I pondered about posting this for about a week now and just concluded that I feel the public should be made aware of a problem my dad encounted two months ago when he received his visa statement in the mail. My dad asked me that day if I used his card to get gas at Petro Canada. He knows I only buy my gas downtown, but there were two charges on his card that he thought were mine. When my dad gets gas, he fills his tank right up, usually netting about a $100 visa tab. I told him no, and asked why, then he shows me his visa statement. Sure enough, there are two charges on there; one for $31 and change and the other for $26 and change. He knows I usually put $25.00 in my own tank whenever I gas up and assumed these were mine, but then knew I didn’t get my gas at Petro Canada. Not only that, but I wouldn’t get $31.67 worth of gas… I’d get $31.00 or $32.00, you know what I mean? I asked to look at his statement.
While looking over his statement, I asked him if he maybe picked up some winder washer fluid, wiper blades, oil, etc., trying to think of what else they may sell that my dad would’ve charged. But he said that he doesn’t purchase those types of supplies there anyway. So, I’m looking over the statement and I do see the two charges from Petro Canada. What struck me odd is that there were two charges on his card on the same day… one was from Chevron for $110.00 and the other from Petro Canada for $31 and change. (Who would buy gas twice on the same day, I thought). My dad has a habit of not keeping those visa receipts, but certainly still has quite a bit of his memory left, and when I saw the two purchases on the same day, I was fuming. My dad being scammed? I was not happy.
I asked for his visa card. I flipped it over and rang the number on the back. I spoke with a visa rep and explained that there were two charges on my dad’s visa card, which he did not make -nor- authorize, and I demanded that visa forward us receipts of those two purchases. The clerk wanted to talk to my dad briefly to ensure she was talking to the proper card holder, and after that was confirmed, she told me that she would put in two dispute notices and that we should receive information regarding the two cases in approximately 45 days.
We did receive a letter from visa enclosing the two claims which were credited back to my dad’s visa account. We received this correspondence about 10 days after we filed the dispute. My dad’s next visa statement did reflect the credit of the two disputed amounts. However, 45 days have gone by and to date, we have not received the proof from Petro Canada that my dad made any purchase there on the two dates in question.
I told my dad to do what I do, save all your little visa slips regardless of where they are from, until you get your statement. Then check them off your statement as you shred them. This way, he can at least compare what he has charged and what he is being charged.
Let this be a clear message to those who use charge cards. If Petro Canada got my dad twice in a month, how many others have been debited the same way and not know it?
