When I was in Ireland recently, I received an email from my credit card company stating that my card had been frozen due to the hacking of a merchant that had my card information in its database.

It wasn’t anything I had done, nor did it matter that I was overseas and had notified my credit card company prior to leaving. Here I was with an email that informed me to contact the card company by phone immediately. I called the credit card company at the 800 number and was immediately re-routed to India. I had to have a text message sent to my cell phone in order to verify my identity by use of a special pin. “Zeke,” my representative, asked the usual…last 4 digits of my social, security questions and the card’s number with its 3-number verification code. I was told that a new card would be sent to me immediately and that my card had been cancelled.

They wouldn’t tell me which merchant had been hacked or if any other information was compromised. I tried to explain that I was away from home without a method of payment. I did have an American Express card, but it isn’t as widely used in Europe. All my pleas were to no avail. Luckily, my wife’s card on the account had not been cancelled.

A few days after I returned, a new card came in the mail, and I was left with the task of changing the many automatic payments that are charged each month to the new card. I immediately applied for another card with a different issuer to have as a backup. A supposed economic catastrophe averted.

This morning, I received a dreaded text from the same card issuer while I was sitting in my son’s kitchen in New York enjoying a cup of coffee.  The text informed me that my card had been placed on hold. The culprit this time was Facebook that had charged for ads that I had indeed authorized.

I immediately called the number provided with the secret code that identified me. My friend in India, “Adam” this time, elicited once again my last 4 social security digits, security questions, the card’s number and verification code. Adam asked me my name, and I told him my first and last, but I neglected to give him my middle initial. A full-scale alert was averted when I knew that middle initial upon further questioning to make sure that I was actually me.

This time I was able to prevent my card from being cancelled once I verified all. He insisted on running through my other information including a home phone number. When I told Adam I no longer had one, there was another moment of panic before he accepted that fact and removed the number.

Later, I signed on to Facebook to verify the ads were paid. Facebook was not about to rerun the charge through the old credit card. I had to provide a new credit card which I had from the new issuer. It immediately went through. About an hour later I went to place another ad but couldn’t because…does it matter?

The Facebook dilemma will be solved. Because what I boost on Facebook is of a “political nature,” all must be approved by their censors. I understand that. I could be a Russian bot!

It just seems to me with credit cards, banks, Facebook, and every other large institution we deal with, being the customer doesn’t mean much. Algorithms, secret formulas, and the hard and fast rules that must be followed by the misnamed customer service reps, are more important. The adage that the customer is always right is no longer valid. Isn’t that a shame?