Originally Posted by Profits of Doom

I'm going to guess if this is true he had to call Visa and verify his info before the charge was able to go through. I've had the same issue with AMEX and Visa where I was either making a large purchase that was out of what they would call me "usual spending pattern", or if I was suddenly making a lot of purchases in another state, and they declined a transaction with a code that I had to call in first to verify I was in possession of my card.

I had it happen in Vegas once for the Internext and AEE back in like 2003. I was making a shit load of purchases with my AMEX and I was in the gift shop of the Hard Rock with my chick at the time, and there was a huge line behind us. My AMEX declined and gave the cashier a code to call in, and when he did AMEX asked to speak to me. There was a huge line of pissed off people and the cashier wasn't helping anyone in line behind me while I was on the phone. It turned out AMEX was just concerned that my card was being used so much in another state (I live in Ohio) and they wanted to verify it was me making the charges. After they did they put the sale through and I was able to use my card like normal again.

So long story short he probably didn't get an approval at first and had to call in, or he even could have called in first and let his Visa issuer know he was making a large purchase so they knew ahead of time (something else I have done to make a really large purchase)...