At what point do you say "Screw the hassle, you're not getting my business"

[MikeS]

This is beyond frustrating. I have a "department store" credit card, obviously only valid at one place, but the account is held by a bank. So, my account is active, in good standing, yadda yadda yadda, but while trying to make an online purchase I keep getting told the card number is invalid. I've typed the dang thing in each time, still, invalid. WTF is going on?

So I called the bank holding the account. The automated message and directory process was so long that it took 3 minutes just to be prompted to speak to a real person. Hold.... Someone picked up, and not to my surprise a man with a thick middle east accent picked up. I described the situation, he asked how large of a purchase I was trying to make, then informed me I haven't the available credit to make the purchase. By know I've lost complete confidence in you, because I can't understand half of what you're saying and you evidently can't understand me, either (benefit of the doubt here, after telling him the purchase amount he told me my balance... no one is that bad at math... seriously, not even close). So, after all that, which included having to have him repeat himself at least twice for everything he said (only to have him get audibly annoyed by my asking him to repeat himself), I'm put on hold....

....


....

Finally he picked back up and informed me that there's absolutely nothing wrong with my account and that I needed to speak to the merchant. At least he supplied me with a phone number. Yeah. Outstanding.

So I called the merchant. Luckily this automated message was fairly simple, and I only needed to navigate through two automated directories to be prompted to speak to a real live human being. Hold...


....


....


....

Finally, a real live human being picked up, even better, I can understand him. Phew, maybe things are looking up. I described the situation. "Please hold."

...


...

He picked the line up and informed me that I needed to contact the webmaster. He gave me the email address, and informed me it generally takes the webmaster 24 hours to reply. Seriously?

I'm not going to contact the webmaster. It's not worth it at this point. On one hand I'm saving money by shopping with them, but there's a point when saving a few bucks just isn't worth the hassle. Maybe you'll get you're online order process in order someday, and if/when that happens, maybe I'll be back.

Anyway, just venting. All I want are my new toys.

[blueslegend8]

sorry to hear that man.

[tone4days]

bummer ... yeah, i'd have given up long before that and canceled my account and taken my business elsewhere ... life is too short and there are too many other places to spend my time and money

hope it works out for you the way you want it to

t4d

[The Golden Boy]

I would have gone to that department store, smashed the place with my formidable kung fu chops. Then I would have gone to the Middle East- found that fool operator and smashed his face with my formidable guitar chops.

Then I would have cancelled the card, wiped my rear end with it and stuck it on that fat cashier's face.

[Gr8Scott]

This is one reason I refuse to do business with Cingular. They also do that credit card crap for rebates and it's annoying.

[LesStrat]

A wise man once said, "Time is money."

When you waste that much time, are you really saving $$$?

[nepalnt21]

He picked the line up and informed me that I needed to contact the webmaster.

spiderman?

[Skarekrough]

Department Store credit cards are notorious for being unresponsive as well as falsely reporting things like non-payments and late payments to credit reporting agencies.

When i did the big credit repair thing when I was looking to buy a house I learned that Dept. Store cards are the ones the experts loathe to see come across as needing to be reconciled.

A Visa they can resolve in minutes. But a Department Store is a major PITA.