Define: Real E-mail

Higher One wrote me a real e-mail. Surprise! It still had an automated feel to it, but the first sentence sounded very not automated. When I read it in my head, it could have even been a little annoyed. But probably not. But if they are, it's totally okay with me. Because I am very annoyed with them.

After my last response, I got an e-mail that began with:

"Thank you for submitting the requested information regarding your dispute. We apologize that we were unable to further investigate your case upon receiving the police report that you faxed. MasterCard required that we submit a new cardholder letter addressing the re-presentment documents in order for us to have any charge back rights on your behalf."

The rest of it was one I'd already gotten, saying I would get provisional credit, they'd look into it, blah blah. I wrote back, to bother them into looking at the stuff see whether this was actually going to happen, or if it was just another automated e-mail. I told them I didn't care about the provisional credit, I cared about them investigating. I received this lovely e-mail back.

"Dear Jodi,

In response to your email sent 09/14/2009, yes your case is going to be investigated further. When we received re-presentment documents relating to this case back from the merchant, MasterCard requires the cardholder, in this case you, to review these documents and supply us with a letter or email addressing the documents in order for us to continue to pursue the case further with the merchant. On 09/14/09 you supplied us with an email addressing these documents, a copy of that email was forwarded to MasterCard in order to continue the chargeback process. You were provided with provisional credit for the disputed transactions.

To clarify where you stand with the disputed transactions as of right now. You were given provisional credit, and the re-presentment documents along with your email addressing the documents are now in the process of being presented to the merchant.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Thank you,
Higher One
Customer Service"


So what I'm getting from this is, if I hadn't bothered them about the police report, they wouldn't have told me that they needed another e-mail from me in order to keep going (and actually they didn't until after they already had it and I kept bothering them. Would have been nice to know I was writing something official instead of just whining). How very nice of them to not want to burden me with writing an e-mail saying "Um, this is wrong."
So thoughtful Higher One, so thoughtful.


And note the sentence fragment at the beginning of the second paragraph. Maybe they should keep my money and hire someone to read the e-mails they send out before they send them.

And now for something completely different.

I was out walking with Jack today, and after being passed by a few people in cars, I wondered how many of them thought Jack was my kid. The thought had crossed my mind last time we went for a walk, but I didn't think much about it.

Today after we'd been at the park for a few minutes, an elderly couple with their grandkids showed up. Jack kept wanting to play by them (I think he really wanted to play with them, but he didn't know how), and the woman started talking to me a little, asking how old he was, telling me how old her grandkids were, etc. After they'd left the swings, the thought popped into my head again that they might think this was my kid. And I thought about how people are always thinking I'm like, 16. And I just knew then that everyone I had passed thought I was an unwed teenage mother who had dropped out of high school. And this is where I found myself, pushing Jack on the swing while the couple was on the other end of the swings.


Jack: I got a haircut.

Me: Yeah? When?

Jack: Mama cut it when I was watching MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUSE!

Me: Oh, YOUR MOM cut your hair for you?

Jack: MICKEY MOOOUUUUUUSE!

Me: That was nice of YOUR MOM to cut your hair for you, wasn't it?

Jack: I want a snack.

Me: Well, we could go back and you could have a pretzel, then when YOUR PARENTS get home you could have lunch.


Etc, etc, etc, making sure to double the volume of any words relating to his parents.


I should probably stop worrying about what complete strangers think of me.

Define: So beyond angry

Response (William)

Dear Jodi,

Thank you for contacting Customer Service. We have been working to win your dispute case and have received documentation (known as re-presentment documents) from the merchant involved in the transaction. Unfortunately the information that they supplied substantiates their assertion that the charge was valid. Please review these documents to verify your personal information contained with the merchant's re-presentment.

We have sent you copies of the documents. To access them, please log on to your OneAccount and click on the EasyHelp icon at the bottom right of the page. From there, click on the Support History tab at the top of the page and then on reference number 090821-000375. Your copies will be in the File Attachments section at the bottom of the incident.

Based on the information supplied by the merchant as well as the other available facts, we must deny your dispute. We had initially supplied a provisional credit for the transaction pending the full investigation. At this time, we have debited your OneAccount for the amount that was originally credited and consider the claim a closed item.

We regret that this was the outcome of you case. Should you have any questions, please contact Customer Service by using the phone number on the back of your card.

Thank you.

Higher One
Customer Service

Note: Higher One will honor any pre-authorized transfers from your account as well as checks, drafts (or similar instruments) for five business days beyond DATE PROV. CR REVOKED without charging overdraft fees. During this five day period, we will honor those items we would have paid if the provisional credit had not been revoked (debited).



Customer (Jodi Eads)

I would like to continue disputing this charge, I will be faxing in a police report on Monday.

Jodi Eads



Response (William)

Dear Jodi Eads,

Thank you for contacting Customer Service. We have received the police report you have supplied to us. We have been working to win your dispute case and have received documentation (known as re-presentment documents) from the merchant involved in the transaction. Unfortunately the information that they supplied substantiates their assertion that the charge was valid.

We have sent you copies of the documents. To access them, please log on to your OneAccount and click on the EasyHelp icon at the bottom right of the page. From there, click on the Support History tab at the top of the page and then on reference number 090821-000375. Your copies will be in the File Attachments section at the bottom of the incident.

Based on the information supplied by the merchant as well as the other available facts, we must deny your dispute. We had initially supplied a provisional credit for the transaction pending the full investigation. At this time, we have debited your OneAccount for the amount that was originally credited and consider the claim a closed item.

We regret that this was the outcome of you case. Should you have any questions, please contact Customer Service by using the phone number on the back of your card.

Thank you.

Higher One
Customer Service

Note: Higher One will honor any pre-authorized transfers from your account as well as checks, drafts (or similar instruments) for five business days beyond DATE PROV. CR REVOKED without charging overdraft fees. During this five day period, we will honor those items we would have paid if the provisional credit had not been revoked (debited).



Customer (Jodi Eads)

I am extremely frustrated with the way that this case is being handled. The documents attached from the merchant do not in any way substantiate their assertion that the charge was valid. The documents have my name and card number, which they were obviously going to have. The phone numbers and e-mails are not mine, and I have never heard of the shipping company. I don't even know what they bought. Other than "We have received the police report you have supplied to us," I just received the word for word same e-mail as the first time, which is no longer relevant to my case. There are no new documents attached, so I can only assume there is no new information. There was no reason to deny my claim in the first place, so why it is still denied is beyond me and absolutely ridiculous. You have obviously NOT been working to win my dispute case, because I did not spend this money. Maybe $177.41 isn't a lot to you all, but it is to me. If I'm not going to be getting this money back, I want to know why, because so far there is no information that substantiates the merchant's claim.

You also have a typo in your "sorry" e-mail. "We regret that this was the outcome of youR case."

Group Building

I helped with group building on Monday for a group of teachers, administrators, bus drivers, food service people, etc. from a local school. It was interesting.

One hard thing was that these people were not campers. They were not camper sized. I was stationed at the spider web, where the group needs to go through holes in the web that are not so big. They're not supposed to touch the sides, but...most of them were just not going to fit without touching. I had to tell them that I would allow a reasonable amount of touching.

The attitudes of some people were really frustrating. There was one guy who was just a jerk. I don't know if he really didn't want to be there, or he thought he was being funny, or if he's just like that, but he was really hard to work with. He moved ropes on the spiderweb, asked me if I was making up the rules, was rude, and made inappropriate comments. A lot of people didn't take it seriously, and didn't care about whether or not they did things the right way.

Some of these people were older, and walking up and down hills in the woods was just not for them. It wasn't their fault, I don't blame them, but I thought it was weird that the people scheduling group building didn't think about that. Maybe they did. But it took a long time for some groups to entirely arrive at stations because there were a few people who were way behind.

Group building today was a lot better. These people had great attitudes about it. I don't know if they wanted to be there, but they acted like they did. They had fun, they laughed, they took things seriously. They didn't finish a few activities, but they were so much easier to work with than the groups on Monday, and I was glad to get to work with a group like that after the other one.


Something I've realized lately: groups do not listen to me during group building. I don't know if I have a voice that doesn't carry or what. I have the same problem during the summer. I could yell at a kid six times and they didn't hear me, but if I asked someone else to get their attention, they heard them. Maybe I have a really annoying voice that's easy to tune out. I don't know. But it's kind of frustrating.