Manic Monday.

If it sounds to good to be true. It ain't true. Especially, if it is someone you know.
Rather than drag this out I'll take the "Joe Friday" approach (Just the facts ma'am).
For Mother's Day, my wife and I wanted to send flowers to her mother. This woman has been a true blessing to me from the day I first met her. She is a life long Christian, with a heart of gold. I love her so much, I haven't told a "Mother-In-Law" joke since I met her. And believe me I know a bunch of them. But none of them apply to our relationship.
So off to PROFLOWERS I went. I had used their services many times in the past, weddings, Birthdays, Funerals and just "I'm thinking of you's". Their prices were always very low for the product and service they provided. But Mother's day was different. There were many extra charges tacked on. An extra charge for "specific day"delivery, an extra charge for Week-end delivery (mother's day is always on a Sunday) and a few others. When all the extras were added up the deal wasn't very reasonable anymore. But I only have one mother-in-law, she's the best, and it's only money. So, I made the order. Since, I was home bound by my condition, I would have to imagine the surprise in her eyes when she opened the box.
So when the big day arrived, we called my mother-in-law, to tell her how special she was to us. When the conversation was over there had been no mention of the flowers. This was very uncharacteristic, so I asked "What did you think of the flowers?" She replied "What flowers?"
I told her the story I told here, with the money details left out. She said she had been home all day, and no one had come to the door. But if we would wait she would look out front just to be sure. "Yes. There was a box." and it had flowers in it. But the box had not been near the door. And the bell had never rang. If we had not asked, the box would possibly have been there for days. Customer no-service, was something I have dealt with and become used to getting. But when PROFLOWERS sent me an email to find out my level of satisfaction, I gave them an unvarnished kick in the teeth. But I was tactful. I had always gotten great products from these people in the past. Maybe this was an aberration.
A day later they sent another email. This one was very apologetic, and included a link to their page where I could register for a $15.00 deduction on my next order from PROFLOWERS. The link was genuine. It went to PROFLOWERS, was a secure link to an encrypted page. Everything appeared legit. So I registered for the discount. It never even crossed my mind again until last Friday. My ever alert wife, asked me about a charge card purchase I had made to a company I never heard of. The charge on the bill had a 1-800-xxx-xxxx number. So we called it. An answering system came on line. But none of the options were for fraudulent charges. So we pressed zero. and the computer told us to wait while it connected us to a customer rep. A very pleasant (fortunate for her) woman came on the phone. We explained the situation, without giving any of our personal information. She did need some info, and asked the amount of the charge. The date of the charge, and my last name. All info that would be okay to disclose to a stranger, and so I told her. She said the charge had come through PROFLOWERS. And that she would approve the refund.
Lessons learned:
1. A discount on a future purchase, should be in the form of a number given to you by the company. You should never have to register for it.
2. Read you credit card bill. Question everything.
3. Don't be afraid to confront the people trying to take your money.
4. If it sounds too good. It is.
5. Even hackers can get hacked.
6. No matter how careful you are, someone can gert you when your guard is down...
Happy computing. Be blessed and be a blessing to others.