Glitches in their system? No. Their billing system (according to the tech, which may or may not be true) was down. The code path shouldn't have even gotten to t he point of tripping a fraud protection system. It's pure incompetence, but this is still the Sony that allowed the PS3-era PSN hack, and the same Sony that allowed North Korean hackers to steal all their secrets. If they wanted to be secure, they should mandate two-factor auth for every transaction instead of using an outdated five-alarm fire alert system every time their servers break.
And I called out their unprofessionalism because the manager hung up on me. That's unacceptable behavior.
A system being down is one of many possible glitches.
You're incorrect about where fraud protection occurs. Some sites/services can detect fraud and lock you out before you even reach a shopping cart.
The general / likely order for a purchase:
1) Initial order recieved, contact payment processor and ask for authorization (NOT for billing)
2) If approved, check with fraud service provider
3) If approved, add order to main system and process with payment provider.
Not allowing customer service to override fraud protection is also commonplace [though some companies do give their cs this power]. However, this opens them up to social engineering. Both have issues.
Assuming their billing service was down, step 3 above is where the problem was.
This means you repeatedly were doing step #1 and step #2, and any of the 3 players could have locked you out for potential fraud: your payment processor, the third party fraud detection service, or Sony.
I'm sorry it happened to you, but seriously, what they are doing is industry standard and solid security.
As for the manager hanging up on you, yes, that's potentially unprofessional but by the tone of your posts, at least [which is hard to tell, of course, it's text on the internet] for all i know you were cussing at them or something or you were angrier than you realized and your voice was raised and the manager found it inappropriate. Without a tape of the call, there is no way for me to know, it's just hearsay. But yes, in general, hanging up is unprofessional.
