Declined due to fraud

I had mentioned last month that I'm going to buy a new phone.

Don't misunderstand though... I love my phone! It's been three years since I bought my Honor Magic 5 Pro, and if not for the battery starting to deteriorate, I would be perfectly happy to keep it.

But when we're traveling, I use it a lot. And I noticed during our recent trip to China that I was having to make sure I was carrying a battery pack in order to get through a busy day of heavy use.

Also, Ruth's phone was very cheap, and she's finding that she's using it more and more. And when we're in the motorhome I'm using mine for GPS directions, so she's taking photos with hers, and the camera in her phone is not good. 

So we decided that I would get a new phone, and Ruth would inherit my old one. That way she gets a far better phone that takes great photos, and I get the new Honor Magic 8 Pro... with an even better camera for the majority of our picture taking.

So I went into the website to make the purchase on Friday morning. This is the same company that I bought the other phone from three years ago. But when I hit the "pay" button, a message immediately came up saying that payment was declined due to possible fraud. Odd, but I didn't have time to deal with it because we were headed out to meet Bob and Denise to go hiking. 

Ten minutes later, we were in the car driving out of the city when my phone rang. It was the Scotiabank Visa fraud department saying that a purchase for $2,200 had been flagged as suspicious. It wasn't from the phone supplier, and the amount was much higher anyhow.

So they cancelled my card, and a new one is being shipped to a local branch for me to pick up this week.

So yesterday, I contacted the phone supplier. Long story short, they said that it was not fraud, and that it was due to an internal IT problem, and it has been fixed. I said I was leery about trying again, and they offered a $50-$80 discount (depending on which phone I was buying) for the trouble if I would give them another chance.

So I will, but not until I receive the new card.

Interestingly, there is a new model Honor Magic 9 Pro coming out with a Chinese release date towards the end of this month. I asked them about that, and he said he "might" be able to get me one. I doubt it though, because I would need the Global version, and that usually takes another month or two and of course we're not here that long. If not, I'll be quite happy with the Magic 8 Pro. I guess we'll see.

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