OK
- let me start this blog entry with a disclaimer. When I was online and booking a hotel room for my up coming trip to Boston there was a lot of commotion and distraction surrounding me. My kids were running around chasing one another, my phone was ringing off the hook and I was trying to pack up myself, my husband and my 3 kids for our trip to Miami. We were literally leaving that evening, and I had lots to do before we would be anywhere near heading out the door. Why did I have to book the hotel room at that exact moment you ask? I'll tell you why... because I am stubborn! Once my mind is made to do something it has to get done NOW. Needless to say I am now paying for my stubborness... as you will shortly see.
Miraculously, I was able to get us packed up and out the door. We drove to Seattle and caught our flight to Miami from Seatac. The flight left close to midnight and while my daughters slept blissfully on the plane, I sat in the world's most uncomfortable non-reclining chair. Yup, you guessed it... no sleep for this chickita! It is important that you understand that by the time we got to Miami and to the place where we're staying I was beyond exhausted (if anything, for my self-esteem - you will soon see what an idiot I was!) and hence my reasoning skills were not as sharp as they generally are.
I decided to quickly check my emails. While online, I thought I'd be extra smart and make sure all looked good with my bank/Visa account. You can imagine my surprise when I saw a Visa charge for over $600! I wracked my brain thinking over and over what it could have possibly been for. The thing is, it's not often that I charge $600 or more to my credit card so I would have definitely remembered if I had a made such a large purchase.
So, who can blame me for assuming fraud?? I was on the phone immediately with my credit card company and spoke to a representative in their fraud department. Within 2 minutes, my card was cancelled, cut to pieces and a claim was in process. Phew... what a relief... I didn't want whichever criminal it was who had my card number to make any more crazy purchases.
A few days later and after much sleep (!) I decided to take another look at my credit card statement. Lo and behold there was a phone number next to the entry for the $600 charge (guess I hadn't noticed it before). I gave them a call, accusing them of fraud and guess what... (can you see my cheaks blushing as I write this?)...?
Yup, you guessed it... the hotel booking that I had made a few days prior was a pre-paid booking! I guess sometime during the chaotic minutes leading to pressing the 'confirm reservation' button, I failed to read the fine print... that the reservation was a pre-paid one.
With my tail between my legs I called the credit card company (blushing yet again) and exlained the whole story and my rather embarressing mistake. The fraud claim has been voided and all is good...
Well, sort of good. Here I am stuck in Miami with no credit card! I guess all that shopping I was hoping to do has gone out the window...