of mandrake club

 

Q: What are Club Benefits ?

Club members do receive certain privileges and benefits.

 

    * A full access to large selection of software for Mandrake Linux, including the RPMs of proprietary software normally only available in retail packs. These applications applications include easy-to-use web browser plugins, Java, powerful commercial applications and demo versions, software drivers, and lots more...

    * Special download mirror list exclusively for Club members. If a mirror is broken, please mail the webmaster with as much details as possible. Thanks :-)

    * Club members can request and vote on new software packages with the volunteer-run RPM voting system. Hundreds of great applications are now available for the PC and PPC versions of Mandrake Linux.

    * Special discounts on third-party products and services. Past promotions have included TransGaming Kohan games, Hancom Office, Yopy, Win4Lin, CrossOver Office and many others...

    * Special discounts for products and services at MandrakeStore (see below)

    * Multilingual discussion forums and multilingual articles

    * A huge database of all the software packages that are currently available for the Mandrake Linux distribution.

      More than 50,000 RPM packages -- over 100GBs of software (and still growing) -- is now available for all versions of Mandrake Linux!!!

    * Full access to MandrakeSoft's e-learning platform which provides comprehensive courses about Linux and Open Source software, plus quizzes to validate your knowledge.

    * Early access to Mandrake Linux manuals and technical documentation through a unique online system that collects users' & developers' comments & suggestions to ensure the best possible level of expertise. Please share your experience !

    * New versions of flagship softwares such as KDE, OpenOffice, Mozilla and more are available in advance to Club members.

 

 

And more to come !!!

 

http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?si...mode=nocomments

 

so yes, you are mistaken and do owe an appology.

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