Issues with Gumroad, suggestions appreciated

Ask for Advice
#1

As I mentioned within another post, I cannot buy anything from Gumroad following an accidental charge back (I was issued a refund I didn’t ask for).

This is the error message I get: “We couldn’t charge your card. Try again or use a different card.”

I have exchanged many emails with Gumroad and I only get cookie cutter replies that say it has to be my credit card provider. I can’t get in touch with anyone else than their representatives because they do not have a phone line, so I basically talk to a different representative each time, who gives me the same answer.

However after talking with various people at my bank, they are adamant that it isn’t them, as nothing gets registered, i.e. they can’t be refusing a transaction they aren’t aware of. So their only explanation is that Gumroad has blacklisted my card.

I have since found out that Gumroad can do that upon having to issue a chargeback.

Anyone has had any similar issues they have solved, or any suggestion?

#2

Would you mind explaining the reasoning behind that? :slight_smile: From where I’m standing, my bank has no bearing on my i.p. address or the emails I used to purchase things. It would only make a difference at Gumroad? (I followed the advice on their website for when they blacklist a credit card)

Edited to specify: if gumroad was blocked by my bank, it would simply be blocked, whatever IP or email I use wouldn’t make a difference to them, would it?

#3

Gumroad didn’t block the credit card when it came from a different IP, email.
Transaction goes thru.
Bank reverses transaction because somebody somewhere charged a bunch of stuff thru gumroad and they had to refund it cause it was stolen.
Bank decides they no longer want to do transactions with/thru gumroad as it’s too much hassle.
Bank “auto” approves transaction causes “that’s how it’s supposed to work”.
Bank filters then see it’s Gumroad and reverses transaction.

Bank gives you run around about it being somebody else fault cause otherwise you’d stop doing business with them and they would no longer be able to charge interest on YOUR money.

Find a new bank. There are tons of internet banks around nowadays that don’t require any hoops to jump thru to sign up.
Pick one. Transfer some of your money over there to buy SM stuff at least.

5 Likes
#4

They didn’t reverse the transaction. It went through no problem. Then next transaction was blocked again. I’ve had fraud on my card before a few times, they never had issues letting me know. I JUST WANT TO BUY MOOAR FIELDS! hahah :rofl:

I’d love to talk to someone higher up at Gumroads. My impression (but I could be wrong, unlike you I don’t have experience on the other side of the fence) is that no one I am speaking to has any power to reverse the blacklist and I am not getting any traction to speak to someone who does.

It’d certainly be less trouble than changing bank, so I’m hoping you are wrong hahahah :smiley:

Thank you for your advice!

1 Like
#5

you can also get a pre paid card if you dont want to change bank completely

5 Likes
#6

Yeah, good idea. If I don’t solve things that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. Or borrow a friend’s card. For the time being since I’m on a hiatus from my playlists it hasn’t been pressing so I aim to find out what’s going on because I am genuinely curious. Also, if it’s my bank doing this, I don’t want to stay with them, so might as well go at the bottom of it!

1 Like
#7

Oh, I’m sorry you are going through this… that’s frustrating when you want to buy a field. I have actually had this issue before at Gumroad too, so I know how it feels :sweat_smile:
One difference is that, for me, there was no actual chargeback at any point. My bank did however halt the payment twice out of precaution. I confirmed the charges, but I suspect because of that initial halt, Gumroad blacklisted my card because I got the same error message. I checked with my bank and they said it’s not them (which it really wasn’t). I tried with a different IP address, browser, and email, but still no success, so it had to be a card-Gumroad issue. I was lucky because I actually got someone from support (email) who quickly resolved it. It was something on their end though, and he didn’t say what exactly it was. But since then, it’s been working and also my bank has not been halting any payments (after a few confirms, they usually stop checking). Have you mentioned to Gumroad that you tried all their suggested options and suspect that it’s blacklisted on their end? Sometimes you need to point them there. Granted that you thoroughly checked with your bank first of course and they tell you the truth.

3 Likes
#8

Also it is definitely wise to clear this up. I’ve found these kinds of things being able to draw even bigger circles potentially. You don’t want to find out that you can no longer access a totally unrelated site because your card or IP was placed on some blacklist that’s more encompassing than just limited to access the site you initially dealt with or where you encountered an issue. Not saying this will be the case with this company, but I’ve seen it happen before with others.

2 Likes
#9

I have and I only got yet another representative giving me the same cut and paste answer. I dropped it then because I couldn’t be bothered but you are right that it would be a good idea to get at the bottom of this.

Good to know that someone at Gumroad was able to whitelist your card and that it was solved. Hopefully I’ll get there efficiently this time :smiley:

1 Like
#10

I just reviewed my chat with them. So at first, I too got a cookie cutter response. I remember now being sufficiently upset :sweat_smile: because everything suggested in that response were things that I had originally stated as tried and failed, so I ended up rating the response as ‘not good’ :sweat: which I rarely do, but not only was it true, but it also ensured that an issue hurting the company’s profits persists, so yeah. I don’t know if that had to do with that or not, because I also emailed back (kindly of course), saying basically ‘thank you, but this does not resolve my issue’, explaining the issue again, and asking them to please whitelist my card and email again, and the next time, I got a reply from someone else to try again to make a purchase and it worked just fine! :smiley: I hope you’ll have the same success!

3 Likes
#11

That is BRILLIANT!
Thank you so much for taking the time to review your conversations, that is really precious advice! Now I feel like a devious little monkey with a wrench in my back pocket hihihi

I appreciate you! :smiley:

4 Likes
#12

Oh, I’m so glad to hear that this could maybe help you! :smiley: And of course - it’s my pleasure! :hugs: Good luck! :four_leaf_clover: :crossed_fingers:

1 Like
#13

I would like to make a petition to have an alternative website to buy fields, I’ve been dealing with lot’s of problems because of Gumroad, the banks avoid payments on the site, so for me there is no other available option to buy. I have tried different tips from here and there… Please I want help to get these fields asap :D

#14

I’ve offered to send fields to people who pay me directly through paypal (i’d send invoice). Have done this a few times with success.

15 Likes
#15

Hi Sammy, i’ve DM you regarding the issues with Gumroad purchases, I hope I can get the invoice and pay you directly with my Paypal Balance

Thanks before

#16

Yeh, the invoice was sent.

1 Like
#17

Update: it was indeed Gumroad who had blacklisted my credit card.

Funny story: prior to writing them this time, I decided to release any idea about how this was going to unfold (because it was complicated at the time with runaround after runaround, it was easy to assume that the same thing would happen). Then I got into a feeling of gratitude that this was resolved.

Sent an email and received a prompt reply, apologising for the issue and telling me that my card had now been whitelisted and would I please try it? It worked! Hahha (made a glowing review for the tech support haha)

Am so pleased :blush: :blush: :blush:

3 Likes
#18

Had the same issue here. Tried using another bank, didn’t work, until I used another email address ie created another gumroad account. Maybe accounts are also « blacklisted »