09/05/05: What a lousy time for server issues

It has come to my attention that our online credit card system is experiencing technical difficulties.

I confirmed this using my own cards. I tried to make a donation with one of my Debit MasterCards, and my transaction was declined. However, when I tried to make a donation with one of my Debit VISA cards, the transaction went through.

The error message I was getting on the declined transaction related to an "AVS Mismatch." We've had this online shopping cart system for over two years, and it picks today to do this to us. Ugh.

According to Authorize.net, our payment gateway people, there is probably a server down somewhere along the credit card transaction line, and that's why the credit card verification is failing. They claim that it is probably a temporary problem, and everything could be back to normal at any time.

I'm working on this issue. Bear with me, please?