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7 != 8, and other news items
The last time I flew, I went ahead and signed up for the AirTran Visa card, because hey, rewards are good, and I fly AirTran a fair amount, and I like upgrades and free tickets and things, so why not.
My name has three consonants in it, one at the beginning and two in the middle, and either of the middle ones can be doubled in the spelling. The guy who took my information listened to me specify which was single and which was double and then wrote down exactly the inverse of this in the e-mail line - fortunately not on the account information line, as the card itself does have my name spelled correctly - so I had to go in and correct that, as well as my phone number or some other less-critical detail, when the thing came to me. He also, at the time I was signing up for the thing, called me "sweetie". I should have seen this as a portent of doom.
When the first statement came, I added the AirTran Visa in all its BarclaycardUS goodness as a payee through my online banking. Set up the payment, entered the due date, all fine and well.
This Tuesday, I noticed that the payment due last Friday had not, in fact, been deducted from my checking account. Why could this be?, I wondered, and called up Bank of America (with whom I have always had a fine relationship) to inquire.
Gosh, they said, as you see it's been paid, which means we've sent a check to the payee, but that payment hasn't been cashed. Looks like you'll need to speak to the credit card people.
But why wouldn't it have been cashed, I said.
That's a mystery, they said --
-- and long story short, it turns out it was because I had mistyped the PO Box number by one stupid digit. (Everyone remember cell phone fun time? One digit can be a huge freakin deal.)
Okay, so the solution was to call the credit card people and see if they'd received the payment but not processed it yet, and if so, okay, and if not, stop payment on the electronic check (at no charge, I was told), because who knew where that check had got to.
I call the credit card people. I am finally, after being talked over a lot of times while the call-catcher sticks to her script, allowed to explain what my actual question is. Long story short (again), I make an electronic payment over the phone and the girl agrees to waive the entire late fee.
I call back the bank. The bill-pay department can't stop payment on that check and they have to transfer me back to the banking department - where they can't actually see the check in their records, so they can't stop payment on it. The person I'm talking to is frustrated and confused by this; I am simply frustrated, but it turns out I can stop the payment online, so I do this, and call back again, where I get someone who can see the check and that a stop payment has been placed on it.
In the past two days, I've received two, count 'em, two e-mail alerts that my payment has been received. With different dates on them.
I log in at BoA and only the electronic payment I made on the phone on Tuesday has gone through - but oh, look, there's a stop payment fee. Sigh. I call and notify someone that I was promised there'd be no charge to stop the payment on that check. He refunds the fee.
I log in and look at the credit card balance, and sure enough, the payment has been applied twice. Sigh. I call and speak to someone who tells me yeah, the mistaken PO Box is another department here, so they'll have received it and re-routed it and that was posted yesterday. But I stopped payment on the check the day before yesterday, I say. Yes, she says, so when they go to process that posted payment, that's going to bounce, and incur a fee, but listen, I'm going to put a note in here right now that when that happens the fee should be waived, and I'm going to personally come back to your account in a few days when this should all have gone down and make sure it's okay.
All of this is happening after the closing date for the payment due on June 7, so the statement I will receive in the mail some time soon will reflect almost none of it. It will reflect that they didn't receive the May 7 payment, and a late fee; I will subtract the May 7 payment and the waived late fee and send in the rest, and when the statement due July 7 comes, I will hope I understand wtff is going on with it.
I'm pleased that I've been able to get so many fees and things waived; I think if there ends up being interest charged for all this tomfoolery (because of the dates things have been applied and so on), I'm going to end up not fighting about that, because omfg.
[collapses on the phone]
My name has three consonants in it, one at the beginning and two in the middle, and either of the middle ones can be doubled in the spelling. The guy who took my information listened to me specify which was single and which was double and then wrote down exactly the inverse of this in the e-mail line - fortunately not on the account information line, as the card itself does have my name spelled correctly - so I had to go in and correct that, as well as my phone number or some other less-critical detail, when the thing came to me. He also, at the time I was signing up for the thing, called me "sweetie". I should have seen this as a portent of doom.
When the first statement came, I added the AirTran Visa in all its BarclaycardUS goodness as a payee through my online banking. Set up the payment, entered the due date, all fine and well.
This Tuesday, I noticed that the payment due last Friday had not, in fact, been deducted from my checking account. Why could this be?, I wondered, and called up Bank of America (with whom I have always had a fine relationship) to inquire.
Gosh, they said, as you see it's been paid, which means we've sent a check to the payee, but that payment hasn't been cashed. Looks like you'll need to speak to the credit card people.
But why wouldn't it have been cashed, I said.
That's a mystery, they said --
-- and long story short, it turns out it was because I had mistyped the PO Box number by one stupid digit. (Everyone remember cell phone fun time? One digit can be a huge freakin deal.)
Okay, so the solution was to call the credit card people and see if they'd received the payment but not processed it yet, and if so, okay, and if not, stop payment on the electronic check (at no charge, I was told), because who knew where that check had got to.
I call the credit card people. I am finally, after being talked over a lot of times while the call-catcher sticks to her script, allowed to explain what my actual question is. Long story short (again), I make an electronic payment over the phone and the girl agrees to waive the entire late fee.
I call back the bank. The bill-pay department can't stop payment on that check and they have to transfer me back to the banking department - where they can't actually see the check in their records, so they can't stop payment on it. The person I'm talking to is frustrated and confused by this; I am simply frustrated, but it turns out I can stop the payment online, so I do this, and call back again, where I get someone who can see the check and that a stop payment has been placed on it.
In the past two days, I've received two, count 'em, two e-mail alerts that my payment has been received. With different dates on them.
I log in at BoA and only the electronic payment I made on the phone on Tuesday has gone through - but oh, look, there's a stop payment fee. Sigh. I call and notify someone that I was promised there'd be no charge to stop the payment on that check. He refunds the fee.
I log in and look at the credit card balance, and sure enough, the payment has been applied twice. Sigh. I call and speak to someone who tells me yeah, the mistaken PO Box is another department here, so they'll have received it and re-routed it and that was posted yesterday. But I stopped payment on the check the day before yesterday, I say. Yes, she says, so when they go to process that posted payment, that's going to bounce, and incur a fee, but listen, I'm going to put a note in here right now that when that happens the fee should be waived, and I'm going to personally come back to your account in a few days when this should all have gone down and make sure it's okay.
All of this is happening after the closing date for the payment due on June 7, so the statement I will receive in the mail some time soon will reflect almost none of it. It will reflect that they didn't receive the May 7 payment, and a late fee; I will subtract the May 7 payment and the waived late fee and send in the rest, and when the statement due July 7 comes, I will hope I understand wtff is going on with it.
I'm pleased that I've been able to get so many fees and things waived; I think if there ends up being interest charged for all this tomfoolery (because of the dates things have been applied and so on), I'm going to end up not fighting about that, because omfg.
[collapses on the phone]
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(Of course, that would be the reason I have never yet successfully accumulated and cashed in frequent flyer miles, so it's a trade-off.)
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