Thanks to everyone who shared the Subject A36 sale last week on their social media! I count myself fortunate to be a member of such a supportive blogging community, and I appreciate all of you.
So this is a combination rant and cautionary tale. A couple months ago I participated in a book festival where the book sales were handled by Barnes & Noble College, which is entirely separate from Barnes and Noble (I’ve never had a problem when they handled the sales). A few weeks later, I received payment with a virtual credit card issued by Wells Fargo. Maybe some of you are familiar with this, but I’ve never been paid this way. The email said instructions on how to process this card were attached (they weren’t). I called Wells Fargo, and they couldn’t seem to understand that I wasn’t a brick and mortar store (despite me stating several times I was an individual author) and kept asking which business I was with. They told me I should call my bank, which I did. I spoke to a person I won’t name at my local Truist branch who was also unfamiliar with a virtual credit card, but she asked for a screen shot of the info and promised to get back to me. To make a two month long story short, multiple emails and calls were mostly unanswered, passed on to someone else, or the same “instructions” were repeatedly sent. Customer service by Barnes and Noble College, Wells Fargo, and Truist Bank was absolutely abysmal. The story does have a happy ending. I finally figured out on my own how to process the card through Paypal – which anyone from those institution should have known.
Over the weekend I finished 1899 on Netflix. Here’s a brief description: Immigrants on a steamship travelling from London to New York get caught up in a mysterious riddle after finding a second vessel adrift on the open sea. This is one of the most bizarre, mind-bending mystery/horror/historical drama series I’ve ever seen. Don’t expect a fast pace – I considered quitting it after the first few episodes, but the reviews encouraged me to stick with it. And I’m so glad I did. There’s a vast difference between where it starts and ends. There’s also an interesting bonus episode of the making of the series (begun during Covid) that I watched part of. Trust me – this will keep you guessing about what’s going on.