Wednesday, July 20, 2011

WTF? Bank of America - Debit Card "Closure"

For the most part, today was the normal BS that the standard work day brings. But I did have a bit of an issue at the restaurant we chose to go to for lunch.

As some of you know, I've been purging the house and a friend of my DLH has been clearing out the garage for me. So I ordered a dumpster to make things easier for him so he wouldn't have to make dump runs. While we were waiting for our food to come, I remembered that I neglected to contact my trash service to schedule a pick-up for the dumpster so I could fill it up again. This essentially constitutes a new dumpster scheduling and I had to provide a credit card number.

I gave him my debit card number as I did before and it came back declined. I didn't think much of it because I didn't have my reading glasses on when I rattled off the number and just figured I screwed up. So I grabbed my Chase card as it is easier to read and ended the phone call.

Then it was time to pay for lunch. I placed my debit card with the bill and again, it came back declined.

WTF?

After I got back to work, I checked my bank account just to make sure there wasn't something funky going on. No... all fine there. So I called the number on the back of my card to find out what was going on.

After I described my adventures to the individual that answered the call, he left to check on the debit card number and came back to the phone indicating that my card had been closed due to potential fraudulent activity and a new one had been issued. And "Yes, we did not notify you."

WTF?

So I asked him why I wasn't notified. A similar situation happened earlier this year and I received a call both at home and on my cell instructing me to stop by a local branch and replace my card. So I pushed again. His less than informative reply indicated that they felt it was best to not notify the card users and then asked if I checked my mail. Now I'm not the greatest at checking my mail, (I typically check it once a week), but in this case I had just checked it yesterday. I had not received anything from BofA. So I pushed again informing him that the banks so desperately want us to use the debit cards, so why would they take such a lame action? He danced around that question and finally indicated that he didn't know. I then asked to speak to someone that did know and he told me there was no one to talk to in all of BofA.

At that point I produced a gutteral growl (literally), thanked him for his "service" and promised that if this happened again that I would switch banks. He didn't care.

Needless to say, when I got home I checked the mail. Sure enough, there was an envelope from BofA with a new debit card inside accompanied by a letter:


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Note the 2nd bullet. How stupid of a statement is that? How can they possibly know when I've received the letter? How can they possibly know that my mailman is less efficient than most? Secondly, notice that this letter is not even dated.

The letter doesn't state the form of fraudulent activity beyond "third party" issues. Also, if I cannot rely on them to contact me for this issue, how can I rely on them to contact me if they find any suspicious behavior during their monitoring period. Since they've closed my card, it wouldn't affect me anyway.

I do all of my banking and bill pay on line through the BofA site. They could have easily sent me a message there. In fact, it would have been cheaper than printing off a zillion letters to enclose with the new card.

WTF?

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The card was labeled with the standard sticker. Since the card was assigned a new number, they could have easily cancelled the old card upon activation of the new one.

Blah, Blah, Blah.

And how was your Wednesday?

Sunday, July 17, 2011

A Post!

Yep, it's been a while. Basically the old work machine has kept me sidetracked - that and house purging. Let me tell you, I'm so tired of yarn barfage all over my house that I'll be going on crochet haitus for quite a while!

So back to stitchery as flosses definitely take up less space than balls of yarn. I dug out the old stitching frame and dusted it off. Then off to eBay to see what's out there on the cheap. I picked up some Teresa Wentzler and Patricia Allison charts that I did not already have as I just love their designs. (You know me and fantasy!) I then took a trip to the local stitchery store and came across another designer that I fell thoroughly in love with.

She sponsors online project groups for her designs and I've signed up for one of them called Autumn Knotgarden Mandala:


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(Click pic to access online project site)

This is just one of MANY awesome designs. The designer's name is Martina Rosenberg and she hails from Germany. Check out her design site to see all. I love the symmetry of her Mandala designs. It talks to the graphic artist in me big time. I'm just waiting for the official acceptance into the project group and then I'll be madly stitching. I'm thinking I'll stitch it on black to make the colors pop. It's been a while, so I've got a bit of rust to wipe off of those skills, but it will be fun nonetheless.

Other than that, it's pretty much the same old routine. My DDH's friend has been coming by to help me clear out the garage so I can actually park both vehicles in it. We're not yet done, but close. That should cut down on the amount money I've been spending on car washes! It's incredible the amount of dirt that floats around in the air just waiting (and looking) to land on my cars! Then, of course, the neighborhood cats walk all over them before the dew dries in the morning to leave their special signature. Maybe what I ought to do is hang out on the porch with a slingshot and drench them with water balloons. Yes, I'm turning into that kind of an old crusty lady!

And for those that are following the making of The Hobbit, I'm starting up a newsletter for those that don't have the time to surf for tidbits. First installment below, more to follow!


Well, ciao for now and I'll post pics of my stitching progress for you to critique on how well I'm doing compared to the pic above :)