My love affair with the mint's customer service is rapidly coming to an end.

On 9/1, I ordered 40 boxes of NA. The mint put the obligatory 10k hold on my CC and eventually shipped the coins. On 9/8, I received 30 boxes of coins and assorted sheets of coins. Per their directions, I shipped back the assorted sheets.

On 9/16, I got notification that the coins had been received and they had put the $2,500 replacement coins into "On Hold" and adjusted my credit card hold accordingly. Well they had adjusted it, but not accordingly. They took an additional $10,000 hold against my credit line plus a $2,500 hold for the reshipment of coins. Total hold (unbilled) against my credit line is now $22,500. I can't dispute anything because it remains unbilled.

9/16: Call #1 results in a rude representative who says, "Oh, that should have dropped off." I told him it hadn't, which was a concept he had trouble with, saying it was the credit card's fault and that I should call them. Nope, also incorrect; for a pending hold, the merchant needed to reverse it. He then told me I had to call another number, but since I didn't want to get dumped into a random voicemail, I told him to hold the line and transfer me. Eventually, I tried to set up a 3-way call but disconnected us. Call #2 got me a helpful representative who gave me her extension, but because we finished after 5, she told me to call back today.

9/17: Called back for the rep from Call #2 (at 10 am), but the agent I got wouldn't transfer me. She did say that the hold had been released, but my available credit hadn't budged. She told me that HQ was busy and wasn't taking any calls, so I had to call back after 1 pm. She also couldn't guarantee that anyone would be available to talk to me at 1. I had to run to a meeting, so I called back at 1 and randomly got the rep from Call #2. She told me the funds had been released and that I should check with the credit card company to see if it just wasn't showing on my statement. Called CC company; nope, nothing had been done today. Called back and rep #5 called HQ again, telling me that the hold had been released. I explained that I had already called and the release hadn't happened. She looked at my account again and said that she thought they were released because Rep #3 (my 10 am) had put in the notes that they were released. She called HQ and found out that, oops, the dup hold hadn't been released but that they would do it now. Oh, it would also take 1-2 business days. I told her I need to use the credit card and she needs to accelerate it, but apparently, HQ forwards the release to accounting who actually releases the hold. She couldn't call accounting, but she gave me their number.

Accounting was busy, but promised a call back in ten minutes. She actually did it and was able to trace everything. She told me that she would release that second $2,500 hold and that her coworker would release the second $10,000 hold today.

Fingers crossed.

Mike