Credit Card Pond Scum--Welcome Home

Arriving home to a three foot high stack of mail, I settled in to find out what I've been missing in civilization. I opened my first bill from Nordstroms. It was for $20.00 and dated end of July. Ot oh. What did I buy at Nordstroms for $20? Yikes, better pay that right away.

Further into the stack, I find the second bill from Nordstroms: $40.00, and it was dated mid-August. They charged me a $20 dollar late fee??? Well, it stinks, but it's not the end of the world, right?

Further into the stack I open the third bill from Nordstoms. Now I owed $43 dollars and in blazing letters I had:
1. Been reported to the credit bureaus
2. Had all of my wonderful Nordstrom points revoked

I grabbed the phone first thing in the morning, just wanting to explain that, had I known that I owed $20, I would have paid it. I've been out of the country, blah blah blah. I'm not a bad person and I wanted to pay that bill ASAP.

I dialed their number. Busy signal. Dialed again and again and again...busy, busy, busy. When I finally got through and pressed the appropriate buttons, entered my account number and settled in to talk to a human, I was informed in that computer voice that my wait would be 61 minutes to talk to the customer service representative.

61 minutes? Are you kidding me? Apparently, I'm not the only one in trouble over at Nordstroms. I tried to call back to just pay my bill over the phone...BUSY. I called back 9 times and finally was able to pay my bill.

I'm still determined to speak to someone about this, but in the meantime, the card is being cut up and I've been forbidden to shop there by my husband. It's funny how you can lose a good customer over $40 in this economic climate and time of customer service that's been taken over by computers.

I am sorry for the rant, and as soon as I get it all together, there is more to come about life in the wilderness, the practicality of outhouses and entertaining 100 of my closest friends this summer!