There I was, standing in the shoppette at Great Lakes Naval Station, thinking about all of the things I needed to get done and trying to plan every detail down to the last second so I could get – it – DONE when the clerk asked me to run my debit card through the machine thingy again.
No surprise, this happens a lot at the shoppette, the NEX, and the commissary.
I ran it again.
Declined.
He tried it manually.
Declined.
WTF? I just used it at the gas pump outside, with no problem.
Whatever. It happens. The machine breaks. Wells Fargo breaks. No big deal. I pulled out another card, paid, and grumbled my way to the car.
I pulled out my phone, checked my balance — it was exactly what it should have been, so why the heck was Wells Fargo declining my debit card. Who has time for this on Black Friday, for goodness sakes?
Luckily, I wasn’t planning on doing much shopping — less than $50 at the commissary and I had cash for our Robeks/McDonald’s run. No big deal.
As I was standing in Robeks a half hour later, my phone buzzed — an 800 number, I didn’t pick up. They didn’t leave a voicemail. I called it back and oh hell — Wells Fargo Fraud Prevention or Protection or whatever they call that department.
Figures. They decided to question my charges on Black Friday? How inconvenient could that have been if I was a different person or in a different financial situation?
Their nice little recording thingy had me verify my last five charges:
1) Evanston Maid Pro (a cleaning service in Evanston, Il) for $XX. The recording actually says these things.
2) Clarks Shoes (a shoe store in Somewhere, MA) for $XXX.
3) Toms Shoes (a shoe store in Somewhere, CA) for $XX.
4) A denied charge (at the Great Lakes< ILL NEX shoppette) for $XX
5) Amazon.com (a bookstore in Washington) for $XXX (I chuckled at Amazon still being called a bookstore, lol)
I verified that all of those charges were MINE (for godsakes) and they agreed to let me use my debit card to buy more of the things, which was nice of them since it's my darn debit card and I have a lot of kids, a puppy, and a grandson to shop for.
I do love my bank but damn that was annoying.
My husband had his account information stolen last year around this time and they suspect it was at the gas pump. I know from talking with police that there is a huge ring in our city in which people are stealing credit card information right in front of you. They wear a special device on their leg, pretend to drop your card, and swipe it. The information is then collected and sold on the market.