The answering machine greeted us with a Bleep! when we finally made it home from the evening commute yesterday. Playing the message, it was a voice wed never heard before and the guy never identified himself or gave a number to call back. Our mystery caller said he found Tims debit card in an ATM and he canceled it, which was a pretty nice thing to do, as opposed to taking it home, logging on to Amazon Dot Com and using it to order one of everything.
That was nice of him was actually the second thought that occurred to me, though. The first was, Any random guy can call a credit card company and cancel a card thats not theirs? And the answer turns out to be: Yes. Anybody can call the customer service number on the back of a credit card and ask them to cancel it, even if its not theirs. We know this with one-hundred percent certainty because we did it, too. Or, to be totally accurate, My Darling B did it, but shes not above using an angle to implicate me.
After I called Tim to relay the message to him, B called the credit card companys 1-800 customer service number (we have an account at the same bank) to find out if it was possible for somebody else to cancel a card, because that didnt make a lot of sense to us. And it still doesnt. But you can, if youre looking for a quick and dirty way to smack down somebody who really pisses you off. Just call customer service and tell them youre whats his names mother and feed them a story about how you got a phone call from a stranger who found your sons card, then ask if its been deactivated and, when they tell you no, it hasnt been, express grave concern and ask if theyll deactivate it for you. Theyll do it.
Or maybe just the customer service trainees will. B thought the customer service rep she spoke to sounded as if she hadnt been on the job too long, and wasnt sure what she should and shouldnt do. She accepted Bs story without any evidence and offered to cancel Tims card without asking B for any identifying information, or indeed without asking for any information that would positively identify Tim. Is there only one Tim-O out there with a Visa card? It seems as likely theres some other guy with the same name who couldnt pay for his coffee and bagel at Starbucks this morning, called customer service to find out why and was told his mom canceled his card. Ill bet the conversation got really weird after that.
Back to our Tim: B canceled his card, then called Tim at home to tell him the stranger who called us didnt really cancel his card after all, and urged him to call his bank as soon as possible to make sure his account was okay. While they were talking about lost cards and banks and stuff like that, B became a teensy bit confused about his finances. This is for your account at [NAME REDACTED] bank, right? she asked him.
No, it was my [OTHER BANK] debit card, he answered.
[EXPLETIVE DELETED], B gasped. She canceled the wrong card. And the angle shes going to use to make me an accessory to her mix-up is that I told her Tim closed his deposit accounts at one bank. Where I got that information, I couldnt tell you. Im going to blame it on a randomly firing brain cell damaged by sitting in front of the television for six hours every day when I was a kid.
B apologized to Tim, who now has no active bank cards because everyone in Monona except him is calling customer service to cancel them. She offered to front him any amount of cash he needed while he tried to straighten out this mess. Moral of the story: Dont tell your parents, or anybody else, for that matter, where your moneys on deposit.
How To Cancel Anybody’s Visa Card | 9:34 am CDTCategory: daily drivel | Tags: customer service, My Darling B
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