This is supposed to be a blog post about our 4-day trip to the Believe in Tomorrow beach house in Ocean City. But unfortunately, it is a blog post about how my credit card number got lifted....again!
I don't do a lot of crazy Internet transactions. Wait, that didn't sound right. I don't do ANY crazy Internet transactions. I always pay in bullion for the crazy stuff. However, we do pay for almost all of our transactions with a credit card. Cash? What's that?
As we were leaving on Thursday, and I mean we had the car parked and the kids were getting ready to get in the car, the phone rings. My daughter answers it. Her face is blank. My wife asks, "Who is it?" "Bank of America." "Oh, hang-up." She hangs up. "What did they say?" "I don't know, something about our credit card." Crap. I go back out to the car and grab the laptop and come inside.
I fire up the laptop, go to my issuing bank's website, and review my transactions. Nothing suspicious. Chalk it up to overzealous security administration. I'm not bothered!
We get to the beach, 'do our thing' as the youngsters would say. Saturday we decide to go to the outlets. First stop - J. Crew. My first transaction goes through fine. Then I see something else I like, so I pick it up to purchase it. Credit card alert. The code requires the merchant to call the issuing bank. They type in some override codes, I pay and I'm on my way.
Next stop, U.S. Polo Association. Credit card alert. This merchant calls the bank. Transfer. Push 1 to speak English. Push 1 to continue speaking in English. Transfer. The merchant asks for my driver's license. Blah-blah-blah. It's about 15 minutes standing at the counter. If I had any sense I would have asked for my card and walked out, but that little voice in my head said that if I requested to do that the next phone call would have been the police. Finally the approve it and I'm on my way.
That evening we go to play miniature golf at Old Pro. Denied. What the cusser is going on? We pay in cash. When we get home I call Super American Conglomerated Bank of the United States. They say there's an alert for a suspicious transaction. $1. One freakin' dollar?!!! It's from Google. Google??? Apparently some notoriously nefarious corporation sends out test charges for $1 to random or stolen credit cards. If the charge hits, then they'll send massive charges your way. Fortunately for me, Super American Conglomerated Bank of the United States stopped my card before anything else could happen. Unfortunately for me, I'm on day #2 of my 4 day vacation. Cash anyone?
We got through the week on a Ben Franklin, a few Georges, and an Honest Abe. Not how I wanted it to go down. Your new cards will be delivered in 4-5 business days. 45 business days? Huh? No, 4 TO 5 business days. Oh, that's better.
By-crikey. Should we go back to cash? I hate having that all in my wallet. It's so much more convenient to have a piece of plastic.
Have you ever had your credit card number stolen?
Showing posts with label credit card. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credit card. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Credit Card Fraud - Qdoba Responds
In a previous post I had mentioned that I many of my friends and coworkers have been the victim of fraud in the past 2 weeks. One of the suspected originators of that fraud was the Qdoba in Owings Mills.
Today I received a comment to that posting directly from someone at Qdoba. I thank them very much for this detailed response. I shared this with my affected friends. Hopefully this will be a lesson on how to more effectively manage everyone's credit card. It's better to actively watch those statements rather than wait until the end of the month. Minimize the use of your debit card. Once that money is gone - it's gone! And always remember - cash is King!
Here is Qdoba's response:
I'm sorry that this happened to you. At Qdoba, we take our food safety and guest’s personal safety very seriously.
That being said, there was a recent credit card breach at this single franchise location in Owings Mills. As soon as we were alerted of this breach, we actively initiated the proper procedures to remedy this. Immediately, the particular location in question was taken offline so that no additional information could be transmitted. Additionally, FishNet Security, a third party security group approved by the Credit Card Consortium came to this particular location to remove the hardware to conduct a forensic investigation.
Before this system is brought back online, we will replace all the affected components and the Franchisee will work with the credit card processor to re-certify this system as being PCI compliant.
In the meantime, as with any credit card breach, we are recommending that guests who believe they were affected to contact their credit card companies directly to have charges removed and to receive a new card.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any additional questions or concerns. We can be reached at PR@Qdoba.com.
Today I received a comment to that posting directly from someone at Qdoba. I thank them very much for this detailed response. I shared this with my affected friends. Hopefully this will be a lesson on how to more effectively manage everyone's credit card. It's better to actively watch those statements rather than wait until the end of the month. Minimize the use of your debit card. Once that money is gone - it's gone! And always remember - cash is King!
Here is Qdoba's response:
I'm sorry that this happened to you. At Qdoba, we take our food safety and guest’s personal safety very seriously.
That being said, there was a recent credit card breach at this single franchise location in Owings Mills. As soon as we were alerted of this breach, we actively initiated the proper procedures to remedy this. Immediately, the particular location in question was taken offline so that no additional information could be transmitted. Additionally, FishNet Security, a third party security group approved by the Credit Card Consortium came to this particular location to remove the hardware to conduct a forensic investigation.
Before this system is brought back online, we will replace all the affected components and the Franchisee will work with the credit card processor to re-certify this system as being PCI compliant.
In the meantime, as with any credit card breach, we are recommending that guests who believe they were affected to contact their credit card companies directly to have charges removed and to receive a new card.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any additional questions or concerns. We can be reached at PR@Qdoba.com.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Credit Card Cyber Terrorism in Owings Mills?
What in the world is going on with stolen credit cards lately? As mentioned in a previous post, my credit card number was stolen and hundreds, no thousands of dollars worth of charges were racked up on my credit card.
In the course of talking to my friends and coworkers, there appears to be a rash of stolen credit card numbers in the past 2 weeks.
In all, ten people that I know have had their credit card numbers stolen. Many claimed that the numbers were stolen locally in Owings Mills. Many had visited Qdoba, Home Depot, and Chick-Fil-A.
Is it a coincident or are there a cyber terrorist ring in Owings Mills where they are stealing numbers and running up charges?
Some of the unauthorized charges are showing up in Mexico and the Philippines.
I know of at least one complaint made to Qdoba, who subsequently cried libel and slander for saying that the false charges originated from their restaurant. Everyone denies everything, but the charges keep showing up.
I don't own a business, but if something like that happened to my establishment - I wouldn't be accusing the victims of a crime. That's not good business. And for that - Qdoba and their arrogant attitude can kiss my business good-bye for a while.
Cash is King!
In the course of talking to my friends and coworkers, there appears to be a rash of stolen credit card numbers in the past 2 weeks.
In all, ten people that I know have had their credit card numbers stolen. Many claimed that the numbers were stolen locally in Owings Mills. Many had visited Qdoba, Home Depot, and Chick-Fil-A.
Is it a coincident or are there a cyber terrorist ring in Owings Mills where they are stealing numbers and running up charges?
Some of the unauthorized charges are showing up in Mexico and the Philippines.
I know of at least one complaint made to Qdoba, who subsequently cried libel and slander for saying that the false charges originated from their restaurant. Everyone denies everything, but the charges keep showing up.
I don't own a business, but if something like that happened to my establishment - I wouldn't be accusing the victims of a crime. That's not good business. And for that - Qdoba and their arrogant attitude can kiss my business good-bye for a while.
Cash is King!
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Good Customer Service
Good customer service is hard to come by. When you do get good customer service, you need to tell people. We always tell people when a company sucks. Let's tell people when they don't suck. And I am telling my story.
In early September, I got a letter in the mail from Citibank accompanying 2 new credit cards. "This is odd", I thought. The cards don't expire for another year. I read the letter and it explained that they had loaned my account information to some computer hackers in China and then later determined that they might try to compromise my account to purchase classified military specs during the upcoming Clinton Administration.
"Okay", I thought. Not that big of a deal, I guess. A couple of weeks later I realized that it's been a while since I got any email notifications from Citibank. You see I set up my account to let me know when the new statements were ready and also to let me know when payments were due. What a great arrangement!
Unfortunately, as I logged onto my account, a message informed me that it was directing me to my new account. The next screen revealed that my payment was due a couple of days earlier. I immediately called Citibank and explained my story. They said the account options do not transfer when a new account is open. Therefore it was necessary to reset the email notifications that I wanted. The CRS (customer service representative) took a check-by-phone and I paid my balance-in-full as I always do. I asked if there was going to be a late fee and she said probably not.
Probably so. The next statement came (by email notification!) and ta-da! A $30 late fee. Ugh!!! I called up Citibank. After 20 minutes of navigating through their fun-filled "speak menus", I finally caught up with Drew. I quickly gave him the background and requested leniency. You see, not only did I miss this payment, but because I also have my Exxon Speed Pass and my Cingular autopay tied to my credit card, I missed those payments, too. In 2.1 seconds he responded, "Done, I've removed the fee from your account."
Hooray!!! That was quick and awesome. As you may remember from an older post titled, "Companies That Suck", I didn't have quite the same experience with Advanta.
And a quick More Companies That Suck, let's add Hop's restaurant. There is one in Owings Mills, MD. If you go there for lunch, give yourself an hour and a half. If you go with 4 people, don't expect to return to work on the same day. If you're thirsty, bring your own beverages. They'll give you the first one, but there's only one blind work-release waitress on duty and she ain't got time for you! "He can't tell me what to do!" is a common expression heard.
I have been there about 3 times in the past few months, each organized by someone else and attended by me under protest. The last time we gave ourselves an hour and a half. At the end of that time, we informed the manager (for the 4th time) that we were leaving. He kept insisting that it would be out shortly. I could have walked to Red Robin and cooked it myself, eaten it, and walked back in this amount of time. This is the worst restaurant in Owings Mills and possibly in all surrounding zip codes.
In early September, I got a letter in the mail from Citibank accompanying 2 new credit cards. "This is odd", I thought. The cards don't expire for another year. I read the letter and it explained that they had loaned my account information to some computer hackers in China and then later determined that they might try to compromise my account to purchase classified military specs during the upcoming Clinton Administration.
"Okay", I thought. Not that big of a deal, I guess. A couple of weeks later I realized that it's been a while since I got any email notifications from Citibank. You see I set up my account to let me know when the new statements were ready and also to let me know when payments were due. What a great arrangement!
Unfortunately, as I logged onto my account, a message informed me that it was directing me to my new account. The next screen revealed that my payment was due a couple of days earlier. I immediately called Citibank and explained my story. They said the account options do not transfer when a new account is open. Therefore it was necessary to reset the email notifications that I wanted. The CRS (customer service representative) took a check-by-phone and I paid my balance-in-full as I always do. I asked if there was going to be a late fee and she said probably not.
Probably so. The next statement came (by email notification!) and ta-da! A $30 late fee. Ugh!!! I called up Citibank. After 20 minutes of navigating through their fun-filled "speak menus", I finally caught up with Drew. I quickly gave him the background and requested leniency. You see, not only did I miss this payment, but because I also have my Exxon Speed Pass and my Cingular autopay tied to my credit card, I missed those payments, too. In 2.1 seconds he responded, "Done, I've removed the fee from your account."
Hooray!!! That was quick and awesome. As you may remember from an older post titled, "Companies That Suck", I didn't have quite the same experience with Advanta.
And a quick More Companies That Suck, let's add Hop's restaurant. There is one in Owings Mills, MD. If you go there for lunch, give yourself an hour and a half. If you go with 4 people, don't expect to return to work on the same day. If you're thirsty, bring your own beverages. They'll give you the first one, but there's only one blind work-release waitress on duty and she ain't got time for you! "He can't tell me what to do!" is a common expression heard.
I have been there about 3 times in the past few months, each organized by someone else and attended by me under protest. The last time we gave ourselves an hour and a half. At the end of that time, we informed the manager (for the 4th time) that we were leaving. He kept insisting that it would be out shortly. I could have walked to Red Robin and cooked it myself, eaten it, and walked back in this amount of time. This is the worst restaurant in Owings Mills and possibly in all surrounding zip codes.
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