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.