Pending Authorization...what's that?

[Kuter666]

So today i made a purchase on a website with paypal and at the check-out the website glitched out and said it was under maintenance, but i got an email from paypal claiming that i did the purchase and i did not receive what i had bought (virtual money for a game), and now my money has been taken and i have a [Pending] Authorization in my transaction list and the company i purchased the virtual money of, has no record of me buying it. I have no idea what the **bleep** it is, even paypal Q&A doesn't have anything, some enlightement would be good..

[angelleye]

When processing payments there will first be an Authorization, where the account or credit card used is simply hit to ensure the funds are available.  Then that Authorization is Captured which is when the funds actually moved from one account to another.

It sounds like the site you purchased from ran an authorization on your account, but then the checkout failed prior to finalizing the capture portion of the process.  This would leave this pending authorization on your account, and it might even look like it took the money, but in reality an authorization that has not been captured will be released back to you after short period of time.

The merchant could void the authorization so that it is released back to you more quickly, and they should certainly be able to find it in their account if you provide them with the transaction ID of the authorization.  Again, though, if the auth is pending and has not been captured then you will not actually lose that money.  It just might sit in a "holding" status for a few days until the authorization expires.

[Kuter666]

But it says Authorization expiration 26 aug...does this mean, i'll have to wait until that to "get" my money back or when it auto-cancel? Because i did contact them, and they said they couldn't do anything until the payment went through, because for them, it shows as Pending.

[angelleye]

As you mentioned, they're seeing it as Pending, too.  That means if they click into the details of that pending Authorization they would have 2 options:  Capture or Void.

If they capture the authorization that would complete the payment and actually move the funds into their account.  If they void the authorization that would immediately release the funds back to you so you don't have to wait until the expiration date.

[BrianGon]

Same thing happened to me when trying to place an online order. There was an error in using Paypal as my method of payment yet it still shows the pending transaction on my account (reflected both in paypal and bank account) even though the online order was never completed. Authorization expiration date says August 23rd. Do I have to wait until then before everything is cleared?