...And now I hate Chase

Luke and I were in Target tonight, cart filled with various household and grocery items, when our credit card was declined. Twice. In a store we drop money in almost every freaking day. After almost four years of being a faithful card carrier. Two days after receiving a bank statement that confirmed our most recent Chase payment had cleared just fine.

Man, was I pissed.

The first thing I did when I got home was call the customer service line, which put me on hold for about fifteen minutes before spending another ten verifying my last five purchases. When I finally got a hold of a "customer service advisor," I was told that an Internet charge of $52.99 had been randomly flagged as suspicious activity, so Chase decided to decline it and all other purchases until they could be verified by the primary card owner.

Apparently embarrassing said card owner when she's trying to pay for frozen pizzas, cough drops, and Raisin Bran is considered a more humanistic approach for handling such matters than, say, CALLING THE DAMN CARD OWNER.

Of course, when I tried explaining this to my "advisor," all she could do was run circles around her script, apologizing for the inconvenience and informing me the card could now be used freely.

"I'm not sure I want to use the card anymore," I said. "My husband and I are lucky we had another one on hand or we would've had to leave more than a hundred dollars worth of groceries behind."

"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am. But let me reassure you that the card has been reactivated and is now available for use."

"But the purchase you declined was legitimate and no different from any other charge we've made in the last few months. That was a charge meant to keep our anti-virus software up-to-date, and you just told me that we now have to set up that account all over again. My computer could already be vulnerable because of this."

"Yes, ma'am, and I'm very sorry. But let me reassure you that the card has been reactivated and is now available for use."

"But I'm not sure I want to use it. How can I be sure that Chase will honor my purchases?"

"Let me reassure you that the card has been reactivated and is now available for use."

"I hear that, but I'm not sure I want to use it."

"Well, ma'am, that is another matter."

"...."

"Thank you, ma'am, for calling Chase. Have a nice day."

Click.

Yeah, you, too, effing bastards.

At least Sallie Mae.... Aw, hell, she sucks, too, because I received a letter on Monday stating the paperwork I faxed in for my private loan consolidation application was incomplete, but when I placed a call to customer service, my records were completely up-to-date and my application was pending approval. I will say, though, that the woman who took my call was nice enough to place me on hold while she contacted the processing department personally to make sure everything was OK instead of passing me off to someone else.

The only thing worse than a pissed-off customer is a pissed-off customer who's too pregnant to see her own crotch. The next corporate giant to ruffle my feathers will be in for a real treat. That I can promise you.

Comments

[debi]

Just reading this pisses me off.I have had an entire week of people not being able to do their jobs and causing me to burst into tears at the Drs office. I am sorry that on top of feeling very pregnant (and really cute) you are having to deal with idiots. Gosh, my heart is pounding as I think about how mad you must have been. When things like that happen I give the husband a warning that I am about to blow someones socks off and he usually walks a fair distance away. I try to be polite,how hard is it really, to bag groceries without filling it till the sides split? Pretty damn hard I guess. Okay, I sorta got carried away here. You are looking wonderful and thank you for the belly shots.

[Molly]

Sorry I never made it to calling you tonight. I've got fifteen excuses and not a single good one. Better luck tomorrow, eh?

Chase did the same thing with our card once, right after we bought our new computer. They locked the damn thing, afraid of the gigantic purchase, and then my next stop was declined. I can appreciate the security only to a point. Because being declined? Suuuucks.

[Virginia Gal]

Having a card declined really does suck. It's never when you can just put the items back either - it's always for something you need vs. want.

But I also feel sorry for people who work in those call centers (1) because they don't have the skills to get a better job & (2) because they have to take crap from pissed off people all day and have little or no power to rectify issues.

[Trilby]

The same thing happened to our Capitol One card... I politely told the highest manager I could get on the phone where he could put the card and then cancelled it and cut it up into a MILLION little pieces! It made me feel better, and we're getting our new card from a new carrier in the mail any day now! :)

[daddy d]

Chase needs to get their stuff together. I don't use my chase card for the same kind of reason. Other card companies can do the job just fine. They really have some kind of problem.

[Jessi]

As I can see from the comments already posted, this is a common occurence...I had something similar happen where the company sent me a new card and I never activated it because my current card was not near its expiration date. The company deactivated my current card after a certain period of time because I didn't activate the new one, even though there was no indication that I needed to by a certain date. I told them that I wanted to cancel my account and they had the nerve to ask why!

IDIOTS!!!

[Rachel]

My bank did that to me recently. With my debit card!! I was pretty pissed. The charges that they were concerned about were not "unusual". One was a cell phone bill payment. Hello! We pay that every month. The other was like yours, antivirus software for our computer.

[Virginia Gal]

Just reread my comment and wanted to clarify: It's only in my non-hysterical frustrated moments that I feel sorry for those who work in the call centers.

I have to admit that when I am getting the shaft from someone who has no power to correct an issue, and who does not make an effort to find someone who does have the power, that I get a lot less polite than I would be if an effort to move beyond the script was made.

[Becca]

That last part about "too pregnant to see her own crotch" cracked me up. Otherwise it pissed me off! What the hell? My parents' credit card did that once and my sister and I were both late on our tuition and were declined at the bookstore. Awesome.

[Professor Art Nerd]

But...but... it's the holidays. Don't they expect you to be buying a bit more than usual around this time of year? Chase, you suck!

[Sadie]

Ugh. They suck. Once I went to Mexico, and I don't remember what company it was, but they were suspicious of purchases being made in Mexico and turned off the card. When I finally got them on the phone, they were like, "well, we tried to call but nobody was home." And I all, "you THINK?" Anyway.

[TasterSpoon]

I used to be with Chase, and yeah, they were super vigilant about "unusual" charges, like when I traveled for work. Ugh.

They also used to call, all the time, during dinner, to market various cards and services and "upgrades" until finally I said I'd had enough and wanted to close my account because I was tired of all the harrassment. The caller seemed startled and said, "Oh! You should have said something! I can just take you off our marketing list!" Fixed that problem, but, Grrr.

I ultimately quit them because I moved to California and they had no ATMs closer than Texas (!), but thanks for reassuring me that I'm not missing anything.

[Christar]

Oh man, I work at a call center and can I tell you how bad I HATE using scripts... I hate them! I hate it even worse when I have to call another call center and hear their stupid scripts. I HATE IT! And I hate my job. Can't wait to finish school to get out of here!

I totally understand that Chase is trying to protect your card and such, but I completely agree that they should have called you instead of just freezing your account! What kind of customer service is that?!

[Lisa]

I've had credit companies flag my account, but only for really legit reasons---like a joint account I had with my parents that I used in Paris on the same day that they used it in California---and the company called right away to verify the charge.

I'm hating Chase right now, too, but for a different reason (and my hate is a little less legitimate because I was partly to blame): I was late on one payment---one!---and they bumped my interest rate from 2.9% to 29.9%. Egads! I can understand bumping me from the promotional rate to a higher rate, but 30% interest!? Why don't they just take a kidney and part of a lung?

[Michelle]

That's one thing I miss about being pregnant. My innate fear of confrontation went out the window with my flat belly and was replaced by the urgent need to not be f****d with. And that girl? She was pretty awesome. Though I bet a lot of people hated her.

[Emmakirsten]

Oh I'd be so pissed about the card. That has happened to me with my debit card and I unfortunately didn't have a credit card with me, so I had to leave the groceries. Far too embarrasing, especially with the kids saying, mom, why aren't we getting the food, mom?? MOM??? All i could say was SHHH, SHHUUUUSSSHHH!!!!

The crotch, oh what is that?? Haven't seen that in ages, so sick of being uncomfortably huge.

[Brie]

Also really sucky? Calling to find out that your refund claim from the airline that screwed you is at least 3 weeks away, but your payment deadline on the credit card is much sooner than that.

[Jen]

argh, the same thing happened to us twice a year or two ago. It seems that everytime you make an electronics or computer purchase online, Chase likes to flag it as suspicious. But I ask you: WHY DON'T THEY CALL US AND TELL US?? They just let us go out and use the card, only to be shocked when it doesn't freaking work. GRRR. I appreciate that they are trying to be proactive about fraud and all that, but it's really very annoying. And I wasn't even pregnant when it happen!

[mjd]

Two words...Screw Chase. We do not like them either.

[Amy]

Can you call Anthem for me and give them a piece of our minds? You're just the one for the job!

Hmmm... I never activated my Chase card, just got it as a backup, and now I shall continue to not use it! Maybe you can con money out of them to say something nice since now all your readers hate Chase too.

Of course they still send me marketing crap since I'm "one of our best card customers!" Right, with all zero of my purchases on your unactivated card...