Xiaoniu 小妞

I feel like “one of those days” is coming on pretty strong. Last night I went online to check the balance of a credit card and found a suspicious charge. I called the associated phone number and found that it was a magazine subscription renewal for a magazine I’ve never received or requested. Who reads Blender anyway?

So, I proceed to call up Citi to dispute the charge. I dial, enter my number twice and immediately the phone is picked up by somebody with a very heavy accent. I usually have no problem with that, but he wasn’t friendly and he just kept asking questions, which I dutifully answered. After 10 seconds of silence I’m put onto hold. Not that I was told what was going on. By now my guards are up and I’m very suspicious.

I hung up and called back. This time I was brought to an automated menu and then I get another person, without the heavy accent. Now, I’m pissed. I’m think I just screwed myself by giving credit card info to somebody that shouldn’t have it. I figured I fat-fingered the phone number.

I proceed to tell her the purpose of the call, disputing a charge, but follow up with asking her to halt my account. I was worried something would happen. She asked why and I explained it all to her. After all that she proceeds to tell me that at times you may not go into the automated system; a person may pick up the line directly. And the thing that calmed me down the most was that she saw in my record that I had just called and then hung up. Now, I’m feeling a little better.

We proceed to deal with the charge. She tells me that it is a magazine renewal and that I need to cancel it, even though I never requested it. They can’t dispute the charge unless I cancel it. She transferred me (do you think Citi and the magazine are in cahoots?) and I proceed to make my way through the absolutely horrendous maze of trickery and deceit to cancel a subscription that I never asked for.

The tricky bastards continuously ask you questions in such a way that you may end up renewing, canceling and renewing or transferring your subscription to another magazine. What a rip-off! I think I made it through unscathed and got my confirmation number. Another call to Citi to make sure all is well and now I wait for my refund.

Enough of that. Now, I get to work and check something on this site and find that my host is moving from MySql 4 to MySql 5. No problem I think seeing as I’m using the latest software that can indeed support version 5. Oh, but MySql 4 is still running on the default port. I must change my apps to use the new port for 5.

After some quick research I find that both of the software packages that I use, Drupal and WordPress don’t have a way for a user to specify a non-default MySql. Great! Now I have to modify the code by hand to add a non-default port number. I can’t wait to see what else this day brings.