UNSCAMMED
Yesterday I discovered that WordPress had canceled my subscription because I refused to pay. They thanked me for being a good customer for five years and wished me well. I looked at my WordPress postings but I was shut out. As far as I knew I had lost five years of writing and photographs and contact with the few people reading it. In addition, writing these posts, which I am writing in spurts, is an activity that keeps me going in my old age. It was a crushing blow.
I went to the WordPress website, and sure enough, it was they and not a scammer who had asked for the money. And then it occured to me that I hadn’t seen a payment to WordPress for a long, long time. And then I noticed that I had a business account not a personal account. And then through a fog of memory I guessed what had happened. At some point I had filled up the amount of memory allotted to me with photos and videos and had gone to a higher level account with more memory, and then it dawned on me that $20 a month over two years was $480, and very likely to save more money I had paid for a biyearly account and my two years had run out and I was being asked for another $480.
Suddenly my relief at not being scammed turned to panic. I found a way to write to WordPress and sure enough I had guessed correctly, this was my biyearly bill. But apparently because I had filed a fraud case this would take two to three months to resolve before I could use my account again unless there was still the possibility of getting the fraud case withdrawn. Otherwise I would have to wait.
First thing this morning I drove 30 minutes to the Bank of America to get the fraud case withdrawn. The guy sitting at the desk with a tight suit and waxed hair had little sympathy and could do nothing and offered little hope. He wouldn’t call the fraud department since they would take hours to answer, but he would give me their number and I could call myself. Later today I tried, got through quickly and the very pleasant woman who thanked me profusely for being a Bank of America customer (part of her job) told me she could easily withdraw the claim. After driving home I got on my knees, and begged in writing for WordPress to reinstate me. The next morning my account was open again, for another two years. This is my story of being scammed and unscammed. I still have to contact a bunch of people, a laborious, irritating process, and tell them my card number has changed.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 