Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Mary Worth 302

Well, the torturous telephone conversation continues, and we still end today's strip with a close up on Toby's face. Except now she's staggering around her house as if she were in some sort of slasher film. Replace the telephone voice with these words: "Toby, we've traced the call. It's coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!" and you have a much more interesting story.

Will someone please explain to me what "reverse the balance" means? I'm as confused as Toby by this one. I think it means the bank is going to send her $18,000 in Enormoushop.com gift cards where she can order Ireland narrated by Pierce Frosnan. Or Utah narrated by Robert Fredford. Or England by Sir Ian McFellan. But not all three; I don't think she'll have enough money for all three.

Today's Full Strip.

9 comments:

Mollie said...

I love that she's unnecessarily hostile to the bank person. "Easy for YOU to say! All YOU have to do is spend the day fixing my problem and its repercussions! I have to deal with the knowledge that my identity has been stolen... whatever that means! I could get another transparently fraudulent email at any time! What will I do then?!"

Anonymous said...

"But lady! You don't understand!! My husband is going to KILL ME!!! And I can't find Mary!!"

Anonymous said...

Poor Toby. Is she really so distressed to learn that she will not be out of pocket or is it simply that she is too stupid to understand that the bank is refunding her?

The sooner Ian gets back from his conference and kills her, the better.

Charlie said...

I have a theory. This convo will be dragged out all the way until March 31. On April 1, Mary will kick open the door and shout, "APRIL FOOLS!" and show off her new cell phone that she just mercilessly pranked Toby.

Anonymous said...

Is it too much to hope for that Mary is the identity thief? Someone at the bank needs to check if any of those charges are for pairs of glass swans or books on meddling.

Anonymous said...

The thought that there may be more than one Toby Cameron out there is enough to send me over the edge.

Anonymous said...

mary, quite contrary: You mean the one-L or two-L Toby Cameron? I'm not betting a silky pajama about the three-L Toby Cameron, however.

Anonymous said...

Mary doesn't buy books on meddling. Mary writes books on meddling. She's the leading authority on the subject. Amateur meddlers the world over consult with her for tips -- that's right, Mary meddles in the lives of meddlers. She's that good.

She's a meta-meddler.

Anonymous said...

The bank should have said "reverse the charge" rather than "reverse the balance". Despite what banks want you to believe, under federal law the losses for credit card fraud (and check fraud and debit card fraud) almost always falls on the issuing bank or the merchant and not on the customer, so long as the fraudulent charge is reported after the customer receives her monthly statement. Once reported the bank must immediately reverse charges one they are reported and investigate the charge (of course, if, after investigation, they determine that the charge was authorized, they can re charge the account). As someone whose husband's "identity" was "stolen" in the Spring, I can assure you that the process of getting this straightened out was only a minor annoyance (our bank delivered us new cards by the next mornong).