Okay file this one away under my Weekly WTF!?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/tennessee-man-charged-85-000-tank-gas-183952664.html

          Okay, above is a link to an article that inspired the title of this article.  A man (Two men actually) fills up the tank of his mid-sized car and thinks he is paying $30.00.  He later finds that his card has actually been charge $84,522.54.  Another person put $22.47 on her credit card for coffee and gas.  She later  found out that she was overdrawn because she had been charged over $58,000.  This link shows that two more people were overcharged by outrageous amounts.  http://www.newschannel5.com/story/19014827/more-residents-find-outrageous-charges-from-mapco

WTF!?

          Now believe it or not my disbelieve isn't with the gas stations that made the charges.  I cannot prove a deliberate attempt to defraud, incompetence or some sort of software/hardware glitch so I cannot make judgement on the exact level of stupidity involved there.  Nope, my beef is with the bank/s.  I mean WTF!?  I can't even overdraw my credit card/debit card enough to buy a latte, but these people overdrew by 50+K dollars?  Since the transactions locations are displayed alongside the debit, didn't the idea of someone spending enough money to fuel a small fleet of aircraft make someone go, "Hmm, maybe something is fishy about this.  We should look into it?"

Shh it's a secret!

          Then my next question is WTF didn't the bank/s (Okay one of them was Citibank) notify the people that they were suddenly overdrawn by enough to buy a new car?  Hell I get a notice when I overdraw by pennies.  All of these people found out the hard way by trying to use their cards again.  Boy I would think that would be a harsh surprise.  

Here's something for your troubles

           Then, when the mistakes are realized, why the hell did it take so long for the banks to fix the issue.  One victim couldn't even get his weekly paycheck because all of it went to pay his overdraft.  That is messed up.  These were blatant, obvious (redundant description?  Meh who cares) mistakes and should have been fixed within hours of discovery.  Hell they should have never been processed in the first darned place and lets face it.  The "gift" of a $100.00 gift card to tide one customer over was just adding insult to injury.

All about dah Benjamins

          Now ordinarily I file these things under corporate greed and move on with my rants, but I cannot, in good conscience file it away so easily this time.  If the overcharges had been even remotely close to a reasonable amount say $250., $500 then I might file it away as greed on either the gas station or bank's part.  However since the amounts are so damned ridiculous, all I can figure is gross incompetence on both parts and shrug.  I have always said that Americans are law suit crazy with people suing over the most ridiculous things (Bad Haircuts, Hot coffee etc), but I believe the people in this case should sue the ass off both the gas station and the banks on the simple grounds that they are idiots.  One case could be forgiven, but four?  Someone needs to give these people a strong, loud wake up call.  Someone needs to lean out an open window and yell, "WTF!?" at the top of their lungs.  (Gods I still love that movie.)

       

Just because I liked the picture, no other reason.

          As an ending note (B-flat) I am curious to see how my highly opinionated and well spoken friends will turn my well deserved rant about gas stations and banks into some sort of argument over government, politicians and such.