[802SEC] 802 Registration was Broken over the weekend and this morning but NOW ... We're Back !!!
Due to circumstances beyond our control, our Web Registration began refusing all transactions
sometime Friday night and this condition persisted until 2:15 PM PDT today. The problem
has finally been corrected and transactions are now approving normally again. If you were a
victim of this error, it is now safe to try again !!!
And please accept our apologies for this SNAFU !!!
PLEASE - Be advised that the problems we are experiencing have NOTHING to do with
Credit Card billing addresses. Despite the implication on the generic "Transaction Declined"
message, NO, I repeat, NO transactions have been declined for billing address mismatch !!!
We REALLY need for you to enter your correct Business mail address on the form. Trying
different variants of your address will NOT help !!! :-)
WARNING !!! Some additional important Information for Web Registration Users:
* Javascript must be enabled on your browser to get information to post properly.
* All Credit Card numbers must be entered with NO embedded spaces or dashes,
e.g. NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN for VISA, M/C, or Discover, and
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN for AMEX
or you receive the generic "Transaction Declined" message which provides no guidance
on the reason for failure !!! This is especially a problem for AMEX card users, since the
the number with spaces or dashes will fit in the field (not true for the other cards) but
the transaction is always declined for invalid account number.
I have requested that VeriSign fix this problem by removing the spaces or dashes before they
test the account number, or at least provide a caption on their form, which collects the CC info,
to warn of this requirement, and they have indicated that they will look into it, but that may take
some time. So for now you just have to remember: NO DASHES or SPACES for CC#'s, only digits.
We do recognize that the generic "Transaction Declined" message is confusing because it indicates
several possibilities, which may or may not apply. Please be assured that our system does not
attempt to verify addresses or ZIP codes with the ones which the credit card company has on file.
That is NOT the reason your transaction was declined !!!
* NO Ampersand's (i.e. "&") Are Allowed !!! I have learned that VeriSign chose to use
the "&" character as their field delimiter, so they will not permit an "&" to appear in any
entered field. Suggested work-around is to use the word "and" instead. (I know, I know;
this would be simple to fix with an escape sequence or quoting convention, but they
seem unwilling to consider doing that at present.
Some Additional User Tips:
* International Phone Numbers: the VeriSign field checker does not allow a "+" (i.e. Plus
Sign) in front of the Country Code, even though it IS the most common convention. They
are apparently working on a fix for this, but suggest that in the meantime that you may
use a "-" (i.e. a Minus Sign/Hyphen) instead.
* The "State" field has now been made optional to alleviate difficulties for some of our
International attendees whose countries don't have states. If we restore the mandatory
requirement in the future, we will include the instruction to enter "NA" if the field is "not
applicable for your country".
* There is no provision for a "Credit Card On-File" any more. Keeping credit card info
on file is too much of a potential liability. We only resorted to that option because we
did not have a secure method for processing payments. Now that we have a secure
(encrypted) payment mechanism we will no longer store credit card information.
* The processing for your charge is now IMMEDIATE (within 24 hours of approval).
We're very sorry about the start-up problems but we hope to continue improving as we
gain more experience. Please bear with us, and if you experience or spot a problem,
please let us know ASAP. Thank-you again for your patience and cooperation. :-)
Thanx, Buzz
Dr. Everett O. (Buzz) Rigsbee
Boeing - SSG
PO Box 3707, M/S: 7M-FM
Seattle, WA 98324-2207
(425) 865-2443 Fx: (425) 865-6721
everett.o.rigsbee@boeing.com