Decatur's Best? Oh f****ng really?

[that_chick_in_I.T.]

As of this morning

_________________________________

I spent last night in the emergency room, in quite a bit of discomfort from an injured back. That's another story in itself.

At 2:15a.m. though, I am finally on my merry, drugged-up way home. I
get your friendly neighborhood cab driver / native of Bumf*ckistan who speaks 3 words of English and mispronounces all of them.

I get home and first try to pay with my flexible spending account card (medical transport). He goes through the card number over the radio 5 times, misreading it EVERY G**DAMN TIME. No, I am not kidding. Eventually, he seems to get it right - the guy calls back and double-checks, and then it shows as rejected. Okay, I figure - some kind of access issue
associated with FSA's. I give him my bank card. It is declined. Crap - I'm thinking this has to be a computer glitch at Bank of America.
They're prone to those - direct deposits sometimes won't get reported
for 24 hours. Given the luck I've had this week, this scenario seems par for the course.

So I'm sitting in the driveway in the back of a taxicab at 3a.m., thinking I am surely about to go to jail.

The guy insists that I give him both credit cards and my Georgia ID, and says that he'll take them to the company office - that they charge a $6
fee, and will deliver it back to me later today.

Even through the combination of narcotics, hunger, sleep-deprivation and crippling pain, this seems like a bad idea. However, given the
alternative prospect of finding myself waking up in DeKalb County Jail when the painkillers wore off, I figured I was in no position to bargain. I gave him the cards, and made a note to call the cab company.

Which I did - at 6:30 this morning. Right in time for the shifts to be changing, and for me to talk to the actual company secretary instead of
the dispatcher who had fucked things up last night. Secretary is a sweetheart - she finds out the cab number, calls the driver and tells
him to come back in to the station with the cards. She verifies the card number with me while she's at it.

I have officially had no sleep since yesterday. Instead of sleeping today, I have to call my bank, HR, and all the major credit reporting
bureaus to brace for identity theft.

All this shiat - over a typo. The guy had mistyped the card number. AGAIN.

So today, before I can get the prescriptions filled for the narcotics or steroids or whatever the hell they're putting me on, I have to wait for
my cards to be delivered to my apartment.

By the same guy who brought me here last night.

_________________________________

As of 1:00 This afternoon:

Okay, so the cab driver - F*CKING TOOK THE G**DAMN CREDIT CARDS HOME WITH HIM.
The response of the cab company? Oh, he'll be in around 12. A bit more persuasion - I need to f*cking call an orthopedic surgeon and I can't do that while this jackoff has my FSA card, persuades them to wake him up.

1pm, a shiatload of calls from me later, and he still hasn't shown up. Apparently, the owner of the company has himself called multiple times, but the guy isn't answering. I have long ago gone from sweetheart to raging SC. Crippling pain and identity theft do that to a body.

I call the police.

5 minutes later, I call back to give them a heads up that the Police are handling this, and to not give this douchebag instructions to go by my house if they get him. I have the guy's name and cell phone number.

The secretary's response - well, they had a car on the way, but they'll call him back.

[that_chick_in_I.T.]

Update:

No surprise here, the secretary farking lied again. No car on the way, but interestingly enough, 15 minutes later I got a call from this guy's cell informing me that he has just woken up and is on his way.

By this time, I am having a nervous breakdown. I really can't take any more crap from these people in one day. Thankfully, a relative had heard about this, and was on her way over.

An angry little exchange of words outside and a quick shot of the bastard on her camera phone, and she had my cards back. Granted, I still have to treat this as a case of ID theft, but there is an incident report with the police, and pretty much every aspect of my personal information is now being watched like a hawk.

As for the taxi company, this isn't over. This guy stole my information, and they not only stood by and did nothing, it looks like they actively facilitated it, and lied like rugs through the entire process.

The guy spotted a disabled woman coming home from the emergency room alone at 3a.m., on painkillers and still in a lot of pain, and thought "easy mark". The company apparently agreed.

I hope to prove both of them wrong on those counts. I don't know how or when just yet, but their asses are mine.

[JustADude]

Good luck with the righteous smiting, Chick. Let us know how it turns out, eh?

[csdrone]

Call your bank ASAP (credit cards and banks may have a 24 hour customer service line) or go in to your nearest branch at 9AM Monday. Speak to customer service AND the branch manager/banker (tellers will feel bad but are not the ones who can handle account changes like this). Have them connect you with the Fraud department (same with credit cards) and close all old accounts then open new ones AND change PIN numbers. Same thing with the FSA card and any and all plastic currently in your name. There will be some annoyances when notations to ALWAYS check ID pop up but it is worth the time. Banks are VERY happy to handle fraud issues quickly: they will take a big hit when the asshat sells or uses your information. Then call the local news channel's investigative folks and tell them your story AND contact the hospital administration. The cab company will not like the publicity or the loss of business....