Thank you to Dale B for commenting on our pizza story… the comment you left was automatically emailed to me… informing us that a AOL blogger (Bruce Watson) had written about our ‘Pizza Saga’. We just checked our stat counter and are SHOCKED at the number of people who have linked to our blog in the last few hours. I assume that by the time I am done writing this, the number will be over 1000! 
I would like everyone to know, that BDO (Banco De Oro) is the bank that Pizza hut deals with in the Philippines. They apparently had a ‘flaw’ in their system on August 17th and 18th. This ‘flaw’ converted all Philippine pesos into American funds. BDO DID reverse the charge of 900+ pesos immediately. it was the charge of 1600+ that was not reversed right away. I called both BDO and Mastercard countless times and everyone was very polite. BDO informed me that the amount was reversed… but it wasn’t showing on my statement. Upon calling mastercard, they kept informing me over and over that they had not received the reversal. Thinking that I was going to be stuck with a 1600.00 USD pizza bill, I was ticked. So, I emailed Global TV’s troubleshooter. Before the story even aired, A mastercard (manager?) called me and explained the problem. They HAD received the reversal. I don’t know for how long. I assume for awhile. When they had tried to “post the reversal”, they used the wrong code or something and it didn’t go through and it was left. Why I don’t know. Why they didn’t inform me of this or try again the many times I called I also don’t know. What I do know, is it took ONE call from a news reporter and it was done immediately.
I would now like to take a moment to respond to some comments that Bruce Watson’s readers left under his blog. I assume that most who left negative replies regarding the Filipino people, have never been there. We have never encountered such kind, caring, genuine people as we did on our trip there. We were treated like royalty, greeted with smiles, and always had people willing to help wherever we went. They are not crooks. They are not theives. They are not rats. They are a society full of people that we would be very proud to call our friends. We were extremely fourtunate to have had the opportunity to have gone there.
The mastercard incident did not ruin our time there. We had many opportunities to explore places such as Corrigedor Island, Pagsanjan falls, and Taal Volcano. We experienced dinner cruises off Manila Bay, Museums, Markets and really, really, really, REALLY cheap beer! (My husband made me write that
)
For our family and friends who link to our site through their bookmarks and are confused at to what this post is about, you can read the other blog here….
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/09/17/pizza-party-in-the-philippines-get-ready-to-sell-a-kidney/3#comments