Gnashing of Teeth

Show of hands: how many of you enjoy logging on to your bank account the day before payday and finding that $155 has disappeared overnight?

Back in March or April, I used some of my bonus check and splurged on terrific seats for Wicked for my daughter and myself for the last Saturday in September. I was told the tickets would be mailed to me a month before the performance. I still have not received those tickets.

kateri_thinks (who allowed me to use her subscriber number to order the tickets) and I both spent a very long time on the phone yesterday with the reps from the Paramount and Broadway Across America trying to find out where my tickets were.

I finally got to talk with George, who at first couldn't figure out that Wicked was technically part of last season's package and that's why he didn't see it on the "Current Season" list of Kateri's shows. But there was no record of my purchase, only hers.

Using my credit card number, he tracked down my tickets: two tickets, correct performance -- but under a name that sounded like the "from" line of a spam email, with an address in an entirely different city. He promised me he would fix it. I asked him how we could confirm this. He said he would call me back.

So later on he left a message on my mobile phone that everything was straightened out, and the tickets would be at Will Call for me. But as I said to kateri_thinks (who had driven up to have lunch with me), what about the person whose name was on my tickets? Does someone else have them? Am I going to have to fight with someone else on show day so my daughter and I can see the show? I resolved to call George back today -- and the Paramount -- and check.

But a few minutes ago I did my morning check of my accounts (Pentacles tending!) and saw that the price of the tickets had been debited again from my account!!

I am really, really upset.

Waking to Rain

Even in my basement, I can hear the rain this morning.

I need to get the pump inside, like I wrote about last week.

Time to put my sandals away, I guess.

Wicked, The Tickets

"George" explained to me that he had to cancel and re-issue the previous transaction. Unfortunately for me, although the authorization inquiry (which automatically counts against my account as a debit, if it's still "pending") goes through right away, I won't see the refund hit my account until it uploads at the end of the day. I understand about this. I worked in banking for a while, and it's an evil scam.

He did acknowledge that he should have warned me about that and apologized.

Yes, George, that would have been a good idea.

He assured me that because the tickets were charged under my card, any dispute must be resolved in my favor if I can show the actual piece of plastic with my name and the key numbers on it.

I'm going to call the Paramount tomorrow and confirm that my Will Call tickets are in their system.

Thanks to royalbananafish for suggesting a stern letter to Broadway Across America and the Paramount suggesting that I get a refund, considering the grief I've been through with this.

Job Possibility

Thank you to neversremedy who posted about a job she decided she couldn't apply for -- and which made me go *squee!*

( It's not spiritual direction, but pretty damn close to the perfect job for me )

How many jobs look for someone to do both intensive data entry and strategic thinking??

And IMDB has been at the top of my bookmark list -- right next to Amazon.com and Netflix -- for a long time.

Wish me luck!