Friday, October 21, 2011

I guess this is the punishment inflicted....

...by my ugly nursing bra for bad mouthing it, unceremoniously replacing it, and making cackling plans to burn it as soon as the new ones arrive.

Yesterday, I took Hank to his semi annual appointment with the allergist. What on earth does this have to do with bras you ask? I'm getting there. This is what my husband calls a "Tiffany story" since it starts out seemingly having nothing to do with the topic at hand, will be way too long and contain far too many extraneous details, but in the end, it all ties together.

Ok, where was I? The allergist. So, I go to pay my co-pay. I hand the receptionist my debit card. She goes to the machine and by the way it's taking way too long I know that something is amiss. She comes back with a furrowed brow.

"Um, the card machine is giving me an error message. We had this happen to a patient a few weeks ago, and she later told us that it had to do with someone trying to steal from her account."

Hum. Well, I'm probably too complacent, but I wasn't so much worried about that. She gave me a ton of unnecessary details about what the error message said, and I concluded that it sounded like they didn't put in the authorization 3 digit code when it was needed. I also know that my card is old and the strip doesn't always work these days, I'm due to get a new one shortly. So I filed it away under "Don't Worry About This." I was more worried about how I was going to pay the co-pay, since we don't have credit cards and I didn't have enough cash on me.

Anyway, after that was squared away, I was focused on Henry and the allergist. Everything went fine, and upon arrival home, I see that we have a message on our answering machine.

"Hello, this is XYZ Bank Fraud Department and we need you to call us back..."

Oh crap.

I jotted down the investigation number and called back immediately. I was transferred to a man speaking heavily accented English who asked me a series of security questions. Apparently I answered them correctly, because he launched into the point at hand.

"We're concerned about a purchase charged this morning for $47 from a company based in London selling, um (I could tell he was desperately searching for the most polite word possible) ladies *apparel*. Called Fig Leaves."

"Yes, that's a legitimate purchase." I'm thinking the UK thing is what put the red flag up.

"Ah, ok. Oh, I see also on here a very large purchase for $770."

"Yes, the car repair shop. Unfortunately, that is also a legitimate purchase." *sighs*

He seemed to appreciate my attempt at levity and chirpily told me that my card would be reactivated within 2 minutes.

So, all is well that ends well. But I did get a chuckle out of how my little bra purchase caused some panic at the bank...

1 comment:

  1. Same thing happened to my dad. We were carivan-ing because I was moving. He filled up his tank on credit and then mine. Well at the same time the cable in his window snapped so he couldn't lower it or raise it. So after dropping my stuff off we looked for the nearest auto repair. They were able to replace the cable but wouldn't take his card. Turns out the bank was concerned about the piggy back purchase.

    Funny cause they're the same ones that harass me about needing their card protection services. I think they just want me to spend more money.

    I get why they flag funky things like that but it's still a nuisance.

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