Hi,
My parents are visiting me from overseas and they went to a super market yesterday first time to do some groceries.
They bought ¥4,632 worth stuff, but when dad checked his credit card statement (Diners Club) this morning, he found out that he was incorrectly charged ¥463,200. (Supermarket receipt shows the right amount).
Of course, we will call the credit card company to dispute the charge but is it something common? He is afraid to use his credit card from now on due to that..
Edit: Thanks everyone for their replies. As people said, I also suspect it’s a comma and period issue. Will check with supermarket and bank later today and update the results for future reference in case someone faces same issue.
Update: We ended up calling the credit card company. It seems the error was just a technical issue that the bank has been facing the last months on its web banking system when converting the Asian currencies to Euros. The real amount charged was correct (¥4,632) and we were told that the statement at the end of the month will contain the actual amount. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.
(It definitely makes a funny “first time in Japan” story adding to the yesterday’s earthquake few hours after they arrived.)
14 comments
I wonder what the credit card receipt says? Usually you get 2 receipts or a single one with the cc charge info at the bottom. They also ask you to confirm the screen on the cc terminal.
Hard to say who exactly is a fault. Maybe they added two 0s? Seems unlikely.
Edit: also are you 100% sure of the statement number like it’s not 4632.00
Looks like they charged the card in dollars instead of yen (thus the two extra zeroes). My guess is that the supermarket was not used to dealing with foreign cards and they chose the wrong currency on their terminal.
Before you dispute the charges, go back to the supermarket (even if you don’t have a receipt) and tell them what happened because they want to fix that unknown 400,000yen profit in their bookkeeping as much as you do. That way you probably won’t even need to dispute it and it’ll let you pay the correct amount.
For reference I use my Japanese credit card abroad all the time but never had this happen in all my years of traveling
Edit: Missed the part where OP said that supermarket receipt had the correct amount. It looks like difference mistake, perhaps involving keying the wrong amount in the credit card terminal. Either way probably easier to approach the supermarket first since it’s not like they are trying to scam you
Just dispute the charge with the receipt shown as proof, your credit card company and supermarket will handle the rest
I had a similar case, but when they charged my card it was something like US$4632.00, in the end it was everything ok, it was just the bank/card system not supporting the proper formatting and visualization for those kind of transactions, so it added the “.00” to the end of the value.
This could be your situation, but please contact your card provider/bank to make sure that the value is correct.
I’ve definitely had pending things show up like that, but once they get matched and processed, it’s fine.
Call the credit card company, it might be as simple as a temporary printing mistake on their behalf. It’s always a good idea to call a credit card company to tell them you’re overseas beforehand anyway. It’s not really necessary for most cards, but still helpful.
I recommend you and your partners to go back to the supermarket and explain the situation. They understand they charged wrongly since it’s extremely weird to pay 463,200 yen at supermarket.
Almost all supermarkets are just chain stores and clerks working there literally have no merit to scam customers.
I think this is a commas and period problem. They misunderstand 4,632.00 and 463,200. in my opinion.
As other person said, they also have some troubles and problems for bookkeeping. The money they earned and the stocks they have are imbalanced.
Sounds like either the supermarket or credit card company somehow charged the yen as dollars. I’m not sure if that’s even possible on the supermarket’s end as I’ve worked as a cashier before (including in Japan and often ran credit cards) and there was never any option for currency on the terminal or anything. We plugged in the number into the terminal and that was it, it was always yen. I feel like it’s more likely to somehow be an issue with the credit card company if that’s possible, but anyway I’d contact both
just take out money from
The atm and use cash unless you’re making a very large purchase, then you won’t have any more issues like this either.
Mistakes like this are pretty common when the card terminal isn’t linked to the POS system and you have to enter the number manually. As this technology is pretty new for Japan, high chance the systems are not linked. Common things that happen are, accidentally hitting the 0 key because it’s next to the green Enter button, and putting a zero on the end. Not hitting the Enter key properly, and then the customer puts in their pin and you end up with a number like 46321234. Then they push enter and at the last second see the number and go *hang on* (or their card is declined because it’s over the limit) and then you catch the mistake and reverse it. It’s a good habit to actually look at the number before actually swiping/inserting/tapping your card and also looking at the receipt. When working in a foreign currently though people tent to just go ok, weird numbers, looks fine.
I guarantee when they did cash up last night they noticed a big big problem, unless it’s a massive chain that sends the money away to a head office to be counted. The supermarket I worked at (not in Japan), we would have been there late re-counting the floats and then going through the electronic payment receipts trying to work out how the hell we ended up being massively out on one of the tills. Even if the head office did the cash up, I think they would have been on the phone to the manager first thing this morning asking for an explanation. The supermarket will probably be hoping someone comes in.
I once was charged JPY 50000 (instead of JPY 500) for tako yaki on my credit card. Went to the stand and they immediately realized their mistake, apologized and reversed the transaction.
No need to take the matter to credit card company, the super market should rectify it.
It happens all the time. Just go to the supermarket with all the receipts AND THE CARD YOU USED at the time, it will be fixed in 5 minutes top.
If you dont have the card and the receipts, the supermarket will have to check its records and call the credit card company, it might take a little longer (i.e a day) to resolve.
I assume they mistaken $ for ¥
yes, in your case the register and the POS system were not connected and the supermarket staff entered 00 at the end by mistake for the POS transaction. You probably received the POS machine receipt as well. Talk to the supermarket staff and ask them to trace the POS transaction related to your supermarket receipt. They will be able to refund the original transaction and process a new transaction with the correct amount.
“Well, Japanese fruit is expensive…”