Skip to main content

And I thought 2009 was a bad year

The only thing I can say is 2010 is not shaping up much better. And I had such high hopes.

For starters Sylvia (my 89 year old aunt who lives with us) went back into the hospital for the 3rd time on Thursday, and I'm afraid this time she's not going to be getting out all too soon. And the day before, as Edie was turning into the gas station, she cut the corner a little too tight, and drove right into the curb blowing out the sidewall of the left front tire. $185 [the cost of the new tire] later she was back on her way again. Edie commented that the price of gas at that station was pretty good [which it was], but it ended up being the most expensive tank of gas she ever purchased.

And then today, I discovered American Express (AMEX) sided with The Golden Truffle (a restaurant in Costa Mesa where Edie and I had dinner on 11/14/2009), for which I was billed twice.

Simple logic should tell you the charge was a duplication. The charges are identical, and they have consecutive transaction numbers.

The problem is the restaurant has produced two receipts, allegedly signed by me.

Now why in the world would a restaurant give me two receipts to sign for the identical amount? If a mistake was made when entering the transaction, a legitimate vendor/merchant would simply void the transaction, and recharge the card for the correct amount. Plus it would have been down right impossible to have spent that much money on dinner at that restaurant. It wasn't that good.

There can be no other possible explanation for such shenanigans, at least in my opinion, except to defraud the customer. In this case me.

Supposedly the two receipts are in the mail so I can review them, but even if there are two receipts with my signature (which I can only assume there are), one of those receipts was not signed by me.

So today I have filed a complaint with the fraud department at AMEX to try and resolve this issue. I may even have to go and file a police complaint against The Golden Truffle, but we'll wait and see.

I'm just a little concerned AMEX won't be reasonable. After all they're the company which wouldn't give me a good will credit for the annual fee ($70) on my Starwood Preferred Credit card last April, even considering the fact I was generating over $1000 per year in merchant fees. I ended up canceling that card.

Of course this could be a back door attempt to get that $70 fee, especially since I don't use my other AMEX card nearly as much, or maybe they just don't like me.

My only consolation is my back appears to be getting better, and I'm riding pretty good. Of course at the rate things are going this year, that could all change as well.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My concerns reaffirmed today

When I was first diagnosed with MCL, I pretty much read just about everything I could get my hands on, I attended various conferences, and I talked to anyone who would listen. One of the most important lessons I learned, and which I've mentioned numerous times before was No one cares more about you than you. But in addition to that, I learned to fear the drug Doxorubicin , AKA Adriamycin, Doxil, Hydroxydoxorubicin, or more affectionately the Red Devil. Besides being a deadly chemical, as is the case with most chemotherapy drugs, it is one of the few chemotherapy drugs known to cause permanent heart damage. I even heard Dr. Sandra Horning , a noted Stanford lymphoma specialist, state at the first lymphoma conference I attended in LA, there was no evidence Doxorubicin provided any added benefit to chemotherapy protocols. This was music to my ears, since Doxorubicin is very common in most lymphoma treatment protocols. And even though Dr. Horning has since changed her tune [which my sk...

Bowling: A metaphor on life [sorta]

Over the past 15+ years the game of bowling has changed dramatically. Not only has the equipment changed, making it easier for bowlers of all ages and physical conditions to participate, and score well, but there have even been major advances to how the lanes are prepared for the start of bowling. No longer is it just heavy oil, light oil, long oil, short oil, or no oil, with the latest equipment, the amount of oil can be varied from front to back and side to side, producing a myriad of patterns designed to make the game more interesting, more challenging and as you might surmise, more frustrating. No longer does the "one ball fits all" approach work any more either. In order to navigate all the differing possible lane conditions, you need to have a varied selection of bowling balls. Most pros will tell you the average bowler needs 3 balls, plus a ball for spares, but to be an above average bowler you'll need at least 6 balls, with many possessing more than that. But just...

Fatigue! Part II - Maybe it is real?

Or it's actually Motivational Deficiency Disorder, MoDeD (pronounced Mo-Dee-Dee) for short. In a report this week by Roy Moynihan who reports for the British Medical Journal Austrailian scientists may have come across the reason for extreme laziness . The condition is claimed to affect up to one in five Australians and is characterised by overwhelming and debilitating apathy. Neuroscientists at the University of Newcastle in Australia say that in severe cases motivational deficiency disorder can be fatal, because the condition reduces the motivation to breathe. Neurologist Leth Argos is part of the team that has identified the disorder, which can be diagnosed using a combination of positron emission tomography and low scores on a motivation rating scale, previously validated in elite athletes. "This disorder is poorly understood," Professor Argos told the BMJ. "It is underdiagnosed and undertreated." Who knew? Maybe I have MoDeD, from my attempts to become a...