Blooming call centres...!

I know I told you that we bought a new car – which was funny in itself – you see we live quite close to a big river and the only bridge is about 20 minutes away - I know, that’s not funny but let me get to it…So, I went onto Autotrader (is that advertising?) and started looking through all cars within a 40 mile radius trying to find the right one at the right price. There, it said – we have the perfect car for you – 36 miles away! Wonderful I thought – phoned the garage and made an appointment to view the car then programmed the garage postcode into the sat nav. Tim (that’s my Tom-tom’s^*1… name) said you will reach your destination in 1.5 hours! 1.5 hours I squeaked – how come? 76 miles he said (actually he doesn’t actually talk to me like that, I just squeaked a bit when I looked at the little map thingie) – turns out that yes, the car was 36 miles away, but only as the crow flies – I after all, not having an amphibious car, have to make an inconvenient detour over the bridge!

Anyway, long story short (if I can!) – I went down, looked at the car, arranged to buy it and then to pick it up a week later (time to transfer funds into the bank, garage to MOT it etc). One week later I called the bank – got through to a call centre, punched in lots of numbers including 2 security codes at appropriate points and finally got to talk to a person:

Me: “I shall be using a debit card too buy a car tomorrow”
Somewhere in New Delhi: “Oh, fine but that might trigger a security alert because of the sum of money involved”
Me: “Um, that’s why I’m calling, so that you can make sure that doesn’t happen”
Somewhere in New Delhi: “But security is very important – you wouldn’t want someone stealing your card and making a big purchase, would you?”
Me: “Um, no, but then I wouldn’t really expect them to steal my card, and having had to torture me to find out my security codes, then call you up and tell you in advance that they were going to steal money from my account…!”
Somewhere in New Delhi: “I see your point, but there is nothing we can do – the purchase may or may not go through depending on security”

…at this point I am fairly exasperated – especially since I can see myself driving the 36, sorry 76 miles to pick up the car and the payment being refused. So, I ask what I can do (politely of course) if payment is refused.

Somewhere in New Delhi: “I can give you this 0900 phone number which we will charge you at enormous expense per minute (I am putting words in her mouth here but it was a premium rate number) in case it is refused”
Me: “and what will they do?”
Somewhere in New Delhi: “Oh, they will just ask you for your security codes that you had to give to get to me and since that verifies who you are you can then tell them that you are using your debit card to buy a car”

Click……...................................

Oh, yes, and in case you are wondering – I did not trigger a security alert despite the fact that I spent £2500 on a debit card only authorised for £300 per day. This banking stuff confuses me….

^*1In for a penny n for a pound – if I’m going to advertise I may as well do it twice in one blog entry!