Three Cheers for American Express Fraud Prevention!

After we got back from our paddle, I was checking email and noticed one from American Express. "Click here if it was you trying to charge $580 at Bloomingdales!" Yikes! No one has been to Bloomingdale's since they closed the one at Prestonwood about 15 years ago.

I was getting ready to phone American Express when I saw that there was another email asking me to verify recent charges. $356 at Macy's. No - not us. $290 at Kohl's - Again not us. Less than $10 for the Wall Street Journal - Okay, we charged that. Remarkably, the only one they let go through was the WSJ charge - the one that was legitimate. They had declined the charges at Bloomingdales, Macy's and Kohl's. Thank goodness!

I called the number on the back of the card and they confirmed the recent charges that were legitimate and went over the charges that were declined.

AE asked the appropriate questions - Did Mark loan his card to anyone? (Of course not!) Was it still in his possession. (Yes, it was.) The fraudulent charges were attempted at locations in Ohio. Did we know who might have done this. (I have no idea. We have friends and family in Ohio, but I can't believe any of our friends or family would attempt to fraudulently use our credit card.)

My theory is that someone noted or photographed the card information when we were in Ohio last summer thinking that they could sneak something through around Christmas time. But they apparently didn't realize that it was a business card (although it says "BUSINESS" right on it) and they may not have realized that the cardholder wasn't local. Just my theory. (And you have to have a theory so that you can do your best to make sure it doesn't happen again.)

Our best guess as to why the fraud prevention works so well is that they have a profile built for the card - it's a business card and is typically only used for gas, office supplies, and the odd restaurant. Department store charges probably sent red flags straight up the flagpole.

The charges were attempted only days before Christmas. I suppose the wannabe thief thought they could sneak it through because so many people were shopping that day and it might have gone unnoticed. I don't care whether they stole the credit card details or bought it on the dark web - I'm very happy that their attempt at thieving was thwarted.

A Day on the Water

It's always fun to go for a paddle. Mark even lets me paddle a bit these days because it doesn't do his arthritis much good when he tries to do it all himself. (Clearly, my days as a kayak/canoe princess are over.)

We got the two-seater kayak and headed out on the Indian River. We'd been paddling for an hour and a half to two hours when Mark announced that his posterior was hurting - (not his exact words). We needed to find a beach.

I spotted what might be a beach across the water. We would paddle another 20 minutes to reach it. It was very small - enough space to park the kayak and get out for a while. A wee bit of sand mixed in with crushed shells and rocks - but good enough to get out and walk around as long as you had on shoes. (We considered sitting on our life jackets but decided that it might be too hard to get back up. - Those shells were razor sharp!)

There wasn't much to explore - mostly just mangroves and a tiny beach area. Mark started picking up every rock in the water to see what was under it. (Mostly barnacles and very tiny crabs.) But he left no stone unturned. He even managed to cut himself and get blood on his shorts - good thing we weren't in shark-infested water.) Even though I didn't know him when he was five, I'm certain this is exactly how he behaved at that age.

See the tiny crab??

Once we got back in the boat, we paddled over to Little Jim's Bait and Tackle to get some conch fritters for lunch. A hole in the wall if ever I saw one, but the food was very good and they even had live music.

After lunch we went back out on the water for a couple more hours. We were looking for manatees because there were signs declaring certain areas "wake free zones" because of manatees. We didn't see any and were later told that it was a bit late in the season for them. (I know that whales are seasonal but I didn't know manatees were.) But we did see dolphins - one came up very close to our kayak but it was so fast and I was so busy looking that I didn't get a photo. Also, lots of pelicans, diving birds, and multitudes of jumping fish.

And it was so serene and quiet - for the most part. Every now and again something motorized would come by and make noise and waves - but most of the day was extremely peaceful.

Here are a few more photos.

Ugly Chairs

When we first got an RV, we took four chairs out of the shed and stashed them in the RV. You know the type - they fold up and fit in a little bag with a strap so you can carry them easily. They cost $10 or less. They're the ones everyone takes when instructed to "bring a chair" - you'll find them lining the sidelines at kids' soccer games.

Those chairs survived the first year. Then, when we got to Colorado the following year I asked Mark to get the chairs out and guess what? He hadn't brought them. It seems he didn't like them. He didn't think they were particularly comfortable. While all of that is undoubtedly true - they were a bit more comfortable than sitting at a picnic table, which Mark seems content to do.

However, I need back support - and a way to elevate my feet. A picnic table does not fill those requirements. We went out to look for chairs (among other necessities) and found a couple of rocking chairs on sale at Tractor Supply. They never fit in the hold of the RV but had to be stowed on the bed of the truck. And for some reason, they seemed to stay in the truck even if we weren't on the road.

But then when we bought the new RV, the fifth wheel, the hitch had to be installed in the bed of the truck. Alas, the chairs had to come out. I assumed that he'd put them in the hold.

I assumed wrongly. We arrived in Florida with no chairs. (Seems he wasn't keen on those rockers, either.) Such chairs are a seasonal item in many places, even in Texas, I believe. But I didn't expect them to be seasonal in Florida. But they did not exist in Wal-Mart or in Dick's Sporting Goods. (Dick's had beach chairs, but no "camp" chairs. Beach chairs are okay on the beach, but not anywhere else.) A visit to Camping World was called for but the nearest one was well over 60 miles away. We ended up at a Bass Pro Shop instead.

I was in luck! They had the gravity chairs on sale. That just seemed perfect for me. They were blue but I didn't care so much about color as comfort. Our previous chairs had been red and those fold up things had been blue. But then Mark thought the gravity chair was too big for the hold. We would need to find something smaller. He started sitting in all the chairs - it seems that the man who was happy to sit at a picnic table had suddenly become interested in comfort.

And then he found the chair - well constructed, comfortable, plenty of support and ugly.

Not everyone will find them ugly, but I do. The fabric is camouflage. I hate camouflage. Unless you're hunting or in the military you don't need camouflage. I have no aspirations to be a Duck Commander. None. And I am going on the record as not liking the chairs. They were even more expensive than the gravity chairs. I probably had to pay extra for the camo fabric.

But I have hit on a way to free up some room in the hold. It won't be this trip - but I will get my gravity chair yet. And it will be tasteful, not camo.

My Christmas Wish List

Five things. There are just five things I want for Christmas.

1. World Peace 

2. No political posts on my Facebook Feed

3. Weight loss and improved fitness with no effort

4. No consequences for eating chocolates

5. A comfortable bra

Oh wait! None of that exists in the real world. 😣 What was I thinking??

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Why I Won't Buy Another Chrysler

When I finally got around to calling Chrysler it was even worse than I expected. I was transferred to four different people and I still didn't have the right department. It seems there are multiple warranty departments and "customer care". I was going to have to deal with two separate departments - one to try to get reimbursed for the work that should have been warranty work and another to try to reinstate my power train warranty.

The people dealing with the reimbursement sent me a link (that initially didn't work and had to be resent) so I could upload a copy of the invoice I'd paid and explain to them why they should pay for it. (And if you read what I wrote yesterday, you already know why they should pay for it.) They told me I should hear back from them in a week or so. As I write this, it's already been a week or so and I haven't heard anything back from them. But I'm not going to let them spoil my Christmas Spirit anymore. They got the better of me for a day or so, but they're not getting any more. If I haven't heard from them by early January, I'll start tracking them down.

The other issue I had to deal with was getting the power train warranty reinstated. I was led to believe by both the dealership and the independent mechanic (who had worked for Chrysler for over 25 years) that this would be easy peasy. Since there was no issue with the power train and never had been, it should be easy to inspect it, certify it and reinstate the warranty. The "matter of fact" woman I spoke with told me it could not be done. Apparently there is a 90-day window in which the warranty can be reinstated and that was over in 2012. Nothing to be done.

I pointed out that if someone had told me that I would need an inspection after five years in order to keep the warranty active I would have remembered. My memory is darn good. I would have remembered, but no one said anything. Not ever. Not when I bought the car and not when I took it in for service. I got a bunch of phone calls wanting me to trade in my car, but no reminders about a much needed inspection. And here's the zinger. She told me I SHOULD have known because it was in the owner's manual. I've got to admit that I have yet to read an automobile owner's manual. I've looked up specific issues as a means of trouble shooting a problem, but I've never read one for general information and even then I'm more likely to Google the problem or search the online version of the owner's manual rather than searching through a book. I didn't think I was alone in that so I did an impromptu and unscientific survey of my 300+ Facebook friends. Four people read the owner's manual for general information unrelated to a specific problem. That's just over 1 percent. I think it's safe to say that it was Chrysler's intention to nullify my warranty because the odds that I'd actually get the inspection without any notification from them were about 1% - meaning that there was a 99% chance they could weasel out of the power train warranty.

But the other thing I found out is that everything besides the power train is warranted by Chrysler until the year 2092. I guess that is a lifetime. I'll be 142 in 2092. Not likely I'll be driving at that age.

But the mechanic who fixed the wheel bearing told me I was probably going to need something done with the struts. I guess Chrysler will get to fix that. (So there! But not Hoyte.) I'm also guessing that as long as I continue to maintain the car, it will probably be fine. I was tempted to run out and buy another car (not a Chrysler) because I didn't have the warranties that I should have. In reality, yes - they screwed me out of the power train warranty but the other warranty is still in place. And it will almost certainly be cheaper to repair it than buy a new vehicle, even if it is the power train. The car only has 133K miles on it. It has one scratch. It's been well looked after and should do me for a good while longer.

But you can count on one thing - when the day comes that I replace that car - I will NOT be buying a Chrysler nor will I be buying it from Hoyte.

A Lifetime Warranty

Back in 2007 when I bought my 2008 PT Cruiser I was offered a lifetime warranty for a nominal fee. I took it. Of course they are counting on the fact that most people will trade the car in within the first three years, and certainly after five years. 

But they didn't count on me. I'll keep a car until the wheels fall off. Even though that was my third PT Cruiser, the first two were leases and had to be turned in or purchased after three years - but when I traded in the red one, buying the black one outright was a better option than leasing. I was very pleased with myself for purchasing the lifetime warranty because within the past couple years I've paid $100 for repairs that sounded very expensive. And I've kept the car because I knew that no matter what went wrong with it, Chrysler would repair it.

So, when the car started making jet engine noises, I wasn't worried. I phoned in to Hoyte in Sherman, made an appointment and took the car in.

While I waited at the service desk, the service writer went and put the little dongle into the car.

When he returned to the desk he looked intently at his computer screen.

"Hmmm. This isn't good." he said.

"What? What is it?"

"It looks like it's a problem with your power train and that's not covered."

"Of course it is. I bought the lifetime warranty."

"But you would have had to have it inspected in 2012 to keep the powertrain warranty in effect."

I offered up a number of arguments. "I should have been notified." "Look at the records, haven't I brought it in for service every time someone sent me a notice saying it was time to service something or another?" "You didn't have any problem notifying me when it was something I had to pay for." "It's been in and out of here for the past 10 years, why didn't someone say something?"

The answers weren't helpful. "Chrysler would have sent you a notice back in 2012. It would have been in a pink envelope." (Oh yeah, I remember getting a pink envelope. NOT! I wouldn't remember the color of an envelope from last week, much less five years ago.) "Is it possible that you took it to a different dealership for the inspection?" (No, this is the only dealership I've ever taken it to.)

Remember this was my third vehicle from this dealership. If I assume I had the first two for three years each and this one for ten years, that's 16 years! And this is how they behave?!

No matter, it had to be fixed. I offered to hang around for an hour while they checked it out and gave me an estimate. I was told there was no way they could get to it in an hour.

"Okay, that's fine. You can get me a rental." (A rental car was part of the extended warranty.)

"The rental car option of your warranty expired in 2012." Now, I'm really starting to get upset. "I had two repairs done last year and I was given a rental."

"We have loaners we give out as a courtesy, you probably got one of those but we don't have any today."

"It was not. I was taken over to Enterprise and got the car from them. Twice last year."

He stayed with the mantra that I hadn't been entitled to a rental since 2012.

It was at this point that Mark stepped in and suggested we just leave and go to an independent mechanic. And not wanting to be confrontational, that's what we did. 

$1,300 later we learned that the repair was to a wheel bearing and had nothing to do with the power train. So even though I believe that Chrysler in general and Hoyte in particular conspired to nullify my warranty, this repair should have been covered and should have cost me $100 not $1300.

I  decided to appeal to the dealership to reimburse me for the repair because if their service writer hadn't been such a good actor ("Hmmm, this isn't good.) and refused to give me the rental, I would have left the car with them and they would have fixed it - unless they were planning to tell me the repair was indeed powertrain related and how would I ever know the difference?

So after the car was repaired and I'd paid the bill, I phoned Hoyte's service manager. We talked about the powertrain warranty and the fact that this repair should have been covered but he claimed that it was all out of his hands now and that I'd have to call Chrysler. I was so looking forward to that - I imagined it would probably be about as much fun as calling Aetna.

Old vs. New

We loved our little camper. That's the floor plan above. It was compact and cozy but it worked pretty well for us. For the most part. I was never particularly happy with the shower. We’d upgraded the shower head and the shower curtain and we’d put Velcro on the edge near the cabinet to make sure the cabinet didn’t get wet, but the space was still too small. It was too hard to turn around in the shower. I couldn’t find a bath mat small enough to fit in the room and had to use a hand towel. Every time someone took a shower, I had to mop water up off the bathroom floor. It was just impossible to take a shower without completely soaking the bathroom floor. Our new camper solves this problem. The shower has doors. There is room to turn around and no water gets on the floor. Plus, I bought a bathroom rug and it fits. We even have room to store Harry’s litter box so it’s accessible to Harry but not in the way.

Here's the floor plan for the new one. It's hard to compare because I don't think they are drawn to the same scale. Anyway, campers are known for tucking storage into all sorts of places and our little one was no exception. But some of the things we had were too heavy and had to be replaced with lighter weight options – like the Crockpot and pots and pans. The new camper holds everything we had in the old one and more. I even have some empty drawers! And that’s okay. At home I feel compelled to fill every drawer and every cabinet, but in the camper – not so much.

The new one gives me a larger food prep area plus a table and four chairs. A bigger TV than what we have at home (not that we watch much in the camper or at home.) We’ve even got a fireplace in this camper so on Christmas Eve, we can hang up our stockings. (I did bring them.)

We are very happy with the new one – mostly because it’s double the space. Even though it’s only 10 feet longer, it has three slide outs instead of one. The one drawback is that you when all of the slideouts are in, you can’t get into the RV. (In other words, we can’t stop by the side of the road and make a sandwich anymore.) The other thing the little one had that the larger one doesn't is an outdoor grill that popped out of the outside wall. Cool feature but we can buy one and set it on a table outside. It will do the same job. 

The other big difference in the two campers was where we bought them. The first one was purchased from RV Max in Sherman (now owned and operated by Camping World). The first one was a Coachmen Freedom Express. It needed a few things fixed before we took possession of it - there were some missing light covers, a piece of trim that needed to be reglued, all small stuff. But they didn’t do it and we had to take it back and argue with their service department about how they never got the list of things that needed to be done. (Really? I have the email right here on my phone.) Then there were the added charges. I’m not sure what all of them were, but somehow or another when all the final paperwork was signed, we owed about $10K more than we thought we would - even considering the down payment that had to be a cashier’s or bank check.

We purchased the new one, a Reflection by Grand Design from ExploreUSA in Seguin. What a difference! When we went to pick it up it was perfect! They spent nearly half a day with us showing us how things worked, testing the braking system and the hitch installation. (Something they should have done on the first one because we were first time RV owners and there were things that we didn’t know that we had to pay a service call while camping to learn.) And best of all, the price was the price. No dealer prep fees, no charge for the RV starter kit. Just the price we’d agreed on for the RV. Oh, yeah – and they were happy to take a personal check for the down payment – none of this cashier check nonsense.

One more reason why I’m pleased with the Grand Design is that their owner’s manual is well-organized and easy to read and troubleshoot. Other than the trip to drive it home, this is our first trip in it. It is easy to set up (it’s self-leveling) and the hookups for the water and electrical are all easily accessible and a breeze to hook up. I really think we’re going to like this. 

And One More Thing

When I was recounting the day I lost the will to live I forgot one thing. I'm not sure how I left this out because it was extremely frustrating. In the midst of all that other stuff going on, I got a call from a debt collection agency. It was about the radiology bill for the MRI I had back in 2016. 

The young lady asked me how I'd like to take care of the payment. 

"I'd like for Aetna to pay it. Actually, they told me not to worry about it that they were taking care of it. So I need to phone them. Again."

She asked if I would like for her to call them. But I said I would call because I really had a number of things I wanted to say to them. But for reasons that aren't all that surprising, I just couldn't bring myself to call Aetna on that day. 

But I did call them yesterday. And as usual, was getting no closer to resolution. I repeated the story of how back in August of 2016 my doctor had ordered an MRI. Of course, he sent the order to an imaging center that was out of network. When they called and told me how much it was going to cost, I declined making the appointment and immediately called Aetna to find an "in network" provider. After nearly a month of calling Aetna once of twice a week, I got a call from an imaging center in Frisco that said I had approval to come in and get the MRI. My best guess is that imaging centers do not make random calls to people who "might" need or want an MRI. My assumption was that they had been in contact with Aetna and felt pretty confident they would be paid because I left without paying anything. (I was expecting a co-pay and was surprised that there wasn't one.)

This story got repeated several times and each time the customer service rep went back to the same old song and dance.

"The claim was denied because there was no pre-certification."

"But you approved it. They didn't call me out of the blue."

And the rep countered with "But there is no pre-certification on file. Would you like to hold while I check with the pre-certification department to see if they have one?"

Seriously? It's been over a year, who thinks they're going to miraculously find one now. (But I don't always say what I think.) "I don't care whether you have one or not. What you do and don't have is not my problem, even though you are trying to making it my problem."

"Would you like for me to check with them and call you back."

"No. I already know the answer to that one."

"Would you like me to continue to try to help you?"

"I don't think you can hep me. My next call will be to a lawyer."

"Why don't I connect you to a resolution specialist?"

"Okay."

A resolution specialist? You would think that every customer service rep would be a resolution specialist. 

I got to tell my sad tale one more time. Of course, the story on their side changed again. This time it was because the provider waited too long to file the claim. Plus they didn't get the pre-certification. (In the past it had always been because the doctor didn't send the referral. - Now it's because the imaging center didn't get the required pre-certification.)

The bottom line is that I don't owe the money. And apparently the provider should know this. The Aetna resolution specialist will talk to the provider and the collection agency to get the problem resolved and I shouldn't have to deal with it again. We'll see.  

Losing the Will to Live

When we took our cats in the camper with us last year, Harry looked like he'd lost the will to live after two days. I am now convinced this was caused by Heidi because we left her at Camp O'Shea and only brought Harry with us this time. We've been here for two weeks and he didn't lose the will to live until yesterday.

Harry and I both lost the will to live at about the same time. I think he lost it because I did. And he knew it. Cats are sensitive to things like that.

How did I lose it? Mark left early to meet with and then go do an inspection with the new inspector we hired in San Antonio. I got up and was in the process of getting everyone paid - something I do on the first of each month. About 10:30 I got a call from Eva telling me that Mark's 9:00 client had called to say that no one had turned up for his 9:00 inspection. He'd left "home" about 6:30 because of the fog and the traffic. I told her I'd phone him and see what happened.

No answer. Voicemail. I didn't want to leave a message. I hung up and redialed - probably four times, all with the same result. I know that if he's in heavy traffic or with a client, he often doesn't answer the phone. He probably wouldn't answer if he was unconscious in a hospital somewhere, either. But rather than panic, I decided to call the new inspector.

"Did you and Mark meet this morning?"

"Yes and now we're on the inspection."

"That's odd. The client just called to say that no one turned up to do his inspection."

"We were here before 9."

"Okay, you are at 12345 ABC."

"No that's not where we are. We are on XYZ street."

"That was supposed to be this afternoon. Tell Mark to call me."

At least he was alive and well. But he didn't call me. After 10 or 15 minutes, I decided to text him.

What should I tell the client that you didn't show up for?

I waited for his response. 

Seriously, I need to tell him something.

Still no response. 

At least he was alive and well. But maybe not for long. Ignoring me can be hazardous to your health!

Finally at 11:30 he called. Apparently his phone battery had died. He wondered what I told the 9 AM client.

"I haven't told him anything! What do you want me to tell him?"

I told him the truth. There were two inspections booked in his neighborhood and he went to the wrong one first. I offered him a discount and the option to reschedule for the following day or ASAP. He chose ASAP. (Now, you would have thought that the guy who was scheduled for the afternoon would have said something like "Oh, I wasn't expecting you until later." But that didn't happen.)

But that all worked out and they were able to get both inspections done before the second one was actually scheduled to start. 

In the meantime, I finished drinking my very last bottle of Ozarka. (I had a fridge full of fizzy water - because that's what Mark likes but I don't like it.) I couldn't run over to WalMart because I had no vehicle. But I could go to the park office because they have a small store and I knew they had bottles of water. But I couldn't get out of the camper. I seemed to be locked in. I moved the lock into every position but it didn't matter. The door would not open. It would open about a half inch but not enough for me to get out. I couldn't even see what was wrong with it. I only knew that I was stuck in a tin box and couldn't get out. There was no need to call Mark. He was on the north side of town and I was on the south - too far for him to easily rescue me. And besides, his phone may not have charged yet.

I gave up trying to get out. I filled my last Ozarka bottle with tap water. It tasted nasty. I only drank what I absolutely had to. 

It was time for lunch. I had left over spaghetti sauce. I only needed to cook a bit of spaghetti. But wait, I couldn't get the gas burners to light. There is a trick to it and I don't know it. I would just have to have salad in my tin can prison with no water. (Do you sense that the will to live is leaving me? It was leaving Harry, too, because he likes to sit and look out the door and I couldn't get it open. Harry tried to open the door but he wasn't successful, either.)

Then after lunch I got another message that one of our inspector's arrived at his inspection and was told that the client was expecting a structural engineer. What!?! Nothing on our flyer indicates that we are structural engineers. Home Inspectors. We are home inspectors. Our mailer identifies us as home inspectors. Not. Structural. Engineers. And why would that client think that a structural engineer would charge home inspector prices. Clue for you - that engineer is going to charge twice the amount of the inspector. I don't know what the client was thinking when he scheduled the inspection but he managed to waste our time. 

By this time it was starting to get hot. I could open the windows but I couldn't feel the effects of the cross breeze without the door open. The door still wouldn't open. I tortured myself at least once each hour trying to open the door.  And every time I tried the door, Harry did, too.)

When Mark called to tell me that they had finished up the second inspection - the one that was supposed to be first - I told him to be careful when he came back because the door was stuck. He wanted to help me. Gave me instructions over the phone to do the things I'd already done. He could hear the door "not opening". He offered to come right away, but it wasn't that important. I'd had no water and no breeze all day. What was another hour or two? But I was about to turn on the air conditioner. He should finish up and not worry. 

Of course when he got back he opened the door with absolutely no problem. Then we went to WalMart to buy water for me and oil for the door. And then we went to Boudro's - which has the best food on the San Antonio Riverwalk. And the will to live miraculously returned. (For Harry, too!)

Is it Theft if Someone Gave It to You?

I came home from Fort Lauderdale to find my mailbox stuffed with envelopes from Charles Schwab Bank. Panic was starting to set in even before I got the envelopes in the house. I started opening the envelopes and discovered debit cards, account verification letters, and notices of returned items.

The first thing I did was call Schwab Bank to let them know I had not opened any of these accounts, nor did I currently have any accounts with them. They said they'd pass the information on to their Fraud Department. I think they should have passed me through to the fraud department but I don't write their policy. The next thing I did was phone the police. The number three thing on my list was to call Experian and place a hold on my credit file. Next step was to call the folks at IDShield.

The following day I got a checkbook from Schwab Bank and a few more account verification letters and another notice of returned items. Once again, I thought I'd let the good folks at Schwab know. They still didn't seem particularly concerned.

Mark helped me open and organize everything. When all the mail had been opened, I had 30 debit cards all issued by Charles Schwab Bank. In addition to these debit cards I had four welcome packets, account verification letters for 32 accounts, one checkbook, and six notifications of returned items.

The account verification letters showed the email address used to open the accounts. (Not surprisingly, it wasn't mine.) While Schwab wouldn't tell me much of anything, they did confirm with IDShield that my name, address and social security number had been used to open the accounts.

I'm still not understanding why someone would open a bunch of accounts and order debit cards for them when there was no money in those accounts. Although someone must have put some money in one of those accounts because I received a box of checks and the verification letters indicated that checks would only be issued after the account had been funded. Yet all of the attempts to transfer money to PayPal failed. (At least as far as I know and if some were successful, it might have been done in my name, but it was done without any of my money.) Perhaps I'm just not devious enough to figure this out.

My best guess is that this is a direct result of the Equifax breach. We found out about it while we were in Italy so there wasn't a great deal I could do about it at the time. And then when I learned that the IRS had contracted with Equifax to keep their data safe, I assumed that we were all doomed and I bought IDShield while we were still in Florida, before I knew what was waiting for me in my mailbox at home. (Even though they are treating this like a pre-existing condition, they have been very helpful in guiding me through the reports that I need to get and the precautions I need to take to ensure that nothing comes of it.)

But the other thing I don't understand is why bells and whistles were not going off over at Schwab Bank. Perhaps I'm naive but I can't imagine that most people open 30 accounts. I can imagine scenarios where someone might need four or five, but I just can't imagine that someone opening 30 accounts doesn't set off an alarm somewhere. And just this morning I got the answer to that. It did set off a stink alarm. I was contacted by the Fraud Department at Schwab and we reviewed the scenario - apparently the 30 accounts got their attention but not before the cards and checks had been mailed. They confirmed with me that the identity thief has my name, address, phone number, and social security number - but NOT my mother's maiden name. (And this is why I will not play that silly game on Facebook where you list your parents and grandparents surnames!)

He was also able to tell me the name associated with the PayPal account that was supposed to be the recipient of the failed transfers. I think he was surprised when I recognized the name. I know I was surprised.

Bottom line. Whoever did this has stolen my time and my peace of my mind, but so far no money. Watching closely.

Size Matters

We were in Fort Lauderdale for a conference - the National Association of FHA Consultants. We hadn't rented a car so on the evenings that dinner wasn't provided, we needed to go somewhere within walking distance.

It was Florida. Near the coast. Fresh seafood is my first choice. We went to a place that billed itself as a seafood restaurant (it was really a sports bar). The fish selections included tilapia, salmon, and fried shrimp. I'm sorry, those don't actually count as seafood as far as I'm concerned. I opted for a salad with a bit of crab. (And it wasn't even real crab, but I'm okay with surimi.)

The next night we went to an Argentinian Steak House. It was lovely. Even though we had a refrigerator in the room, we didn't want to take back any food. So we both opted for what we thought would be the smallest option - filet. We made our salad and side dish selections and ordered a glass of wine.

The side salads arrived. Each would have fed a family of four. We nibbled at them because who wants to fill up on salad when filet mignon is on the way?

We should have been suspicious when no sizes were listed on the menu. In my experience filets are usually 6 oz. or 8 oz. Small when compared to ribeyes, T-bones, or strip steaks. Imagine my surprise when my plate arrived at the table with three filets on it. I was confused. If they had put Mark's filet on the same plate as mine, who was that third one for? I was still pondering that when another plate showed up for Mark with another three filets on it. Oh my!

Then the side dishes turned up. Enough mashed potato for a small army and sweet potato fries. Way more food than we could eat. The food was fabulous! I wish I could have eaten more of it but it was just so much. It turns out that all of their servings are a pound of meat. I wish we'd known that before we ordered. We could have shared everything and still had food left over.

I will be asking about serving sizes in the future. Live and learn.

Can We Add to Your Stress Today?

We like to go to the airport early to cut down on stress. We'd rather have our boarding passes and be through security way ahead of time. It doesn't matter if it's international or domestic - that's what we do.

What we don't do is pay extra to choose our seats. A seat is included in the price. When you're flying coach, none of them are particularly comfortable and we're never in such a big hurry that we absolutely must be the first people off the plane. I don't care which seats we have although we do like to sit together.

On our flight to Fort Lauderdale, we were a bit surprised that our boarding passes did not include seat assignments. Maybe it was because we were two hours early for a flight where we weren't even checking luggage. But we didn't notice the lack of a seat assignment until we arrived at the gate. Once we realized we had no seat assignments, Mark went to the desk to get it fixed. We were on American, by the way.

Mark returned to where I was sitting. "She says she's working on it." Who knew it was such a time consuming task?

"I don't like it when I don't have a seat assignment. The last time that happened half the plane was boarded before they gave me a seat. I don't like it at all", I said

About that time a woman seated near me weighed in on the topic. "It just adds to your stress level."

I agreed. "It does." She asked how long ago we'd booked the flight. "Weeks, maybe as much as a month."

"Hmmmm" she said.  "Who did you book it through?"

"American."

"Hmmmm" she said again. We shared a few air travel horror stories and she told us she was part of the crew on our flight and offered to check with the desk for us.

When she came back, she told me that she'd advised the desk to "take good care of Mr. & Mrs. Elliott."

We chit-chatted some more until it was time for her to board. We were still waiting for seat assignments. Boarding was starting so I went to the desk to check on it and was told that she was working on it and to just listen for our name.

Our name was eventually called. Our seats were opposite each other but it was fine because we each had an aisle seat. Our new friend was surprised that we didn't have adjacent seats, but we reassured her that across the aisle was absolutely fine. And with that, she put us on the list for free food and drinks because they'd "inconvenienced" us.

I wish I got free food and beverages every time someone inconvenienced me. I'd probably be more overweight than I am already. Not that the food was that great, but by that time I was getting hungry. And it was free.

A Thousand Dollars???

While we were away there were several times when I was convinced that Mark wasn't hearing properly. Anytime I'd ever mentioned that he needed to get his hearing checked he went on the defensive. I wasn't accusing him of not listening. I was concerned that he wasn't hearing. Big difference.

There had been a couple of things that he didn't hear waiters say. I heard those things and assumed he had. It was only when his order wasn't "as expected" that I realized that he hadn't actually heard what the waiter said, even though he'd indicated approval.

But what finally made him realize he wasn't hearing things properly was the incident with the last Italian cab driver. Remember I mentioned yesterday that the cab ride from the hotel to the airport was 40 Euro? Mark paid this to the hotel and was given a voucher to give to the cab driver.

After the driver unloaded our bags he was waiting to be paid. He said it was 40 Euro. Mark didn't hear what he said so I said, "You need to pay him." And he said, "I paid the hotel." Then the cab driver said "I need the voucher."

Mark's eyes got wide as he exclaimed "What??? A thousand dollars?"

"No. The voucher. He needs the voucher."

Once Mark got over the shock of being asked for a "thousand dollars" he produced the voucher from his wallet and the cab driver was happy, I was relieved and Mark realized that he couldn't actually hear as well as he thought he could.

That is now being fixed.

Restaurants Near Me and $5 Toast

So to pick up where I left off yesterday. The full service restaurant was closed. The snack bar wasn't up to much. Mark was checking his phone for "restaurants near me". Nothing was coming up. We decided to go for a walk and see what might be available.

After nearly a half hour of walking, we did find another snack bar. Bigger than the one near the hotel and we were able to share a sandwich for a very late lunch. But it wasn't someplace you'd want to have dinner. And you had to go through an area that didn't look like a place you'd want to be after dark. There were some beautiful homes along the way, but they appeared to be well fortified - gates, bars and such. There must be an element around there that people want to keep out.

We asked the desk clerk for recommendations. He recommended pizza delivery. Hmmm. No. Try again. He recommended a wonderful restaurant that was a 20 Euro cab drive away. But the food was wonderful - although the servings were far too large. (Had we known, we'd have shared.)

Anyway, food problem solved. Let's move on to the transportation problem.

We had the 20 Euro cab ride from the restaurant back to the hotel. So the lack of the full service restaurant at the hotel turned out to be a bit expensive. And here is where the math gets strange. A cab ride from the train terminal to the airport was 45 Euro. The cab ride from the terminal to our hotel was 40 Euro. It seemed as though the cab ride from the hotel to the airport should cost about 5 to 7 Euro at the most. But it was 40. So if we'd gone straight from the terminal to the airport, it would have cost 45 Euro. But stopping overnight at a hotel along the way caused that price to go up to 80 Euro. (Don't forget the extra 40 for cabs just to have a proper meal.) And of course every cab driver gets a tip. So I suspect that it might have been cheaper in the long run just to pay the higher rates at one of the airport hotels. (Actually, I don't suspect. I know it for a fact.)

Then there were the technical problems. I would have taken a shower as soon as I checked in to that hotel but we needed to try to find some lunch. And when we returned from lunch, I needed to complete payroll because I wouldn't be able to do that from a plane. By the time I took care of all the business it was time for dinner. When we got back, I went in and started the water running for a shower. Plumbing is not one of my strengths. I often ask Mark to just leave the water running for me so I don't have to figure out how to turn it on or adjust the temperature. Showers in England nearly always mystify me but the Italian ones were pretty straightforward. But after several minutes of running the water, it just wasn't getting hot. I called my engineer but he's often not at his best when it's late. (In fact, unless water is pouring onto the floor, he doesn't work much past 5 pm.) He wasn't getting anywhere with it and I just don't do cold showers. I used my micellar spray to wash my face and just went to bed. Of course, the following morning Mark figured out the combination of switches needed to turn on the hot water. But it didn't get hot in time to take a shower before we left.

And then to add insult to injury we were charged 14 Euro for the "included" breakfast. I just really hate paying $5 or more for a slice of toast.

One Day We'll Laugh About This - But Not Today

For our last night in Italy, Mark booked us into a hotel near the Rome airport. It had a full service restaurant and full amenities so we could go to bed early and be well rested for a day of airports and airplanes. We'd taken the train from Spoleto to Rome. I noticed that a taxi from the train terminal to the airport was something like 45 Euro.

We took a cab to our hotel. It was 40 Euro. The driver dropped us off in the parking lot and we went to what we thought was the door. I'm not really good at reading Italian, but I was pretty sure the sign said "closed for remodeling". The whole place can't be closed for remodeling. Nobody does that.

Next door was a snack bar. You could get pizza, beer, coffee and ice cream. It was a bit scruffy looking and all the clientele were sitting outside smoking. You couldn't consider it a full service restaurant and it did not go through to a hotel. Mark went to investigate the other end of the building while I stayed with the bags. He came back to say that it was apartments on the other end. No hotel that he could see.

He stayed with the bags and I went around to the other side of the building. No doors, just a parking garage with no cars in it. It looked totally abandoned. Clearly we needed to call Hotels.com. They would sort this out, get us into a hotel that was open and maybe even help us find a taxi. Mark phoned them. I'm not sure what was going on, but I could tell it wasn't going well. He was left to die on hold more than once so we decided that perhaps I should try calling. By the way, did I mention that it was getting hot outside?

I called and tried to explain that it appeared that we had been booked into a hotel that was closed for remodeling and we needed to get that sorted out. The young lady told me they were having issues with their computers and asked if I could call back in a couple hours.

"No. I can't. You don't seem to understand my problem. We are standing on a sidewalk in Italy in front of a closed hotel that we have already paid for. It is hot. I don't even have a place to sit down. Someone needs to help me now."

She was indicating that I would need to book a different hotel and pay for that one. "No, I've already paid for one. I shouldn't have to pay again." But while she went to track down a supervisor to help, the call dropped, or maybe she decided it was too difficult to deal with it and she hung up. Who knows?

Not wanting to run out of phone battery, we opted to give up on Hotels.com since we'd called four times. We decided to call American Express Travel Services. American Express was a big help three years ago when my bag was on a trip of its own and Mark was hospitalized in Paris. Perhaps I should rephrase that. American Express didn't actually help with much but they gave the appearance and impression of being helpful. Which in some perverse way, is actually helpful because it makes you feel better even though nothing has actually changed. And since they had helped us with hotel bookings before, I assumed they would do so again. That young lady came back on the line to tell me that I did NOT have concierge service with them as far as she could tell. Since we'd been there for nearly an hour, I was starting to feel a bit stressed. I only knew that they'd been helpful before. We may have been trying to use points the time they helped us. Who knows? I pointed out that I had more than one account with American Express - Gold, Blue, Business. It doesn't matter. I am stranded and I need help. 

Anyway, while she was looking to see what help might be available on another account, the call dropped. I supposed we were on our own. We decided the best plan would be to find a taxi, go to the airport and stay in one of the hotels that are actually located AT the airport rather than just near it. We would just have to sort things out with Hotels.com when we got home.

There was a taxi parked in front of the snack bar. Turns out he was off duty, having a beer and not interested in taking anyone anywhere. About that time, a taxi pulled in and dropped off a couple and their luggage. As they were looking around trying to figure out where to go, I was preparing to let them know that the hotel had been closed for remodeling. Mark was preparing to snag their taxi. Just as Mark and the taxi driver had all of our stuff loaded into the back of the cab, I noticed that the couple had disappeared into the "apartments".

I ran down to have a look myself. I can see why Mark thought they were apartments. All of the upper floors had substantial balconies and there was a bank of mail boxes out front - the kind they have in apartment complexes. But there was also a relatively small sign with the name of the hotel.

We gave the cabbie a fiver for his trouble and removed our bags from the back of the cab. It seems that only the full-service restaurant was closed - the hotel was open and they were expecting us.

And in fairness to Mark, once we were in our room, it was fairly obvious that it had once been an apartment. It was quite large for a European hotel room and you could picture where the kitchen had been. It had far more closet and storage space than any hotel room needs.

So all of the stressing out had been for nothing. But wait! There's more to this story. But it's getting too long, so I'll finish it tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Out and About in Spoleto

This was our third visit to Spoleto. We visited familiar places and a few new ones.

Piazza Liberta - a great place to grab some lunch or a coffee - and remarkably empty in this photo.

The view from our bedroom window at Casa Feeney.

One of the old city gates.

They have an escalator that will take you up where you can overlook everything and then walk down to where you want to go. This is a view from the top.

People still use these fountains around town to fill up their water bottles.

Chiesa di San Ponziano was built in 1256. The mosaics and paintings have survived for centuries. Most of the old paintings are in the crypt.

The opera house in Spoleto.

The Duomo and Bell Tower in Spoleto. Also known as Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta.  The inside is exquisite.

A really great place to watch the sunset. 

Montefalco

Nothing like wine tasting in Italy! We had a driver and a list of vineyards to visit. They are a bit more generous with their pours than the folks in Napa and Sonoma. As a consequence, we only visited two - Tabarrini and Milziade Antano.

Tabarrini puts out a spread of food to go with the wine. They have a fabulous tasting room, complete with video presentations. Remarkably, they graft grape vines onto elm trees. Who would have known! But we were pleased to learn that we could order their wines from California - we just can't have them shipped to Texas.

Milziade Antano is much smaller. We specifically wanted to visit this one because we'd had a bottle of their Montefalco Rosso when we were in Spoleto five years earlier. We were so taken with it we photographed the label and had been looking for it ever since.

It's a very small operation - especially when compared with Tabarrini. Someone saw us pull in and came to meet us. He took us into the building with all the barrels where a small table was set up with their red wines. We had a taste, he answered our questions and we bought a couple of bottles for our hosts. As we left, he returned to his work in the vineyard. We learned that their wine is sold in New York and we could order a case, but it was going to be so expensive we might as well go back to Italy. (I miss the days when you could put a bottle of something in your carry on bag!) We also learned that they have replaced the brown label with a white one for the U.S. market, which means that even if we'd found it (which we did not), we probably wouldn't have recognized it because we were looking for the brown label.