So I finished the month long course I was taking here in Brno yesterday and my schedule and my new LHS’s schedule finally meshed up really nicely so I could have more than about half an hour of browsing time.
Good news:
One of the clerks in the shop speaks really good English and we had a very interesting conversation about what Central and Eastern European made kits get seen on North American shelves. Also got lots of time to look around and make a nicely extensive list of “must haves” and “would be nices”.[:D]
Bad news:
Got to be responsible and wait until I lock up a job and more permanent accomodations before I purchase more than the two kits I already have bought.[:(]
And now the AAAAARGH!!!
I got an e-mail yesterday evening from my mom back in Canada who I made a joint holder of my bank account before I left to come here. Somewhere between July 12 when I made my first ATM withdrawl here from my account back home, my savings account got drained! nearly 5300.00 dollars Canadian gone in less than a month. given that the Czech Crown is worth just a bit over five cents to one Canadian dollar, there’s no way I could blow 5300 Canadian dollars worth of them in the span of a month if my life depended on it![:(!]
Its a good way to put a damper on you hobby budget (not to mention just about any other budgets).
With any luck I’ll have this straightened around and my account put right before long.
Anyone else have any experiences like this?
HEY,
My buddy had a problem like this and his mother had used all of his money while he was going to school to be an oil burner tech, almost 20 grand worth. Im not sayin your mom did it or anything, that is just what happened to my friend.
Randy
Whoa, brother!
Hope you get THAT problem sorted out, quick smart!!
Good luck on that one, mate
One more reason why I cringe when I give my credit card number over the phone or web when I’m buying more goodies for my stash.
My brother-in-law got burned pretty badly a while back when ordering on the web - Luckily, the company was a reputable one (they were, one of their employees wasn’t). Turns out that several other people had the same problem about the same time and the company and cops got to looking into it and nailed the person who was doing it. Took him about 6 months but they got his money back to him.
Hope your problems get sorted out soon…!
Oh man, I hope that gets sorted out quick!
Only had it happen once. Several years ago a mail order Hobby Supply Co. that I had dealt with decided to go out of business & maxed out every credit card # they had on file. I got hit with almost $10,000 in bogus charges. The credit card co. didn’t hound me once I explained what had happened & dropped the charges from my account. About a year later I got a letter from the credit card co. saying they had caught up with the x-owner of the Hobby Supply & that he had been prosecuted & convicted of fraud. I wouldn’t have one of the new Debit Cards on a bet.
Regards, Rick
Kevan that just plain sucks! I’m thinking I.D. theft. It’s a growing problem here and I’m sure everywhere. I hope you get the situation handled. Ask your bank to check the transactions, then you can see where the money went.
BIG GOOD NEWS FOLKS!
I heard from my mom yesterday and it was a big false alarm.
Its seems there is no such thing as a chequing account in Czech banking. The ATMs I went to here gave me the option of withdrawl from either my chequing or savings accounts, so I opted for the savings account as that was where most of my money was, but the money came from my chequing account anyway.
Long story short, all my money is intact and my mom transfered enough from my savings to my chequing to keep me going until I can a job locked up.
As for the “must haves” on my modeling list: my LHS has a 1/72 Argentine Pucara attack aircraft in markings from the Falklands War. I’ve been wanting a Pucara for years, being as the kit is from Special Hobby, it probably has a good ammount of resin details in it.
Glad to hear all is well.
Kind of a nice feeling to find out that everything is okay after all eh? I’m glad it all worked out for you, keep the chin up. Your job will come through okay and all will be well in the end. Things really do have a way or working themselves out.
fantastic news. glad to hear it.
joe
Wow, it got solved even before I finished reading the thread. What a relief. Glad everything’s fine.