For what other product you buy with a credit card does this happen?
It's quite common. Putting a hold on credit card funds frequently happens for hotels and rental cars. Oh, and "gas stations" in the US. That's why they ask for your credit card at the beginning of your stay/rental.
Putting a $1000 hold is quite extreme, though, particularly since there wasn't any warning in this case. Oh, and not immediately reversing the hold after actual payment was collected is very lame.
Some banks will show you the total amount of credit holds online (st george does this for me).
Anyway, see
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/cons...dit/cre11.shtm to learn more about this.
- S