Rants of the Month

Okay, two things have been bothering me lately.

First- "pleaded" is NOT A WORD. I hear it constantly (I watch a lot of true crime tv) and even saw it in the local paper this week. I was so crabby I had to throw the paper down and quit reading it.

"How did you plead?" "Oh, I pled innocent of course."

That is the word. Stop saying freaking "pleaded".

It pry is in the dictionary by now, so many people use it, but it is not proper American. Next thing you know we will be saying "Oh, I runned five miles yesterday."

To the crime reporters: Learn to speak properly. You sound like a two year old.

*****

Second- You may have seen the tv commercial about a certain credit card that has "the best" fraud protection. It runs about every twelve seconds. Well, I have that card. And I recently learned about that fraud protection.

Last Sunday I got a call at about 9am from a puter claiming to be my credit card company. They said I had a fraud alert. Since I hate computer calls, and didn't really know it was them calling, I hung up and went down to my own computer and tried to login to my account. It came up as a blank page. I tried again. Blank. Slightly freaked that someone "runned" (ha!) my card up to the limit, I trudged back up to my room, grabbed my money recording book, and called the number on the back of my credit card. The computer voice said my account was blocked because of suspected fraud. I had to enter the number. I had to enter my social. The puter voice was very serious. It said it was going to list the transactions since my last bill (Luckily only a week before or so.) and I had to listen very closely and make sure I recognized them. I sat with my pencil ready, holding my breath.

First- an online charge the day before. Yep, ordered oils from camden gray.
Second- a sewing store a few days previous. Yep, went to Joann's.
Third, fourth and fifth- walmart, all on the same day last week. (Remember my script woes? I had to charge twice at the pharmacy and then the regular checkout.)

Press one, "yes they are all my charges."
Then the puter said I must listen again to the list and make sure they are my charges. We go thru the list again.
Yes, they are mine.

Okay, the alert is lifted. Have a great day.

Huh? What triggered the alert? Walmart? That was over a week previous. Camden Gray? I have purchased from them several times before.

What if the original computer call had been ignored- as about five a day seem to be at my house. Then my card would have been declined when I went to use it. I would have been pissed, to say the least.

They could at least tell you what triggered the alert, so you can watch for it. Now I am completely paranoid that I will be at Wal with a cart full of yarn and be declined. I don't have any other general credit cards and rarely have cash. What then?

Yeah, the best fraud protection just ADDED to my worries.

Have a great day,
Anne