04/27 Today turned out to be a royal pain in the a**. After a short but cold (42 F) ride into a strong headwind out of the north I arrived in Hamburg. At least it didn’t rain until I got here.
The plan was to stay here tonight because riding into the wind and on 5 miles of wet gravel road was a bit tiring and it’s too early for me to be putting the stress of muddy riding on my foot. After handing my credit card over to the lady that runs the motel I started planning in my head everything I needed to get done today. My thoughts were interrupted by her telling me that my card was declined. I had her try one more time but no go. I used another one and figured I’d call the bank and see what the problem was once I checked into the room. This card is also my check/ATM card so I was a little worried. Sometimes they freak out a little when they start seeing charges from weird places but this shouldn’t have set anything off. Its not like charges haven’t been coming in since I left in February.
They have wifi here so I logged in to check my account online before I called the bank. Lo and behold there are 3 charges from blizzard.com totaling $70. Now I haven’t played WOW for many years so I called them and waited on hold for 45 minutes to talk to someone in their billing department (no speaker phone in the room either). Finally they picked up and told me that, yes someone else was using your card. They said they’d look into it so I hung up and called the bank. Here’s the PITA part. To submit a VISA claim you have to print, sign and have notarized a form stating that the charges were fraudulent. I also had to write a letter saying that I needed my replacement card sent to an address where I think I’ll be in 3-4 days (Salix, Iowa). Even figuring out where I’m going to be in a few days was a pain. This letter also required a copy of my driver’s license. Once I had all this I needed to fax it to the bank.
OK, so I don’t have a printer, fax, scanner or a notary stuffed in my panniers. So I got to walk in the cold rain to the town bank (who couldn’t help me), the town library (where I printed everything) and then to City Hall to see if they could notarize it. They couldn’t so I have to go back to the bank in the morning since they close at 3pm. I’ve now spent 4 hours dealing with this. Argh.
Last night was a mess. Rain and wind all night. Slept OK but my tent and everything else is a bit muddy. I didn’t even get to eat a warm dinner because it rained all night.
After reading about this swine flu going around I might just have to stay in some remote place until it blows over. Or maybe I’ll end up like Will Smith in I Am Legend. It’ll just be me and my bike (and the magic mushrooms from yesterday).
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Sounds like you need a beer and a magic mushroom
The beer helped a lot. There’s no way I’m eating one of those mushrooms though–they look like brains.
You could head back to St. Louis on Aug. 15.
http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/2009/04/27/world-naked-bike-ride-comes-to-st-louis/
SHOOT….what a bummer! We’ve had that happen right before Christmas and lots of things bounced….but it was a lot more than that, so there’s one good thing.
Hopefully it’ll all get worked out.
Don’t worry bout missin’ out on that Naked Hippy Bike Ride….I will be there w/ my camera to take in the festivities. This is the 2nd year for it and they had a pretty big turnout last time.
Yeah, the cc thing has been a pain. When I get my new card I’ll just use it for ATM withdrawls so it shouldn’t happen again. I’m glad you’ll be there to appreciate the “artsy” side of the naked bike ride. I’d probably skip it anyway because my farmer’s tan would take too long to even out at this point.
Hey Scott.
You’re not supposed to look at the mushrooms before you eat them. Just close your eyes and chew. The dogs chasing you made me laugh and it was even funnier than you pepper sprayed one. They say that there’s no such thing as a bad dog just a bad owner. That guy proved that for sure. I’m sure the bank thing will get all figured out. Too bad you had to spend all of your time dealing with that. Did you not tell your bank what you were doing to avoid having this problem in the first place? Just wondering.
Jennifer
Trust me, I’d *much* rather pepper spray the owners. I hate having to spray anything at the dogs but if they keep running out on the road after bikes they are going to get hit or the guy/girl on the bike is going to fall/get bit/veer into traffic. Hopefully they’ll remember the encounter and think twice about running after the next person on a bike. The CC thing happened because someone stole my credit card number from a database. I didn’t actually have a problem with it getting declined because I’ve been traveling. They refused my new charges because they suspected that the number had been stolen. I think I’ll just use my Amex since filing a fraud dispute is just a matter of going online. Very easy process. It was a nightmare with VISA though. Hopefully I’ll be up there to visit in another month.
That BS is why I only use a REAL CC for online transactions and I am to the point where I will start using it at restaurants as well etc. We think the local sub shop was where the card number was copped. Thank god it wasn’t my card attached to my checking or my house payment may have bounced.. I had my CC# start getting fraud charges and they called ME to see what the deal was to make sure the charges were good. They started feeling the card out with iTune charges. Then they tried ordering a couple hundred bucks worth of pressure washing supplies online.
Everything was handled in 10-15 minutes on the phone without needing any signed and notarized BS. All Charges were immediately reversed. 4 days later I had a new card in hand. Other then the wait for the card it was minimal hassle. Clark Howard even warns about things like you are going through and to use a real CC because of the better fraud protection. Just have to make sure you pay it off every month to avoid interest charges.
This was definitely a major hassle for me. Even if I was still at home and had easy access to a fax/copier/notary it would have still taken a while to resolve. I totally agree with you… using a non-debit card for purchases is the way to go. I had this happen with Amex once and everything was resolved via their web site. I’ve had the card whose number was stolen since 1995 so it was bound to get stolen sooner or later.