Last week I encountered a situation with my credit card that easily ranks as one of the most frustrating situations I have ever been in.....in my life. Let me explain how it happened.
Last Tuesday, I went online and bought some discounted gift certificates at this great Go Cart place
I love to go to. They were offering $50 gift certificates for $25. I bought a total of 8, some for me and some for my father in law who loves to go too. Unfortunately, I had to but them one at a time as they did not allow you to buy in bulk. So, I made 8 transactions in about 15 minutes.
About a half hour later, I got an automated call from my credit card company wanting me to confirm the transactions as the multiple transactions alerted their fraud department. I told them I had indeed made the purchases and they told me I was free to use my card again.
Later that day, Jess stopped to get some gas on the way home from work. The card was declined, but she thought it might have something to do with the pumps as I hadn't told her of the phone call from the card company. After that, she stopped at Walmart to get some groceries. Once again, her card was declined, and embarrassed, was forced to use her ATM card. She called me and I informed her about the card and became frustrated that despite the phone call, it still didn't work. She called the credit card company and spoke to to someone who said she would personally remove the lock on the card.
Later on in the evening, we went to Fry's Electronics and once again, our card was declined. This time, instead of paying with another card, we waiting on hold to talk to someone and he said he would put the highest clearance on the card and make sure the payment went through. After about 15 minutes, our payment went through, but at this point, I was pretty livid. This was not over though.
Wednesday came and we had no problems with the credit card.
Thursday morning, we stopped at the gas station to top off before our trip. Again, our card was declined. I paid with another card while Jess called the company AGAIN. The guy said he had no idea why the card was declined as it looks good on their end, but he looked into it further. While he was still on the line, we stopped at Starbucks to get breakfast. He told us the card looked good, but we asked him to stay on the line while we made our purchase. Again - DECLINED. Jess said he sounded genuinely surprised, but at this point, I was beyond furious and cussed up a storm. I paid with another card and left while Jess remained on the phone with him. He said he couldn't figure it out, but would call us back once he looked into it further.
A few hours later, he called us while we were on the road and said we had to speak directly to their fraud department. They would ask us some advanced security questions and then could lift the hold. I called them up, waited on hold for a good while, and spoke to a lady. She asked me the same questions that we have been asked every other time. I asked her about this and told her I was under the impression we would be asked new questions to get the full clearance, but she just rudely said, "Sir, your card is fine now. I have put on the highest clearance." She had zero sympathy. So, I hung up once done and assumed it fixed.
About 4 hours into our drive, we had to stop for gas. Again - DECLINED. You can imagine my mood at this point. I called the fraud department right away and let the person I spoke to have it. She told me the last lady did NOT put on the highest clearance as I was told. This time, she asked me a bunch of new questions and assured me, the highest clearance was now on the card. I managed to get a thank you out of my mouth and prayed, this would be the end of it.
Well, the rest of our trip went off without a hitch. It was good not to have to deal with the card issue while on vacation. On Sunday, we drove home and halfway through, we stopped to get gas. As you can guess, once again, it was declined. I has Jess make the call as there was no way I could be civil to whoever answered the phone. The guy she talked to said he could not see any problems with the card as it looked all clear to him. He told her he would put on the highest clearance (how many times is that now?) and it should work from now on.
Well, it has been 5 days now and our card still works. I can't imagine the gasket I would break if the card failed again. I hate now that every time I use the card, I get scared. Jess and I use our card for EVERYTHING. We carry no cash or checkbook. We put everything on our card and then pay it all off at the end of the month. Not having a card that works is not acceptable. What sucks about this is usually when a company screws you, you can get something free for your troubles. But really, what can a credit card company give you? They aren't going to lower your balance. Lowering an interest rate doesn't help as we never have a leftover balance. We use our card for the points, but it would take a LOT of points for it to actually make a difference as we save up points for huge things like plane tickets(We are flying to DC on them). So, all we can do is bitch about it. Jess wrote a 3 page letter to them expressing our anger. We asked for a response from them to make sure they got the letter and to see what action would be taken for this confusion, but nothing yet after 3 days. We shall see. I can honestly say though, this was the maddest I had been in as long as I can remember. Madder than anything has made me at my current job. Just furious. The thing is, I appreciate them looking out for us. Fraud is rampant. But, after I confirmed I made those purchases, that should be it. Don't make me call multiple times only to get told the same thing over and over. Don't make me suffer the embarrassment of a declined card in front of a bunch of people. I hope it is over.
Jess was excited because she got to meet Wil Wheaton. Although most people who wanted to meet him was because of Star Trek, Jess was ecstatic because he is the star of her favorite movie - Stand By Me. It was really cool because at the time we got to meet him, we were really the only people in line and she got to ask him questions about the movie for almost 10 minutes. He told stories, "Feldman was a bastard", and just basically recollected what is was like to make the movie. It really was a special moment for Jess and I was so happy she got to meet him. 
I also got to meet a couple of cool horror people. First, I got to mee Sid Haig, probably most famous for his Rob Zombie movies role of Captain Spaulding. He was pretty friendly and was telling some pretty funny stories while we were in line.
Finally, I also got to meet Michael Berryman who some may recognize from the original Hills Have Eyes or Weird Science. He has been in a ton of films because of his unique look. He was a tremendously nice guy and we talked for a while about the work he is doing with rescuing pit bulls. So nice!
