Ok... Sometimes you just gotta wonder. Yeah I'm sure I'll get some
judgmental superiority replies, but I thought some folks might need a
reminder about how the world sometimes doesn't make sense.

Last night I went on-line and ordered some lead screws from Roton to repair
a little CNC machine I have been playing with. I checked my credit card
balance to make sure there was enough available credit to make the
purchase... and there was with a plenty of spare. I was annoyed that Roton
does not have a freight calculator in their website, but I didn't think any
more of it. I just figured if they raped me on "handling" I just wouldn't
buy anything else from them.

Well, they don't process the payment on the card in real time. Nor do they
just process it later after adding on the freight charges. Instead their
system puts a hold on the credit card effectively reducing your available
credit for the amount of the materials ordered. Then they process it
manually later when they calculate they freight charges.

I got a call this morning letting me know that my card had been declined.
Since I had checked the balance prior to the order I was very surprised. My
balance had not changed, but my available credit had been reduced by the
amount of the lead screws. Their own system had caused the problem that
lead to my card being declined.

So.... In summary. If purchasing on-line from Roton (or probably other
vendors who do not process order charges in real time or add freight charges
later) you need to have MORE THAN TWICE the available credit as the amount
of the materials you want to buy.

Sigh. I just cancelled the order. They seemed peeved at me. Oh, well.