How to get billing support?

Hi guys,

I buy my first Matlab license (Student) a few days ago. While I was shopping the license, I had tried several setups before to decide which modules to buy. After all those tests, I went to checkout, entered the credit card numbers and followed the steps but I received an error saying something like this: "the price 6.00 per module is only available if you buy 'Explore Areas of Study' license." (sorry I don't remember actual text). Since I was buying that kind of license, I decided to start over. the same thing happened again. So I started over but from an Incognito Window. This time it worked as expected. So I have my license and no complaints about the product...

The problem appeared today: In my Matlab account, I have only 1 paid license (as expected) but in my credit card summary, there are 3 confirmed payments to MathWorks where the numbers match failed attempts. I've read the warning about how the credit card procedure works in two steps (just there in the checkout page), but I don't think this applies to this case; it seems to be a bug in the billing system because the items are "confirmed" in my credit card summary.

I've tried to contact MathWorks billing office/support but it seems that there is no such think like billing support on MathWorks.

How would you proceed in this case? thoughts?

[John D'Errico]

Answers is not official support in any sense. Contact customer support, and they will direct your problem to the proper person. Or I suppose you could contact your credit card company, explain what happened, and have them cancel the charge.

Answer 1

[Vandana Rajan]

Hi,

Did you try contacting your credit card company and inform them that the purchase cycle was incomplete? I don't think MathWorks can do anything in this regard as you said that the purchase was incomplete. However, in case you need to contact MathWorks, you can approach the customer support team with the details.

https://www.mathworks.com/support/contact_us/

[Walter Roberson]

In some circumstances with credit cards, charging is done as a "reservation", and then if the transaction does not complete, a few days later the credit card company releases back the money during "reconciliation". I do not know if this is one of those circumstances.

• sometimes vendors run a nominal transaction such as $1 first, to verify that the card exists and that the billing information matches the credit card. The nominal charge is then allowed to expire.
• In some situations such as hotels or car rental, where the vendor wants to be sure that your card will be able to handle the maximum possible charge in case you consume all of the options or damage the thing being rented, then the vendor will place a reservation for the entire amount; then when the thing being rented is returned to inventory in good condition, the larger charge is allowed to expire and the standard charge is made. For example a hotel doesn't want to suddenly find out that you've gone through the entire mini-bar but that your card is not enough to pay that item on top of the room rental.

I am sure there are other similar situations. So generally speaking failed charges do sometimes show up and will be cancelled a few days later. (The maximum time before expiry can be a lot longer than you might at first think, though: the system has to be able to accomodate things like Bed & Breakfasts in the Alps that manually process card impressions but sometimes get snowed in for weeks and so do not always promptly turn in the final pricing.)

Answer 2

[Preuk Tangpromphan]

Same thing happened to me yesterday. I tried to buy a first student license but I received an error during check out.

So I had to redo the whole process again, this time it was successful and I got 1 paid license as expected with an email comfirmation from MATHWORKS.

However, I received a notification from my bank that my credit card was charged twice.

I contacted my bank and thay suggested that I have to contact MATHWORKS inorder to cancel the unsuccessful purchase.

I contacted MATHWORKS already via a service request in this link

https://www.mathworks.com/support/contact_us/

Hopefully they'll receive a request and reply me back in the timely manner.