&^%*£! technology
20 March 2003 14:28![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandragoraOpened my Mastercard statement this morning and stared at it in puzzlement. It's rather high, isn't it? I'm well aware of my spendthrift tendencies but even so I don't recall spending that much in the past month.
Ah ha! Checked the breakdown and mystery solved. Someone has been having a good time in France recently, having purchased something that cost £1,976.35. After being converted from Euros to £s of course. That person wasn't me, however I'm being charged for their fun.
No problem, I think, I'll just call the credit card company and get it sorted out. So, I pick up the phone and dial. Oh no. Since I last phoned them they've installed one of those annoying systems where you have to punch in your card number and security info. Put phone down when the system asks me for card expiry date, go to fetch card and start again. Go through long rigmarole again. System insists on telling me credit card balance, even though this is not the reason for my call.
At last! I'm being transferred to the correct department after punching in a number indicating that I want to dispute an entry. Rats! I'm in a queue. Sigh. It's taken me about 7 minutes to get this far by this stage. Well, it shouldn't be long, right? Right?
So, I wait, and wait. I'm forced to listen to annoying muzak punctuated with interspersed messages informing me I'm in a queue. Yeah, I know that already dearie, will someone just answer the damn call. Ten minutes later I get cut off whilst waiting.
Arrrgghhh! Swear viciously and go through dialling rigmarole again. Get put on hold for reporting department again. Am really fed up of muzak and annoying woman's voice. Ten minutes later get cut off again!
%$%^*((*^!!
How the fuck do I get hold of an actual human being? When I dial, after going through card number and ID rigmarole am only offered very limited options. Ah ha! Credit card company is subsidiary of bank. Ring customer services of bank - they put me straight through to credit card company department without having to go through annoying credit card number, ID and balance on account rigmarole.
Woman I speak to apologises, says she wonders why they weren't receiving any calls. That's because no one could bleeding get through, could they, because your precious automated system that is annoying as fuck to use in the first place is fucked up! Refrain from saying this, because is not woman's fault - she is a mere minion of the credit card company. Want to kill person who made decision to replace real live human operator who used to answer the phone when you rang credit card company with automated crappy system that breaks down and Does Not Work.
Will take about a month to sort out the transaction falsely credited to my account, but it will be placed in abeyance in the interim so I will not be accountable for it. However, that is 45 minutes of my life wasted trying to get through to the credit card company that I'm not getting back.
And here was me thinking that the idea of technology is actually to, you know, make our lives easier...
I know, I know. How naive can you get?
Ah ha! Checked the breakdown and mystery solved. Someone has been having a good time in France recently, having purchased something that cost £1,976.35. After being converted from Euros to £s of course. That person wasn't me, however I'm being charged for their fun.
No problem, I think, I'll just call the credit card company and get it sorted out. So, I pick up the phone and dial. Oh no. Since I last phoned them they've installed one of those annoying systems where you have to punch in your card number and security info. Put phone down when the system asks me for card expiry date, go to fetch card and start again. Go through long rigmarole again. System insists on telling me credit card balance, even though this is not the reason for my call.
At last! I'm being transferred to the correct department after punching in a number indicating that I want to dispute an entry. Rats! I'm in a queue. Sigh. It's taken me about 7 minutes to get this far by this stage. Well, it shouldn't be long, right? Right?
So, I wait, and wait. I'm forced to listen to annoying muzak punctuated with interspersed messages informing me I'm in a queue. Yeah, I know that already dearie, will someone just answer the damn call. Ten minutes later I get cut off whilst waiting.
Arrrgghhh! Swear viciously and go through dialling rigmarole again. Get put on hold for reporting department again. Am really fed up of muzak and annoying woman's voice. Ten minutes later get cut off again!
%$%^*((*^!!
How the fuck do I get hold of an actual human being? When I dial, after going through card number and ID rigmarole am only offered very limited options. Ah ha! Credit card company is subsidiary of bank. Ring customer services of bank - they put me straight through to credit card company department without having to go through annoying credit card number, ID and balance on account rigmarole.
Woman I speak to apologises, says she wonders why they weren't receiving any calls. That's because no one could bleeding get through, could they, because your precious automated system that is annoying as fuck to use in the first place is fucked up! Refrain from saying this, because is not woman's fault - she is a mere minion of the credit card company. Want to kill person who made decision to replace real live human operator who used to answer the phone when you rang credit card company with automated crappy system that breaks down and Does Not Work.
Will take about a month to sort out the transaction falsely credited to my account, but it will be placed in abeyance in the interim so I will not be accountable for it. However, that is 45 minutes of my life wasted trying to get through to the credit card company that I'm not getting back.
And here was me thinking that the idea of technology is actually to, you know, make our lives easier...
I know, I know. How naive can you get?
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no subject
Date: 20 March 2003 09:52 (UTC)I remember. It really inconvenienced you, as well, with you living overseas at present and was a really rotten thing to happen. Luckily for me my case is rather less serious. I suppose I may have to swear an affidavit stating that the transaction is not mine but, really, it's pretty obvious from the pattern of spending on the account that I wasn't in France at the relevant time. Other than that I've done all that I need to do.
Also hate thieves!
*Snicker* I'm getting to know rather a lot of them in my professional capacity. What a wonderful thing professional detachment is, considering how much I've suffered at the hands of thieves in recent months.
To be fair, at present I don't know whether the French transaction is as result of someone appropriating my details, or whether it's a genuine mistake. As mistakes can and do happen in the banking world I'm reserving judgement until the credit card company has finished making its investigations. Whatever the result is I know that I won't lose out, although the credit card company may well. However, my sympathy there is limited - I know how much profit they made last year...