Peoria Pundit

Here we go again.

On the way home from work today, I stopped at Huck’s Convenient Store, 6818 N War Memorial Dr, located at the Willow Knolls shopping center in North Peoria, to buy couple of gallons of gasoline for the errands I needed to run.

The total price for 2.058 gallons of premium gasoline was $7.32. I used my debit card at the pump. I never entered the store. And no, smart asses, I didn’t drive off without paying this time.

I stopped at Walgreen’s and bought my medication ($97, it’s a good thing insurance coverage starts in December) and stopped at the Sav-A-Lot to get some groceries.

The debit card was declined.

Impossible.

I conceded the possibility that my estimate of how much I had left in my account might have been off by a dollar or two, but not by the more than $125 I KNEW I still had remaining on that card

Regardless, I felt about two feet tall, and there ain’t nothing worse than feeling like the most pathetic person in line at the Sav-A-Lot.

I came home, checked my balance and discovered a paltry $4.34 remaining. I checked the day’s transactions and found the cause: TWO separate charges from Huck’s, 6818 N. War Memorial Dr. The first charge was for the aforementioned $7.32. The second: $125.

Folks, my car won’t hold $125 worth of gasoline, premium or otherwise.

The transaction is listed as “pending” which I have discovered means two things: The charge might very well not go through on it’s own, but it’s gonna take a day or two for the problem to shake itself out; and my debit card company will not process any sort of dispute until the transaction is finished processing.

Naturally, I did what any red-blooded American consumer would do: Called the store to raise Hell with the manager. And if who the Hell ever is working at the place ever bothers to answer the phone, I’ll do just that.

So I did what any red-blooded American blogger would do. You are reading it.

Also, don’t you think this would make a great story on tomorrow’s evening news? I am available for interviews.

Since, apparently, they don’t believe in answering their phone.

UPDATED: Commenter Brent is correct. I finally got through and gave my tale of woe to the clerk, who was sympathetic, but could do little herself. She called the manager, who passed along this information: The debit card people did it. It was explained that the debit card company has no idea how much gas I am going to pump, so they took $125 out of MY account just in case I tried to buy more gas than I could afford. The money is supposed to be returned sometimes tomorrow.

UPDATED: It’s 5:39 a.m. on Saturday, approximately 38 hours after the transaction. The debit card still hasn’t credited the $125 back to my account. Were I between paychecks right now, I would be in deep trouble.

UPDATED: I had to talk to three different non-English speakers, but I finally convinced someone that I didn’t pump $125 worth of gas into the 10-gallon tank of my Ford Focus immediately before pumping an additional $7.32 worth of gas. Once I was able to pound some clarity into their thick skulls, it took three seconds for them to fix their mistake.