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August 01, 2006
Robbed!
Disclaimer
Pardon my grammar, spelling and the multitude of swear words used in this post. This post is about one of the most frustating days of my life. No spelling and grammar check applied.
The Incident
I would never know how it happened. The day didn't start very good to start with. I was a bit sick and feeling under the weather, but I decided to get out from the comfortable hostel and explore Valencia. I was walking around and I visited a market where I think my wallet is stolen. Not much later after the market I looked over a window of a shop and from the reflection I could see that my backpack was wide opened. I thought that was strange and reached for it to fix it. I knew something was wrong when even the compartment where I put my wallet was opened and of course there's no wallet. I quickly walked back to the hostel hoping that I left my wallet in the hostel.
We searched the hostel for a while and I decided it´s time to finally accept that I am, just like it happened in Bondi Beach almost 9 years ago, another victim of crime. The receptionist showed me how to get to the police station and she said that she's really sorry that she can´t accompany me there to translate because there´s no one else in the hostel. No worries, I thought I´ll just go and see how it goes.
I really should cancel my credit card. But after searching the internet for the contact number of Wizard I didn´t find any international number to contact. All are 1300 or 1800 numbers, which I know is almost impossible to contact while you´re overseas. This is the beginning of my litany of woes with the worst financial insitution on planet earth, the company called Wizard Home Loan.
The Police Report
The lone officer at the local police station was very friendly and helpful despite his limited English. I managed to get myself understood and he immediately called Madrid. There is an international police service helpline in Madrid to help you filling in the police report in Spanish. So you speak to the operator in English (he was another English working in Spain) and he will write the police report for you. These kind of petty theft must have happened quite often if they actually have a special police division just to handle police report translation.
One the report is done, I have to go to National Police station. Apparently in Spain they have difference level of police. The one that I went to is the Polica Local, to be able to get my print out I need to go to Comisaria Policia Nacional office.
The officers in the national police office are very nice, friendly and helpful. Unfortunately there were only 2 older guys there and they hardly can speak English. They printed out my police report and I signed it. By this time 2 younger police officer went in and naturally they can speak a bit of English. They asked me do I need to cancel my credit card. I explained that I can´t call Australia yet. No problem they give me Mastercard International number. Fantastic I thought.
The Debacle with Wizard Home Loan
I knew I couldn' contact Wizard 1300 number from overseas. I tried it from Vietnam and it's only staffed from 8:30am AEST. So I had high hopes with Mastercard International number. I punched in the number and followed the friendly american accent automated machine. It asked me to enter my card number. "One moment please .... we will now redirect you to your financial institution .... please call after 8:30 AEST .. beep beep beep beep beep..." FUCK ....
I could not comprehend that a credit card provider does not provide 24 hours customer service! I asked the police station if I can make international phone call. They said no sorry, their telephone is blocked from making International phone call. Fine enough. I half ran back to the hostel to ask where can I make international phone call. Since this was Sunday, Valencia is dead. The receptionist showed me the closest.
I managed to get through to my brother and asked him to try to call the 1300 number and if he can ask them the international number that I can call from overseas. He managed to get through to one and operator and he gave us a Sydney number. Fantastic. I called this number, punched in through some sequence of menu and again it gives me exactly the same message as before, call again 8:30am AEST ...
By this time my blood pressure went off the roof.
I called my brother again to try to speak to the customer service again. This time I want to listed what he said and I had to call his mobile phone. Very expensive to call from overseas. In over 20 minutes he couldn't reach any operator, this is about 10pm on Sunday night in Australia.
Argghhh .... I just want to cancel my credit card, and because I had some hostel booking and Alhambra ticket transactions the previous night I want to make sure that they went through and nothing else.
My day has just gone from bad to worse to a fucking debacle. I started praying ...
Suddenly I had an idea, I asked my brother to try to call the Australian Mastercard International number. See if that works. I still find it hard to believe that they don't have 24 hour cancellation service. He did as asked, and they have the same system. Enter the card number and it will be forwarded to the financial institution. This time it worked!! Yes fantastic.
So my brother reported my credit card was stolen and asked to stop it. They did as requested but they want to speak to me to send a replacement card and I do want to speak to them personally. Unfrotunately the stupid idiot on the other side does not understand our simple request "What is the local number, not the 1800 number that I can call from overseas". He didn't know and did not want to find out. I can hear my brother on the other side on the phone getting really frustated on this guy stupidity.
He told him than 10 times give me the non 1800 number. The stupid idiot on the other side just doesn't understand. He requested for a supervisor and none was available.
At this stage, my blood pressure is probably high enough to cause instant death. I asked my brother to confirm that the card was blocked. Yes the operator said. My brother specifically told him "Please don't hang up, I need to speak to my brother in Spain" several times, and yet he did.
I'm not good enough a writer to be able to explain my feeling in words. Suffice to say, I'm angry. Very very very angry. There's nothing else I could do. The entire saga cost me almost EUR20 worth of phone calls, and almost 3 hours of my life in total.
That's not much, but considering it could have finished in the police station with a free phone call to Mastercard International, it's unacceptable. Unfuckingacceptable.
I should have known not to dabble with a credit card company provided by a home loan company. The main reason I get Wizard Mastercard was their no international transaction fee charge. I stupid I was to trust them, how stupid I was to think that they are a respectable, professional financial institution.
Later that day
I refused to let this incident stopped me from enjoying my travel. I went back to the hostel, everyone was very nice and sympathetic. Cooked my super late lunch at 4pm and left to the fine arts museum. It was free and it has some fine collection. I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't still raging with anger with Wizard. Funny that I wasn't angry about my stolen wallet, the Wizard debacle definitely overshadowed it.
I went to the park and read a bit and then back to the hostel. At the hostel there are 2 new guys in the room and the four of us went to have dinner. It doesn't make sense really. After losing 100EUR I should really save, but like I said I won't let this incident stop me from having fun. We had a good time with the paella, tapas and beer.
I had to go back to the hostel to wait until 12:30 in the fucking morning so I can get in touch with Wizard call centre to close my account. That's it, I don't want to deal with these idiots anymore. Just close my account.
While waiting I was thinking of what creative words I could say to the customer service about their stupid company. However through the night, my anger slowly dissapear and I thought that blasting the customer service reps won't do any good. It's not their fault that their company is shit, and I'm sure that they've faced enough angry customers already. I thought a much better complaint should be directed to Mastercard International and Wizard complaint departments to say that I am very dissapointed with their service.
Exactly at 12:38 in the morning, Spain time, I called Mastercard International again. This is a free phone call and I knew this will be redirected to Wizard. Of course this time I got through. So I did my transaction check and closed my account, I have credit so I asked them to send a check. They asked me what's the reasons for closing my account, I told them that you don't have 24 hours call service centre which I found totally unacceptable. Do you know what time is this in Spain, yep it's 1 o clock in the morning. I have a million of better things to do than waiting until 1 in the morning to call my bank.
And with that, it's done. Actually ... even if they don't send me my AUD130 credit I don't care. I just don't want to deal with these fuckwits. If it cost me AUD130 so be it.
Posted by vhadiant at August 1, 2006 01:11 PM
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» Wallet stolen in Valencia .. Wizard Home Loan is the worst company ever! from Someone misspelt pigeon
Right, long story cut short. I had my wallet stolen this morning. I lost my driver´s licence, HSBC debit card, Wizard Master Card and my HI Hostel card. But the worst 3 hours of my life was trying to cancel... [Read More]
Tracked on August 1, 2006 10:13 PM
Comments
rasane mending dicopet dek spanyol bro... timbang nang bis kota suroboyo... :) ati2 wish u luck
Posted by: Grego at August 19, 2006 05:30 AM
