Nochex Nightmare and the Neolithic

They say money can’t make you happy, but it certainly makes things less complex. Having sorted my cash flow crisis I was feeling all relaxed. I’d decided I’d go ahead and enter my half marathon (gum was healing nicely after the extraction). I also needed some ink for my printer (which, as my printer is ancient, I can get at a fraction of the shop price if I order from the internet). So late one Sunday night I sat down at my computer, armed with credit card.

I decided, unwisely it was to turn out, to enter the Half first. The organisers had set up an account with a credit handling company called Nochex, so I was directed to their site. I happily typed my details into their form and submitted it. Form returned with a red notice saying my address couldn’t be confirmed, please check with my credit company that it was exactly as written on my account details and try again. I checked my credit card statement, found a slight difference (one that hasn’t made a difference before I should add) and re-wrote the address. Same result. I deleted it all out and made sure it hadn’t got any stray gaps… same result. Tried again… same result. Maybe I’d got the security number wrong? (It’s faint on my card)… same result. Maybe they wanted all my initials, not just the one on the form? … same result. Maybe it was a temporary fault with the site? Wait a few minutes… same result. By now I was reeling with tiredness and headed off to bed.

Next morning I got up groggy from lack of sleep, and hoping ‘the fault’ had cleared, I tried again. First go I made a genuine mistake and forgot to alter the ‘valid to’ date. Second go I got a message saying my card was now blocked… Rang up my credit card company and found that not only had payment apparently gone through, in spite of the Nochex site asking me repeatedly try again because it hadn’t gone through, but it had gone through on EVERY attempt I made and my card was now over limit and blocked for 10 days because of the suspicious activity. And no they couldn’t do anything about it: the money was in limbo and I’d just have to wait to see if it would reappear.

Needless to say I contacted the event organisers, and sent a choicely worded email to Nochex as well. Apparently Nochex replied to the organiser’s own enquiry within a day, and told them no payment has gone through. Nochex have yet to reply to me.

So, no half marathon… no card to try again (as if I would..) and no way I was going to pay an extra £7 to enter on the day. But that wasn’t the end of it… I had of course stupidly taken my card to Nochex before my regular ink supply website… And I now had a printer out of action. Besides needing regular printing for work I do from home, I also had another event entry, for the Neolithic Marathon, which needed to be done by post (entry form to print out…) and quickly as it was approaching a deadline for that. So I had to get on the phone to my mum and ask her to order ink for me! I bet Alan Sugar never has to ask his mum to order his ink for him…

So, I have several days worth of scruffy hand drawn record tables for work. The ink did arrive (thanks mum). And my Neo entry did get sent. Still can’t use my credit card, and it still remains to be seen if my money will reappear.

Meanwhile… ‘my’ garden has had pond cleaned out (somewhat yucky job!), has survived the storm nearly intact, and my first seeds (some mixed salad) is just pushing up a few first shoots. Serious planting in trays at home this week!