11 July 2008

Rant of the day

Another sunny day in our little part of the world! I love it. The dog loves it as she gets to go in her pen and play whilst I am out lunching and doing errands!

Yesterday we went into the city to do some errands. I really wanted a blanket box or storage box of some sort for the foot of our bed, so that was our first order of business. After checking our three furniture places in Bayers Lake, John was ready to cave and order one that was on back order and wouldn't be available till October. But I persevered and we finally found exactly what I wanted at Home Outfitters.

We next went to Dartmouth Crossing,had a quick lunch and then I did some clothes shopping, but found nothing I particularly liked. Jonn went to the Golf store and found exactly what he was looking for, shirts, shoes, socks etc! So whilst he was paying, I headed to my favourite store, Staples, where John joined me browsing through the computer department. An hour later I had a new tower with big RAM and quad core processors. They are installing the stuff and making the backup discs for me, so I have to go back in the next few days and pick it up. Then it is about a week of moving stuff off this one and getting everything reinstalled on the new one. And even then I always find things I forgot to load. But it will be worth it. This poor thing has so much stuff on it that even opening an email can be a hassle at times, much less MS Office or Adobe Photoshop! I could have a shower whilst they open. John will get this one for his upstairs office and everyone will be happy. I will have to get me computer guy to come out and get this one ready and hooked up to the wireless connection though.

After that we did a wine purchase at the NSLC in Bayers Lake, where, lo and behold, John's credit card got rejected. I knew exactly what it was. The Visa peoples' computer program tagged for unusual purchases and cut it off. I must say that this is really annoying. I appreciate why they are doing it, but this has happened at least 3 times to me and you have to call the 800 number and press buttons and hold "as your business is important to us" and oh yes the ever popular " We are experiencing heavier than normal calls right now, but please stay in the que". By the time you finally get through to a person and have given him all your info, you get informed that you need to speak with buddy in another department and it starts all over again! Finally, after the better part of 1/2 hour, it got resolved. Plus, they now have our cell phones so they can call us, instead of leaving a message at home, where we obviously aren't!

Now my whole problem with this isn't the computers, which are machines and just do what they are told. My problem is with the person looking at the card data and noticing that the second person on that card (whose card still worked) paid for the above mentioned purchase. Which to my mind would indicate that cardholder one and cardholder two were together! If he looked further back he would notice that #2 had made other purchases on her card that same day, in the same city and that these cardholders often make purchases in that city! Common sense would tell you that said cardholders were there for the day and doing some shopping! But no, the computer noticed a blip and slash! Your card is cut off! *!#&^*!

That is my rant for the day!

Having fixed the Visa problem, we did a quick Costco run and had a lovely dinner at Il Mercato in Bedford before heading home.

I did get a fair amount of sock knitting done in the car and I am almost finished the socks for John. I still don't have pics, but hopefully by later today I will. Then I have to decide what pair to do next! So many pattersn, and some lovely yarns to choose from! Such fun making the choice!

2 comments:

A Crafty Mom said...

What a pain - I don't blame you for being annoyed. That happened to me only once, back when I used to travel for work. It was awful. I'm glad your day ended well and you had a nice dinner. A nice, relaxing dinner can end any day nicely!!!

p.s. Is "whilst" your favourite word or what? :-)

lexa said...

I've never got rejected at the machine, but I did get a phone call from one of my MCs one time. I had ordered a booster seat on-line from Sears, and hubs bought internet at a truck stop. They called and questioned the purchases. (They had put them through, they just wanted to make sure they were legit, even though one was like $35, and other $5.)

I worry sometimes, though, when I go to pay truck repairs. I put the money on my air miles MC, then I call the garage to pay the bill. We're talking four digits a lot of the time, and I always get paranoid they won't approve it, especially where they're punching it in on the other end and not swiping a card.

One time I did get rejected when I tried to advance money. Truck problems, and needed the money NOW. I had the funds there, but it wouldn't let me take it. I called them, and they said that where I never had done that before, and it was a large amount, that the computer would have thought it was a stolen card. It's all for the best, I know, but it's annoying as hell at the time!!

 

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