Paul has a Chase Freedom card. He's used it to pay for everything for years and paid off the balance every month. There's never been a problem, until a few months ago when the card was compromised. Chase promptly issued another card with a new number, and we've been humming along since. Until the other day when we popped into the local IGA to pick up a few things. Paul produced his card, and it was declined.
Say what?
Well, of course this would happen in a place where we have no cellular service. Paul didn't get a call from Chase and couldn't make one. While he was suspended in credit card limbo, his card was frozen.
Yesterday, during our topless adventure from the peaceful side of the Smokies to the crazy side, we found some 3G service in Pigeon Forge and Paul made a call. Seems a fuel purchase in South Carolina flagged the Fraud Department. (Let's see....we've been buying fuel with that card all across the country for the last 15 months. What's so unusual about that?) Paul convinced the lovely voice on the other end that the purchase was legit. So, she moved the conversation along.
"When will you be done traveling and return to Texas?" asked the cheerful Chaser.
You see, in her world, there are only two ways for a customer to be. One is happily spending close to home. The other is in "travel mode". The former is a permanent state of being. The latter is temporary.
"We won't be done traveling," Paul explained. "It's what we do."
The woman repeated her innocent question hoping for a return date she could plug into her computer. But, it wasn't to be. Minutes later she was as frustrated as Paul. The two agreed to disagree and she assured Paul he could use his card again.
Crisis averted.
Back at our rolling home, Paul tried to log on and check the activity on his card. The cheerful Chaser had been much more concerned with our travels than she was about any recent transactions, so Paul really wanted to check it out. But, his online account access was suspended for the next three to five business days.
How crazy is that?
In a flurry of emails that followed Paul explained that he wanted to see the activity on his very own account so that he could check for any fraudulent activity. Suddenly he had access. He checked and all was well.
Then, he checked his email. He had a response from halfway across the world explaining that the access was temporary. Like Cinderella, his temporary access would be revoked at midnight. Permanent access will be reinstated in three to five days. He shared the message with me. I asked him to forward it to me so we could share it with you. Here's the best part.
Dear Paul,I have addressed your concern to the best of my ability and you can be rest assured of exceptional service every-time an opportunity arises.
A frozen account is thawed, but our temperament as customers is definitely on the rise.
You can be rest assured!
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10 comments:
nothing worse than a credit card that won't work..or maybe there is..?..a customer service person who doesn't get IT!!
As frustrating as it is, in this day and age it's better to have a credit card company too cautious than not cautious enough....
I can hear the hindi accent as you type.....
if you're interested in switching...ad disclaimer....discover seems to work out pretty well and I've never spoken to anyone that I thought wasn't here in the USofA!!! never thot I'd recommend something like that, really.....
good luck!
Since some gas stations limit the amount of gas you can purchase on your credit card, we have often wondered if this could happen to us. It takes 2 separate purchases to fill up our motorhome if it is really low.
I don't know what we would do if our card was frozen while traveling.
Believe it or not, Odel and I have four separate credit cards (two of which we rarely use), just for this reason. Sometimes one of them is "compromised", and shut off. Sometimes one expires, and we don't get our mail forwarded in time to get the next one. Sometimes what happened to you happens to us - once as I was trying to pay for $100+ of groceries that Odel had already taken out of the store to load in the car! Man, that was embarassing! And you can't help but think: if the person at the credit card company would just LOOK at the location of recent purchases, they would SEE that the disputed purchase is NOT an anomoly! So... we keep a couple spares on hand. :)
Unfortnately, this is not all that uncommon. We had the same thing happen in 2006 in Canada when fueling up the MH. Had to explain the same thing as you did with your experience. We have learned to call ahead to the CC company sometimes when we might be going from coast to coast, or similar long distance. Yes, it is a pain in the _ _ _, but our card doesn't get declined anymore.
Yet another thing to prepare for. Better get a couple of more cards!
Oh yah, and another thing to remember--- As a couple, don't both carry your cards of the same card/account at the same time.
Because if one of your wallets were stolen, you would report that, and that makes both cards from the same account unusable.
So Steve carries the AM EX and I carry the MC. We are usually together most of the time to use either one, but this way if one is stolen, we still have another card to use until a replacement can be sent.
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Karen and Steve
(Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/
That happened with us on the debt card we use for fuel. Freeze, phone call, when will you be back in Mississippi. Explain situation of FTing, will notate your account through November. Call again before leaving in January.
Stay Safe
We have been thru this with our bank several times, but they finally got it and have not had any problems since.
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