Monday, November 1, 2010

Today's DJT (Dumb Joe Tale)

I was looking at the current statement for one of my credit card accounts, and saw a $25.00 transaction listed that I didn't have a receipt for and had no memory of. The statement listing said "PNL Advertising" followed by what turned out to be a phone number (there was a 0 in front of it so I didn't realize it was a phone number). I called the credit card company and the woman I spoke to said it was for "books, or a newspaper or magazine" based on the info in their system.

Still didn't ring a bell. If it was a book, if I didn't buy it in a store (such as Borders) I bought it from Amazon. The magazines I get in the mail (Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated) were obtained by redeeming Dividend Miles from US Airways. The last payment I made for my Daily News subscription was in June and the payment covers delivery through mid-December. I did not authorize any auto-renew option. For a moment I thought that might be it, thinking the "PN" in "PNL" might stand for Philadelphia Newspapers. But the "L" threw me off. Also, it referred to advertising and I didn't take out any ads. It made no sense. I asked if there were any more details about it, because if I knew where the store was where the transaction occurred (if there was a store) it might jog my memory. She found an address -- in York, Pennsylvania. I've never been to York in my life.

The credit card rep said I should call the number on the statement first, and gave me another number to call for disputed transactions if I didn't get it resolved. I called the number and got a voice mail that said, "If you're calling about a credit card transaction for PNL Advertising please call..." followed by a different number. I started to really get agitated, thinking that this obviously was a scam. But how? The card has never been stolen, and I haven't even used it lately except for a couple of transactions in September that were done online.

The voicemail continued: "If you're calling about a credit card transaction for Philly Dealyo..."

I hung up the phone, feeling incredibly stupid. Remember the half-price B-52's ticket I bought? Yeah. That. D'oh.
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6 comments:

  1. bradNovember 11, 2010 at 7:27 PM

    Ha, did the same thing. But it was for advertising in the Philly inquirer \ Philly.com.

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  2. AnonymousMarch 9, 2011 at 11:31 AM

    Same with me. Mine was for a 1/2 off deal. Would be nice if they mentioned what it would be listed as on the bill, though.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 16, 2011 at 1:31 PM

    Thanks Joe! Somewhere in the transaction process it seemed to indicate how the charge would show up, but who the heck remembers PNL Advertising? I just spent nearly an hour tracking this all down, and it was only this blog entry that explained what it is. Dealyo ought to get a better credit card processing name and put the phone number where it is supposed to be in the charge record, or they're going to get chargebacks --- and those are expensive and hurt their processing fee structure.

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  4. AnonymousMarch 23, 2011 at 5:48 PM

    WHEW! I just saw this on a brand new card and thought I had a new world record for a stolen card. I bought a restaurant voucher from Philly Dealyo. Thanks for posting this!

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  5. AnonymousMay 15, 2011 at 10:46 PM

    Thank you for helping me remember what my $20 transaction was for! lol

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  6. AnonymousMay 18, 2011 at 11:50 AM

    And a big thanks from me, too! I was sure I'd been scammed. :)

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