I had just finished purchasing a plane ticket, or so I thought, when the Verified by Visa enrollment page popped up. I mean, I'd hit the button that completes the transaction at the airline's site, so it should have been a done deal, right? Not so. Once the Verified by Visa enrollment page popped up, I couldn't get out of the screen. I couldn't go back to the airline's page, I couldn't bypass Verified by Visa in any way. And I couldn't, it turns out, complete the credit card transaction. At first, I thought it was spam or something illegal and dangerous. It felt like I was being held hostage by Verified by Visa. Is it legal for a company to enter into what is a near-complete transaction and hijack it like this? The ONLY, and I mean ONLY way I could complete the transaction was to enroll in their program that I have absolutely NO interest in. If they treat potential customers so rudely by hijacking their credit card transactions, my thought is that you're not likely to be treated any better once you're a customer. While I was researching how to get around this screen, how to opt-out, how to just finish my transaction, about 15 minutes passed... And since I really needed to book this plane ticket, I ended up just signing up for this stupid program—and here's the best part—so much time had passed that the airline's site was "too busy to take my reservation" (or something such). So not only was I forced to enroll in a program I do not want, I also lost my reservation. Nice work, Verified by Visa.
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