Still here? Well, don't say you weren't warned!!
My first mistake was getting out of bed on Saturday. I realized, as the day progressed, that I shouldn't have.
Mid-afternoon the phone rang and call display said it was (supposedly) our Visa credit card company. Hmmm....said I....probably a scam....so I didn't answer it. No....they left a message to call them. Oh oh.
I called, and got a person who just got off the stupid train. Obviously a one-way train at that. In order to supposedly confirm that I was who I said I was, she needed to ask me a number of questions. All of those questions would have been easily answered (correctly) by any person who was up to no good. I asked her why she wasn't requiring my so-called 'security code' and she didn't know what that was. Say wha....???? At that point, I hung up, fairly convinced it WAS a scam.
Called the # on the back of the credit card and got another person (she'd been on the back of the train with the other one) who confirmed that Person #1 was, indeed, legit. Okay. Now what. Apparently, totally unbeknownst to us we have managed to change our address to a place in British Columbia and THEN to a place in Quebec (funny - I don't remember moving). THEN she decided to argue with me that our previous address could simply NOT be the one we actually DID previously live at and insisted that it had to be in British Columbia. Dumb. As. A. Post. (Did I mention that my blood pressure is normally so low that it alarms most medical people? I think, by this point, said blood pressure was off the charts in the OTHER direction!!).
Finally got her sorted out (I think) and the next step was to wait until today and phone the two credit reporting agencies here in Canada and ask them to 'red flag' our account (so that they have to contact us should there be any unusual activity). Made sense. Right?
Well, I was on the phone this morning first thing to Credit Reporting place #1. It's one of those automated things - push 1 for this, push 2 for that, push 3 for.....(well, you get the picture). Unfortunately, with all this pushing of buttons and waiting through all the options, their system insisted on kicking me out which required me starting over at the beginning. Several times. (see above note regarding blood pressure)
....oh.....and did I mention that we had the carpet cleaners booked to arrive at 9 am?.....
Finally managed to wrangle a real-live person. And guess what? She got off the SAME train!!!! It was simply impossible that we didn't live in Montreal. She finally decided that she would 'change our address' in the system, but as for doing anything so smart as to red flag our account, why no. She couldn't possibly do that. I would have to fax in the proper form. What form? And where do I get it? Oh, sez she (quite vaguely).....I think it's on the website. ARGH!!!
Found form, filled in form, faxed in form. Now how much to you want to bet they'll get said form and take one look at our address and say 'but you live in Montreal' and don't do anything?
Carpet cleaner came and went and I mustered my courage and called the second credit agency. After two minutes of canned music I got a real-live person. She listened to my tale of woe. She understood. She did the proper things with her computer. It took less than fifteen minutes. I wanted to kiss her feet.
...oh, and did I mention that the building superintendent arrived at the door in the midst of all this to tell us that there'd been a mix-up with our automatic debit for our rent? And that we owed them money?.......
At that point, we left. We locked the door and got out of town.
Never let it be said that life doesn't get complicated at Chez Richardson!!
And....instead of a quote today....
'nuff said.
Oh Mary Anne..I can feel your frustration.I think they don't call this The Silly Season" for nothing!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it maddening when you can't get your message thru' to someone! I hope things improved after you'd got out for a bit!!
How's the gift-making going?
OH no, I'm so sorry that you had to deal with all of those people from that one-way train. I often encounter them myself when dealing with call centers. Too bad more of them weren't like that last credit reporting agency with someone who was on the ball. Hopefully all will be taken care of and you can relax. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Mary Anne,
ReplyDeletePoor you! These things are sent to try us! Hope it's all sorted soon, and that your blood pressure is back to normal ish!
Barbara xx
There is NOTHING more frustrating Mary Anne! I have been in this situation myself, so I can fully appreciate where you are coming from!! Hope the rest of the week runs more smoothly! Christine x
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh!! I have been there and done that with other issues in our life. Usually when I get the stupid train it is full of Eastern Indians that I can't even understand!! Hope when you left the house you got to do something pleasant.
ReplyDeletexx, Carol
Aaargjgjgjfhfjf!!! And other such sympathetic noises. How do you like Montreal, by the way?
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOSH!
ReplyDeleteWhere do these agencies get their workers?
Luckily(?) I'm hearing impaired and have a hard time on the phone. It's my excuse not to use it. I let things go to the msg. machine. My husband picks it up if he's at home. If something needs sorting out, I get him to phone people. Besides, if bills are in his name, the company won't talk to me, his wife, who pays all the bills and who knows what the score is.
Oh yeah, the people working in banks are no better. I do face-to-face banking and 4 times (yep, that's right) they paid my VISA (smaller amount owed) when I paid off all of his balance (bigger amount.) I got a credit the following month and he still owed (with high interest.) It was the bank's own credit card and needless to say, we have both cut ours up and use other cards.
I'm so petrified of phone calls asking for my details that it's so difficult to trust if they are legitimate or not!
ReplyDeleteWhat a day you had!! Don't you just hate those calls when you have to press numbers for all the options and then the option you want doesn't exist?
Thank you for saying what many of us face each day. The incompetence of people just boils my blood. If people would do their jobs and take responsibility then all of us would have much better days...and weeks...and...
ReplyDeleteThank you for ranting dear.
I had similar, but less annoying, conversations with Amazon customer service yesterday. Apparently the customer does lose out when the company makes a mistake.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile Chris was one of the hundreds of thousands of people whose data was stolen in the big US Gov OPM hack. He got some mail yesterday that sais that the government was going to pay for 3 years of free credit monitoring. Gave and website and phone number to sign up. Website doesn't work. Call the number and get a message that says that because of overwhelming call volume to please go to the website.
Oh Treasure!!
ReplyDeleteI would have taken to the gin very early on in all this LOL
Do you think they employ the rejects from other jobs, sort of like an employ token dimwits policy?
HUG
Life does get complicated. Hope tomorrow is better!
ReplyDeleteYep, never get out of bed on Saturdays! I loved the words at the end about high five! Made me giggle!
ReplyDeleteOh no! I am soooo sorry! We recently had a fraudulent purchase attempted on our card. It's so frustrating. After speaking with so many people and failing to be understood, I imagine it was a breath of fresh air speaking with a competent employee at the second company!
ReplyDeleteI think I would have gone back to bed for the rest of the day. I had a few problems years ago with only having one surname on my documents (I´m English) as the Spanish have two surnames (mother´s and father´s) On many documents they gave me the second surname of `X ´ which caused a lot of confusion.
ReplyDeleteCatching up on some reading! Wow! I'd get out of town too (grin)! What an experience. Hope things work out.
ReplyDeleteoh yes....those press one for this, press whatever for thta, they wind me up big time. There's no customer service anymore...anywhere!
ReplyDelete