Un Fucking Believable

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*Steam coming out of my ears*

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I am so mad. Let me start at the beginning. A month ago I get a call from my mastercard company, Capital One. (That's right, I'm naming names)

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Capital One: "good afternoon, bla bla bla, nonsense, nonsense... we'd like to offer you a new credit card with a microchip in it that would be better for you than your current one"

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Me: No thanks.

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Capital One: "actually ma'am we're going to send this card to all our customers as we are updating our system".

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Me: "So, it's less of you offering it to me, than it is you bullying me into taking your new card"

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C.O: "Oh, we wouldn't refer to it that way".
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Me: "Of course you wouldn't."

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So, they send their bloody card. Or so I thought. Fast forward about 2 weeks, and I realize I haven't yet received this magical card from them yet. So I call them. *I should probably inform you that calling any credit card company is on my least favorite things to do list. It ranks right up there with calling the phone or cell phone company. They piss me off every single time*

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Capital One: "Oh, you didn't get your card?"

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Me: "Nope. Can we just forget the whole thing now, and I'll just keep my old one"

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C.O: "Oh no, we'll have to send you a new one. But now we may have a breech in the card so we'll have to issue you a new account number."

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Me: "What does that mean?"

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CO: "The card you have now will become invalid at the end of this call and we'll send you a brand new one with a new account number within 10 business days"

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Me: "WHAT?! Are you frikkin' kidding me? I don't want my card to be invalid, there's a long weekend coming up."

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CO: "I'm sorry ma'am it's to protect you against fraud."
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I hang up.

How the fuck are they protecting me against fraud? I never asked for their stupid card. Now, I am without a c/c for 2 weeks. On a long weekend. Granted, I don't use it much, so I am grateful for that. But I'm still pissed.

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Fast forward to yesterday. It's been 2 weeks. No card yet. I call them again.
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Me: " Where the hell is my card?"

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C.O: "We sent it 2 weeks ago."
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Me: "Well, did you send it to me?! 'Cause I didn't get it. Just like the first one I didn't get. And now I have no c/c"

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C.O: "Well, it shows it hasn't been activated yet, so that is a good sign."
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Me: "Indeed. When can I expect it?"

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CO: "Any day now. But I can offer you extra protection if you want it. We can ask them to request a password upon activation of the new card."
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Me: "So, just for the activation, the person would need a password to activate it?"
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CO: " That is correct. That way it can only be activated by you."

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Me: " Okay. Let's put a password on the activation."

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Done. I feel slightly less annoyed. Then today, I get my card in the mail. I open it up. It doesn't look any different as my old card. What makes this card so coveted?

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I see a big sticker on the card that says "Call here to activate". So I call. It's an automated message. It asks for the card number. "Your card is activated" it tells me.

What the fuck? Why put the damn password on if I can activate it without one?
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I call them again. I can't even get a word in, she asks for my password.
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Me: "Yeah, that's what I'm calling about. I shouldn't have a password on my account. It was supposed to be for activation purposes only. But I just activated it, without being asked for the password."

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CO: "Did you call the customer help line to activate the card or the automated line?"
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Me: "Well, I called the number on the orange sticker. It was an automated line."
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CO:"We can't have passwords on the automated line. Only at customer service".

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Me: " You guys said the password is to stop any possible fraud against the card being activated by someone else. If someone else were to find it, why would they call the number on the statement? They'd obviously use the automated line to activate it, which means it didn't protect against fraud at all".

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CO: "It would have had they called the customer service line"

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Me: "You're missing the point. Never mind. Just take the damn thing off and let's just get on with it."

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CO: "I'm sorry but passwords can only be removed after writing a letter in to customer service"

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Me: "What? what are you talking about?"

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I'll spare you the rest of the conversation. Turns out even though I didn't ask for the card, and didn't want my account changed or cancelled, and didn't actually want a password on the account, but only on the activation (Which by the way, what was the point of that anyway?) I do now, need to write a letter and spend even more time on this god forsaken company to undo this password.

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I know that to most this wouldn't be a big deal. But it IS a big deal to me! This is complete foolishness. Why take a password over the phone (never mind that they're not describing the rules accurately, therefor I'm making a decision based on mis-information) but now, to undo, it must be in writing?

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That's wrong.

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I know it's petty, but it's the principal behind this people! I've told my husband and my parents about this because I was outraged. All have said to drop it.

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But principals are not like a hat that you take off or on when it's convenient. You either have them or you don't.

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So, I'll write my letter. And another one to the supervisor. And then, I'll call them just one more time.

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To change my password to 'dumbass'.

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