Payment Related Questions

• What payment options do you offer?
• My credit card was declined but I know the card is good. What can I do?
• At what point is my credit card account charged for my purchase?
• Is my credit card and personal information secure using your site?
• A credit you issued has not yet appeared on my credit card billing statement. How long does this normally take?
• Can I use a credit card with a billing address outside the United States?
• My bank card company is showing multiple charges for my purchase with you. What can I do?
• I misplaced my original order confirmation email for my receipt. Where can I get another receipt for my purchase?
• Do you issue promotional discount coupon codes?
• I received a Credit Voucher. How do I use it to checkout?
  
• I received a VIRTUAL GIFT CARD. How do I use it to make a purchase?
  
• What is the difference between a VIRTUAL GIFT CARD and a CREDIT VOUCHER?
  

What payment options do you offer?

We accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express. Sorry, no purchase orders, checks, money orders, wire transfers or COD shipments. Please be sure to include your name exactly as it appears on your card and your address as it appears on your billing statement (along with your phone number). We cannot accept any orders which do not match this criteria.

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Please Note: If you have made one attempt at authorizing your purchase and it was declined due to a billing address mismatch, wait at least 5 minutes before attempting a second authorization. Back-to-back attempts at charging the same credit card in less than 5 minute increments will typically be declined no matter what.


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We want you to know we have taken every precaution to ensure you have a positive and safe experience in shopping with us. We take your business seriously and use every reasonable precaution necessary to ensure your shopping experience is safe! Tom Smith Christmas Crackers and Halloween Express uses Secure Socket Layer (aka “SSL”) encryption to keep your private information and credit card information as secure as possible. In fact, the reason why we do not accept live operator orders (e.g. phone orders) is because online SSL security is so superior. From the beginning to the end of your transaction your credit card account number is never stored in our systems. Neither is your expiration date or CVV2 number (all of which are needed to complete a transaction). All we get is the last 4 digits of your credit card account and the authorization from the Authorize.NET worldwide credit card processing system. We also subscribe to the McAfee Secure service which scans our website daily for known vulnerabilities. You'll find the McAfee Secure certification in the footer of every page of our web site verifying that our site is tested daily. For more details and information on our privacy policy including the McAfee Secure certification, CLICK HERE.

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The refund process typically takes 7 to 10 days for us to process - and up to 4 weeks during the busy Halloween and Christmas seasons (October to January). Your account will be updated with the refund information and an email will be sent to you too. Once we issue the refund to your credit card, how long it takes to appear on your account is dependent on when your credit card account statement cycles. For this reason it could take up to two billing cycles for the credit to appear during halloween season. If you have questions about a particular credit, you can email us by Clicking Here (do not change the subject line of the email). Be sure to include the details of your transaction including the original order number. We will research the status and get back to you as quickly as we can.

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Sorry - we can only accept credit cards from financial institutions within the United States and billing addresses inside the United States. This is a restriction placed on us by our credit card processor.



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So what can you do? Unfortunately nothing at this point. You can return the item(s) for a refund in accordance with our return policy if you'd like. Here's a link to our Refund & Return Policy page.

Possibility #2

Credit/Debit Card was Declined for an AVS (address verification system) data mismatch.

The process for authorizing a credit or debit card transaction requires two steps -- although it happens quickly. The first step is to verify that funds are available at the issuing bank. If funds are not available (e.g. over-limit status), the transaction is declined without going on to the second step. If funds are available, an approval code is issued for the available funds portion of the process and the transaction moves on to the second step of the process. The second step of the process is typically referred to as AVS or the Address Verification System. The AVS system is critical for fraud control and is in place to protect the cardholder.

In the AVS step the information you keyed for your billing address, card ID, expiration date and zip code are checked against what the issuing bank has on file for your account. If the information you keyed in matches, the transaction is considered "Approved" and we can proceed with processing your order. If however there is a data mismatch with any of the AVS information, the transaction will be "Declined" and we cannot proceed with processing your order. While the issuing bank approves the transaction in terms of having funds available, the transaction is still Declined to us due to the AVS data mismatch Unfortunately the merchant (that's us) is not informed as to why the transaction is declined, only that the transaction has been declined. In this situation we are only able to inform you that the transaction has been declined and ask you to carefully review the information you entered to make sure you didn't make an error. Unfortunately, because the financial side of the transaction was approved by the issuing bank, most banks will still place a "hold" on the funds for the amount of the purchase even though the transaction was declined to us due to the AVS mismatch

So what can you do? First, it is important to recognize we have no control over the bank card rules and regulations. This is the system banks have in place for processing debit and credit card transactions. To be sure, the rules for processing online credit card transactions are more rigid in order to combat fraud but we don't make the rules. We simply follow them. Therefore, there is nothing we can do to reverse a declined transaction in this situation since there is nothing for us to reverse -- the transaction was declined to us. We have not received authorization to charge your account multiple times and thus we are not able to reverse something that does not exist. Second, the "hold" placed on these funds in your account is only temporary. Most banks will lift the hold after one business day -- although some will take longer. You have to contact your bank to see what their policy is in these situations. And third, if you want more proof that we did not charge your account multiple times for the same order, send an email to us by clicking here (choose the "multiple bank card charge" reason from the drop down list). Be sure to include a valid return email address and your name. We will respond back with a screen shot of the credit card processing system showing all transactions we made using your account. We'll also include the transaction ID which you can then follow up with your bank if you want.

While we know this situation can be very frustrating, we hope you'll understand we are not the source of your frustration. So please, don't shoot the messenger. We're merely playing by the rules others have setup.


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When you place your order with us, we send an email which is the original receipt for your purchase with us. If you have misplaced that email, you can print out a duplicate receipt by logging into your account online with us. Then, once you are logged in, select the order you wish to view and click on the 'PRINT RECEIPT' button appearing at the top of the page (see below graphic). To log into your account, use this link: Click Here

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Yes, from time to time we issue promotional discount coupon codes for some of the items we sell on our web site. We do so either via our internal email list (click here to add your email address to our coupons list) or by distributing to our independent affiliate network (who in turn promote the coupon codes on their web sites). In all cases our customer service personnel do not have access to the list of promotional coupon codes to give to customers..

The discount coupon codes we issue always have a minimum spend requirement, a clear expiration date and a list of products the coupon either is or is not valid on.When we provide discount coupons to our independent affiliate network we do so with explicit instructions on how the coupon may be promoted along with the coupon's limitations and restrictions. Occasionally, mistakes are made in the promotion of our coupon codes. We cannot be held responsible for these mistakes made by our independent affiliates in the promotion coupon codes we've issued.

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