One of the advantages of the banking Apps I have on my phone is that I can use them to freeze my card instantly in the case it gets nicked.
And on the subject of banking, I was told by one member of the customer service staff - as they tapped away on an ipad - that they had put in a refund request (or wording to that effect), and that the money which the thief had stolen when they tapped out my card, would be accessible to me again on Monday.
The cashier I spoke to just after this, thought that it might be Tuesday and she gave me a number to ring.
Which I duly did today.
Three times.
And each time, the line just disconnected after a few ringtones.
So, equipped with the appropriate ID, I went back into town and to a closer branch to me today to see what the story was. The lady behind the counter checked my account but no refund had gone through. And so once more, I'm put onto another phone in the bank, spoke to a bloke there who informed me that, lo and behold, it would take at least two weeks for their fraud section to investigate what happened, and only then would it be decided if I was due a refund. And that basically the staff in the original branch should not have told me that I would get the money back as swiftly as they suggested. All I can do now is wait and see.
I sincerely hope, that the worthless, thieving, evil scumbag who has put me in this horrible mess, gets the worse fucking cancer going and that they die screaming of it. And if that sounds terrible, well consider this: Multiply the misery, inconvenience and serious hardship that I have been put through these last few days, by the suffering of all the other innocent victims of this feral, piece of gutter-trash filth, and I figure a horrible, lingering and painful demise is a fair bloody exchange.
