So you’ve been tinkering away on iPhoto, creating your own personal holiday card, family calendar or thoughtful photo book for a loved one, and finally get to the part where you put your order in to send it on its way. But wait, no card/calendar/book for you, says iPhoto, and we’ll still take your money hostage.

Consumerist reader Jeffrey says that is exactly what happened to him, and points out other customers having the same issue on an iPhoto discussion forum.

He writes:

After investing hours creating the perfect holiday card (or calendar or book) in iPhoto, you can’t order it. iPhoto just gives you an “Oops, the store is temporarily unavailable” message. Try again, right? Not so fast… each time you try, a hold is put on your credit card for the order amount. Some people have reported finding thousands of dollars held, and being contacted by their credit card’s fraud department. Temporary glitch? This has been going on for 48 hours or so with some reporting no firm estimate that it will be resolved before end of year.

So sure, it might not be more than a big annoyance to have a few hundred dollars held hostage if you’re using a credit card with a high limit on it. But for those who use debit cards, that money might as well not be in your bank account while it’s stuck in “pending,” with no personalized product to show for it. And no one need

Some customers on the discussion board reported that their orders finally went through after multiple tries, only to have multiple charges pending that will need to be addressed through their banks.

Let us know if you had this same problem and were able to come to a resolution with iPhoto.

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