I’ve discovered a problem with the payment system in the deals section. It will not accept any card number I give it. I’ve sent a message to support, but since they only operate M-F 9-5, the deal on the charging system will expire before they can look into it. The code courses will be neat, if I can get them.

In an internet-enabled world, bankers hours support is not a good thing.

Surprisingly, I got a response to my request for support.

I don’t like to say things like this, but the sender had no clue whatever how payment systems work. I was being told to try different browsers, different locations, and other irrelevant things. I found that the company was sending zero-charge transactions to the banks. Many banks will error out on that, and there is nothing I can do about it.

I was told that if all else fails, Use PayPal.

That is about as nasty as you can get.

The value on the courses is enough that I was even willing to compromise a credit card by running a transaction, then change the number later, but PayPal was requiring me to create an account with them to complete the transaction.

A universe of no.

The state of online payment systems appears to be deteriorating, rather than improving.