It woz the flippin' new Victoria stuff that got me Huggles. As for the saga so far Gems 0/10, Gems Bank 1/10, my Bank (Co-op) 10/10, Mobility Centre 5/10. I would mention though that normal service at Gems customer service seems to have resumed.
My warning still stands as this is a problem whereby Gems just don't seem to have thought it through. They are currently looking into it with them upstairs, but in the meanwhile my account cannot be returned to normal until possibly Wednesday (three working days). So, if you can't afford to be charged immediately don't order until you can, if your card uses Verisign (at least Visa Debit or Credit and Mastercard).
Don't bother to read the rest if you're not interested in the details and personal stuff.
Gems are blaming the new Verisign security banking system and cannot do anything about it at the moment, and the manager I spoke to is doing whatever they do (emails or telephone calls, etc) to the powers that be to sort this out. I have spoken to Sainsburys (yes Sainsburys) with whom I have a permanent running order, as I use them for my shopping and place orders as soon as I start a list and keep it running for possibly 2-3 weeks. They were very helpful and told me (in brief) that they deal with card verification by asking for £1, which of course doesn't get charged and is therefore released after 2/3 days and you don't even notice anything's happened as it costs you nothing and doesn't show on your statement. They tell me this is normal practice for anything where immediate payment is not required, simply verification of the card.
In the meantime, due to my circumstances, my Bank (hurray for the Co-op) are releasing £100 out of my long-term savings account without notice and NO PENALTY. However this won't reach my current account until Monday.
I HAVE MY SCOOTER BACK. As they have already had £400 last week and £100 this afty (Gems didn't manage to totally wipe me out), they have generously(?) returned my scooter and will accept the remaining payment of £100 on Monday. (I knew I should've bought a car, I'm too old for the wind in me hair!)
Flippin' 'eck. Still I'm going OUTSIDE to play tomoz - <a href="http://plugin.smileycentral.com/http%253A%252F%252Fwww.smileycentral.com%252F%253Fpartner%253DZSzeb008%255FZNxpt484YYGB%2526i%253D10%252F10%255F1%255F20%2526feat%253Dprof/page.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/10/10_1_20.gif" alt="SmileyCentral.com" border="0"><img border="0" src="http://plugin.smileycentral.com/http%253A%252F%252Fimgfarm%252Ecom%252Fimages%252Fnocache%252Ftr%252Ffw%252Fsmiley%252Fsocial%252Egif%253Fi%253D10%252F10_1_20%2526uiv%253D3.0/image.gif"></a>
I got 'edache - I don't know how many calls all this has taken. xxx
