credit card fury

So, I head over to BP yesterday to get some gas and decided to use my new BP Credit Card. I pull up to the pump, insert my card but instead of the "select fuel type" option - I get a terse message suggesting I "see the attendant".

Great.

So, I head inside and wait for the guy in front of me to finish getting his fritos and his beef jerky sticks, then talk to the attendant. He asks how much gas I'm getting - I reply that I don't know yet. We estimate $20 and I try my card again at the register. And he tells me that my card has been declined and that I'll need to call the company.

Great.

So, I thank him and tell him I'll use my debit card. Which I do and which works fine.

I head on home and try to make the call - but the digital phone isn't working just then.

Great.

Now I'm pretty well steamed up with both the card and the phone - so, I'm not captain happy-pants when I finally call them again and get through this time.

I put in the last four digits of my card when instructed and a woman comes on the line with a thick accent from Somewhere Else. She proceeds to ask me a series of multiple choice questions to verify my identity.

Which is dumb - if I really wasn't who I said I was - would I really be calling the credit card company?

From her tone, I'm pretty sure that if I'd gotten any of them wrong - homeland security would have been at my door in 5 minutes.

The accent makes it very difficult to understand the questions and on one of them I simply couldn't figure out what she was saying. She started to loss her temper with me, but I finally figured out she was asking if I had my card with me. Which is also dumb since she'd just asked me my card number 30 seconds before that.

Finally, with the questions done, she "clears my account". I tell her that I'd just activated my card the day before - and asked if it was really activated. She says yes, but tells me that sometimes they put a hold on the card so that they can get more information from me.

Wait, what?

So, it was activated - but locked. I ask try to ask her about that, but she tells me to have a nice day (which I know she didn't mean) and hangs up on me.

End result? I'm still not sure if my card even works. I had half a mind to call them back and just cancel the damn thing - but the lure of fuel discounts still has me in it's grip and I'm eager for savings. If it fails me again, I'm going to cancel it in a heartbeat.

So, I did some dishes and had some tea - both things that help calm me down a bit and I got on with the rest of my day.

I'm still, obviously, cranky about the whole situation - mainly because I did everything right and still got treated like a bad-credit criminal or something. Annoying.

That's it for now - busy day ahead of me. later...