Thursday, September 23, 2010

Fun At the Bank

Not actually at the bank, as that’s in Buffalo, but I guess fun with the bank on the telephone in the car travelling to New Jersey.

I’m still waiting on tens of thousands of dollars.  The repairs on my house (fire repairs) have been finished for weeks.  I still can’t pay those who finished said repairs.  I am a deadbeat. 

I was supposed to get a check for $8k, as the bank folks said they sent it out on the 10th.  That was a long long time ago.  I was a productive member of the workforce way back then.  Since we were leaving for a road trip for five weeks, it was kind of important that the check arrive at the house before we left.  I explained that to the bank folks before the 10th and they assured me that the check would arrive before we left (yesterday).  They are liars.  I have no check.

Kind of angry about it, I gave the folks at the bank a call as soon as we got on the road to smelly NJ.  On the call, I explained my situation, then told them to cancel the check that they “sent” and then send a new check to a different address overnight.  Normally, there is a $25 fee for overnighting a check.  I told them that I would not be paying that fee. 

The woman on the other end of the phone had a quick (not quick) chat with her manager while I was on hold and told me to, ahem, call back on Monday to cancel the check and they would send the new one out then.  Also,  she let me know that I would be paying the overnighting fee.

Crap.

She explained that I would have to wait ten business days to cancel the check (as it still might be delivered at the house) and that since they aren’t the US Postal Service, the overnighting fee would have to be paid by me, as they’re not responsible for delivering mail.

I was kind of pissed at this point and decided to re-explain the situation, hoping that some logic might seep into the conversation.  I also asked to talk to her manager.  My basic point was, since were were already gone and wouldn’t be returning to check the mail for five weeks, it doesn’t matter if the check arrived by Monday, because, duh, no one would be home to open it.  I told her it made no difference, since we wouldn’t be there on Monday, if I waited until then to call back and request a new check, since I was going to have to do that either way. 

I then moved on to why I wasn’t going to pay the overnighting fee.  In short, they told me that the check would be there by the 22nd, as it was being sent on the 10th.  I then postulated that they requested that the check be cut on the 10th, but sending the request, and actually cutting the check (which is done by a different department) too a few extra days.  I surmised this because the US Postal Service doesn’t take 10 days to delivered anything, especially something from Buffalo to Providence.

She took in the argument and basically told me that she wasn’t authorized to do anything and that I would have to call back on Monday.  Jesus.

I once again requested to talk to her manager, so she said that she would see if he was available.

After another few minutes on hold, she was back on the phone telling me that my requests were reasonable and that she could cancel the check and send out a new one shortly. 

I was stunned.  After all of that, apparently all it took was asking her to tell the manager my logical argument and he obliged. 

I felt like I won something.  I now have a check for $8k and $39k headed to my friend Dan’s house (we’ll be Dan’s House Guest) outside of Philadelphia.  Hopefully it will be there when Amanda and I visit there this weekend on our way out to the West Coast.  Heads up Dan.

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