tavie.com

Lazybones is now going to cut-and-paste a two-part rant and its conclusion from another place, besides this blog, where I rant things:
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Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:18 am

I HATE YOU WASHINGTON MUTUAL! I HATE YOU!

Arrrrgh!

So my sister sends me two Japanese money orders so I can pay some bills for her.

The limit for one is $700, and she needs to pay $851, so she splits it into two money orders – one for $700, one for $151.

So I bring these to my local branch and deposit them into my account. Then I go and pay the bills. All is well, right?

A few weeks later I get a letter from WaMu saying that they “lost a check on the way to the processing center” and can’t explain this deposit of $851. They found $151 but not $700. And would I please contact them with any information I have.

Well, okay, so I contacted them at the email address they provided and gave them all the information I had from the stubs. Never got a reply; I guess I should have called them or faxed them the stubs from the money orders, but I figured that would be fine, right?

So I get another letter yesterday-- certified mail this time-- saying that because they NEVER HEARD BACK FROM ME about the checks (MONEY ORDERS, idiots!) that THEY lost, they’re going to take it out of my bank account.

Ummmm?

Not only that, but they say they’re going to take the $151, not the $700. I thought they said they lost the $700. So which one did they lose, exactly?

And how can they POSSIBLY hold ME accountable for THEM losing my checks? That’s completely evil. I gave it to the clerk. I saw him do a thing in the computer. I saw him put them in a drawer. How can they hold me responsible for that?

Luckily, I still have the stubs, and I’m marching into my branch at lunchtime today with the letter and the stubs and waving and shouting until they take back what they said about taking my money out of my account.

But I am SO AGGRAVATED that I have to take time out of my life to deal with THEIR INCOMPETENCE!!!

Thank god I saved those stubs. I can’t afford to have chunks of my money taken away like this. This is what I get for doing someone a favor? Favors suck.
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Tue Jan 23, 2007 2:48 pm
I’m so proud of me. I went to the bank at my lunch hour and the very friendly manager there called the processing center that lost my checks.

We then spent 45 minutes on hold.

Finally, after explaining about 75 different ways about how I had the receipts for the money orders in my hand and would be glad to fax them over, the branch manager put me on the phone with the rep at the processing center.

The rep kept asking me for my sister’s contact info so they could get in touch with her, “Because we have to collect on this amount”, and I gave them her phone number but kept insisting that there would be nothing she could do to help, because she paid money for a money order, and that’s the end of it – it’s gone, she can’t “put a stop on it” or anything. Plus, she lives in Japan. They didn’t seem to want to accept the fact that it was a money order and not a check.

Finally, the rep told me that they’d get in touch with my sister and that’s all she could do. I proceeded to rant and rave about how ludicrous and upsetting it was that they were making me go through all of this and then had the nerve to try and make ME pay for their mistake. I said, “I’m not getting off the phone until you assure me that this money will not disappear from my account in two days.”

When she said she couldn’t assure me that, I repeated my rant. And repeated it. Then I asked to speak to her manager. She said her manager was “busy”. (The branch manager sitting across from me was smiling now.) I said, “I’m not getting off this phone until I speak to your manager.” Then she put me on hold and just as I was telling the branch manager that I would be here a good long while, the sheepish rep got back on the line and said that she’d spoken to her manager and that they were “writing off the amount”.

As I left, with a fax receipt for the two stubs in my hand, I thanked the branch manager for her assistance and patience, calm and smiling.

This whole incident was extremely unlike me – I am nonconfrontational, even meek, in these situations. For some reason, I found some sort of well of self-confidence and demanded what I wanted. I am really proud of myself right now.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 10:40 PM | shower me with attention