Hi all,

Maybe this isn't new to you all.

I've got some travel coming up to the states here and I thought I would place an order with Cigars International and pick it up at a friends place while I was there. No deal. They said they cannot accept a Canadian Visa. Odd since Visa is accepted worldwide you might say huh. I've used this particular Visa throughout Central American, the Caribbean and parts of Asia. And I've especially used it throughout the US.

I called them to discuss the different shipping and billing addresses which is a usual culprit. They said no, they would simply would not accept a Visa from Canada and it didn't matter if the product was staying in the US.

I called Visa and they confirmed that they have no reason to say that. Other than not wanting the business. So while I can understand not wanting to deal with cross border shipments and the like, denying the international agreements of a Visa card is way out of line. Visa agrees as well.

Anyhow. That's my story. Would love to know if anyone else had their Visa declined because of their nationality.
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Mine worked just fine at LCDH in Grand Cayman and at a duty free shop in Honduras. Not sure why you are having this problem, I would hope they could at least give you a good reason other than, "we don't wanna".
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The only thing I can think of that maybe the EXCHANGE RATE is not something that would not favor them... :-)
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Their reason was that they could not verify a Canadian Visa to be real and therefore will not accept them. But a quick call to Visa confirmed that not to be the case at all. Visa suggested they said that rather than saying they didn't want my business. Any place worldwide that accepts Visa can accept and verify any Visa regardless of the nationality. It is the key selling point of having a Visa, or a Mastercard for that matter. Visa works worldwide and that is their policy. They make it easy for merchants to accept any Visa quickly and efficiently with security of the transaction. Worst case would be that CI would have to manually call the Visa hotline to confirm the billing/shipping address conflict.

So not wanting to ship abroad, fine. I have no issues with that. Not wanting to accept a Visa because of my nationality not cool at all.

To give you an idea of how not cool. We have the largest amount of cross border commerce of any two countries in the world. Over 1.5 billion dollars per day. There are 200 million people crossing our borders each year, all using their Visas. There are millions of people with cross border vacation homes, both ways. All using their Visas. I easily could have been asking for a shipment to my vacation home and had it declined. It was a friends place where I will be staying however. Shouldn't matter though.

I can't imagine what sort of stink would brew up if people started declining Visas from people from the other country just because they felt like it not accepting them.
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No exchange issues. They would get their required American funds. And I would actually pay less for a change.
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In the words of Randy Moss, "straight cash homie."
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In the words of Huy, "my bad, just saw Visa and I thought credit card."

Hahaha
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Maybe I should just start reading threads. Back to my Randy Moss qoute.
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Damn viets! Never read!
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Thanks Justin! Bao is a racist!
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I can't enter Canada because I had a DUI 14 years ago. I've never begun to try to figure it out. Maybe the guy who owns CI can't go to Canada, so he chooses not to do business? Heck, I don't know.
My solution has been "don't go to Canada". I'd suggest you don't buy cigars from CI. I don't, and I can. They suck.
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I dont see where this issue of "nationality" enters this equation. :-) Your credit card was declined, which is a banking issue. A retailer has the right to accept whatever credit cards they want in the course of daily business. Its like showing an AmEx card when only Visa or MC is accepted. There could be any number of reasons for the denial, including banking fees and exchange rate. :-)
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That's rough Shilala. I think that one is about as serious as a manslaughter up here now. I got one a few years back for "care and control". Not sure if you have that down there but let me explain for a laugh. Basically if under the influence you are not allowed to be inside your vehicle. Has nothing to do with driving. Having your keys on you is the charge. An upstanding citizen who knew I had been partying saw me go into my vehicle to get a cd and reported it to the police, being the mighty citizen patrol she is, and they came and arrested me. The car didn't move, the motor didn't turn, in fact the keys were in my pocket the whole time. Little did I know that when the cop questioned me that was the charge. I said my keys were in my pocket the entire time and they read me my rights.

Now the punch line. There was some problems with their case, cough cough. The court told me they would they would drop the impaired charge if I accepted a careless driving. So I took a careless driving even though I in fact wasn't driving at all. And even though it cost me 8,000 in lawyers, 1000 dollars in fines, and a 90 day suspension. I got off really easy.

And ya on an apparent side note. I can't deal with CI apparently, but wouldn't try again anyway.
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bobarian, there is no fee or exchange issues with Visa. A Visa is basically international currency, and mine is in good standing, anywhere on the globe. The retailer gets their funds, American funds if that's where they are. Or Euros in Europe or Birr in Ethiopia if that's your game, and I pay with my own currency, thats the end of it. If I were to walk into any US retailer and hand them my Visa they would have no way of even telling it was Canadian. They took my ship to address and order and then they refused me when the realized my home address was in Canada. It is wholly a nationality issue. 100%.

It's nothing like wanting to use Amex where they won't accept it. They take orders for shipment to US addresses with US Visas. They will not take orders shipping to US addresses with a Canadian Visa is what they said. It's basically the same card worldwide though. Visa says the only reason they would have to decline it is not wanting my business. So if that's there position, fine. But the only reason they have to not want my business is because I am Canadian.

I'd love to hear if I am wrong.
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they have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, welcome to america.
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Ya I get that. It's not just an American thing either loki. I think most of the other 6 billion plus people in the world sell to whoever they want to as well. Welcome to Earth.

I'm not gripping. There are lots of places I can buy from. Just curious if anyone else has had situations like that. I thought maybe it was a point for some intelligent discussion. :-)
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Sorry to hear you had "issues" with CI...but on the bright side, there are plenty of other "cigar stores" to buy sticks from. :-)
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I am surprised that a large retailer like that would deny your purchase because it is a VISA card sponsored in Canada. But, retailers are becoming more and more savy of their true costs of taking credit. I'm in this business and it costs them more to accept payments from foreign bank sponsored cards, period. They have to authorize and clear the payment via a Canadian Bank and I'm pretty certain that VISA charges the retailer more for that (called inter-change and it's in addition to the money they make on the spread in currency rates, believe me). As said here, the retailers can choose, just like some won't accept Discover, AE, etc.
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No offense to any CSRs here, but I'm taking a guess that the CSR you spoke to was misinformed or just didn't care/lazy/trying to get out of doing any extra work that involved them getting up out of their chair to find out the real answer. Once again, no offense to any CSRs who may read this post, but we all know there are some of those types out there.

I'm probably wrong though, CI may have an actual policy that they don't accept Canadian issued Visa cards.

Was the card actually declined, or did the CSR just tell you that they don't accept Canadian issued Visas b/c you told them you were Candian?
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