Time for a new fight

Sometimes a little fight is a good thing. It helps to relieve any stress building up. I strongly believe in this. I also strongly believe in voicing my opinions, and standing up for what I consider to be "right". Some may call me stubborn at times, but I see it as confidence at other times. So, with that in mind, I am going to share with the readers my most recent battle that I am in the process of fighting, against a very large company. Here goes...

I do a pretty significant amount of internet shopping with my credit card. In fact, I use my credit card just about everywhere I go. I used to be embarrassed when I would use it on purchases that were pretty inexpensive, but the more you do it, the less bad you feel. The way I see it, is that I accumulate so many points to use on things, that I don't really care if someone at the register thinks I am strange for charging $1. Also, remembering my days at Rita's, I realized that the person at the register, probably doesn't care. It is not their store, and they are not paying the service fee. So, if no one cares, then why should I? I pay all my credit cards in full each month, so no harm done.

My most heavily used credit card is a BestBuy Rewardzone Mastercard. This is my go to card, and the only time I don't use it is when there is a problem with it, which has been very rare. I also may use one of my other cards once in a great while so those accounts don't close (having old accounts supposedly helps your credit rating). In any given month, I rack up roughly 1000 rewardzone points, which equates to about $20 in bestbuy gift cards. I am storing my points up right now, and as of the writing of this post, I have 32,500 points, which is good for $650 in gift certificates. Not bad, and all for free since I pay the card off each month.

Things were going along fine with this plan, until about one month ago. I was using my credit card on a Thursday evening to shop at an internet vendor, and the order went right through. The next morning, I used my credit card to order some postage from USPS.com, and the card was rejected. I tried again, same story. I used a different card, and it went right through. Very odd. I called the rewardzone mastercard people on the phone and I was told that their records indicated that my account had been compromised, and the account number closed and moved to a new card. I should receive it in the mail in about 7 days. When I asked what happened, they told me that mastercard international called them and informed them that a vendor I had shopped with misplaced some information, and as a result they thought I should change my credit card info. I asked who it was, and they told me that I could speak to a different person and maybe find out some info. I had to go to work, so I told them don't bother.

The annoying part of this was that I have my credit card saved in so many different places, I am still finding places where I need to update that. I also had a lot of autopay accounts setup, and I was not sure when those payments would try to go through. I asked how this would be handled, and mastercard told me that those payments would be rejected. They suggest I change the information, but at this point I don't have my new credit card. So, I went ahead and changed roughly 8 places where the old number was saved to avoid having any charges get rejected. This was a painful process, as I had to look through old statements to figure out which vendors I use autopay, log in to all of them, remove the old card, update a new card, only to log in a week or so later and use my new card info to repeat the process.

Once everything had settled, I decided that this bothered me more. I spent some time fixing everything, and someone should pay for that. Most notably, the vendor who was careless with my personal data. So, this morning, I called Bestbuy RewardZone Mastercard to ask who effed me. The conversation went something like this:

Me: My card info was compromised by a vendor about a month ago and I wanted to know the name of the vendor.

BBMC: I am sorry sir I cannot tell you that information.

Me: Um, why not? Isn't it my information that was compromised?

BBMC: If I told you this information you probably wouldn't shop at that vendor anymore.

Me: Exactly...

BBMC: Sorry sir, I cannot give you the information.

Me: Well, I need to hold someone accountable for this error, and if you can't tell me the vendor, then I will hold Mastercard responsible for this.

BBMC: Sorry sir, I cannot give you the information. Mastercard International told us of the compromise, so we merely followed instruction.

Me: OK, can I have some contact information for them?

BBMC: Sorry sir, I don't have that information.

Me: OK, I think we are done then.

BBMC: OK sir, I hope I have answered your questions and have a nice day.

Me: Sorry, I don't have that information. [hangup]


I was more than a little annoyed at this point. This conversation circled a few times in the middle, with me determined to get my answer. I even asked for a supervisor, and she told me that I would not get my answer from them either. So apparently, the problem is further up.

At this moment, I am working up a letter to MasterCard, and a letter to the RewardZone MasterCard offices. It is a difficult situation. I feel as though I need to follow through in my claim that someone should be held responsible, or if nothing else, compensate me for my time spent (what is a few thousand rewardzone points to them?!?!).

So what do you guys think? I really like this card and the rewards are the most useful for me out of any credit card. I don't really want to stop using the card, but at the same time, it does bother me that someone messed up, and I can't hold them accountable. Jurassic Park has been on a lot lately, and John Hammond, the park owner, has a good line in it where he says: "I don't blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they pay for them. "

I think that quote accurately summarizes how I feel about most companies. We all make mistakes, and we all pay for them. Time to pay up!!