Ho Ho Huh?!

So there I was, sitting on my bed this morning feeling pretty darn good about having just completed almost all of my Christmas shopping. In less than 20 minutes, I'd taken care of a gift for my dad and bought a gift card for him and my mom. The only thing remaining was a gift for my mom -- a prepaid credit card from HSBC. But because I needed to get in the shower, I let that wait.

Once I got to work, I pulled up HSBC's site to quickly take care of that last little thing. Filled out all the blanks, clicked "submit order." But instead of a page coming up thanking me for my order, I got a page telling me that I was an invalid user and that I needed to recheck my order form. I rechecked the form -- no errors -- and clicked again. Voila! Order completed. And with that, I was done done done with my Christmas shopping. Time for the happy dance!

But when I checked my checking account balance, there were two charges for the gift card. Huh? Two charges? For one gift card? No more happy dance.

So I called HSBC's customer service department. Of course, that was an adventure in and of itself. For one, when you call, you get two options: press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish. The first time you make the mistake of pressing one of these, you get a recorded prompt requesting your 16-number account number. But if you don't have a credit card with them -- which I don't -- and therefore have nothing to enter -- which I didn't -- the phone disconnects.

The second time I called, I didn't press 1 or 2 or anything else. Finally the recording came up and announced I'd be transferred to the customer service department. Unfortunately, talking to a human did about as much as pressing random numbers. She said that it was likely that though the first form didn't go through, the hold for the amount was put on my check card, resulting in two charges after I the correct form went through.

Perfect. Yeah. That's what I want. Two charges. Unbelievable.

She assured me (as much as she could) that only one gift card purchase was made; therefore, only one charge should make it through. I just have to wait until everything gets cleared.

Kinda like that nightmare with the jeans from Urban Outfitters. I will be anxious until this is settled.

Fuck.

Can't anything ever be easy?

Anyway, my Christmas shopping is essentially done. I've a couple minor packaging items to get, and I need some picture frames, but I'm done.

And I didn't charge a thing.