I had cause to look through the past few years’ bank statements recently to track certain payments and I noticed in so doing that the bank had charged us for checks several times for our free checking account. I highlighted the amounts and decided in my head that if the charges added up to more than $50-$75 it would be worth trying to straighten out. The charges were well over $100 so I called the bank and was told I’d have to visit a branch. I visited a branch but apparently not the right branch because in our current world of globalized customer service where someone in Bhopal can tell you when your online catalog order will ship from Maine, you still need to visit your bank’s home branch to straighten out discrepancies that may be in your favor.
The service rep at my home branch chuckled as she flipped through my statements with the highlighted entries and said, “Some of these charges go back two years! Why didn’t you catch them then?” I thought that was clever of her, the best defense being a good offense, so I sent the ball back to her court. “The bank made a mistake. Several times. Please reverse the charges.” She shook her head and pointed at her computer screen which was not facing me. “I can’t even go back that far to look.” Since it was my turn to serve I said, “So you’re telling me that we have all of our money in a bank that will not rectify an error even with the actual bank statements present?”
She decided the game was over and rose from her seat with my highlighted statements and walked into the manager’s office. She came out, gave me her card and said I’d hear from her. I crossed ‘bank’ off my list and went home to take care of ‘phone company’.
The quick background on this Verizon issue is that my elderly uncle is in a nursing home and my equally elderly aunt had a phone installed for him there in her name. Many people age without becoming dangerously batty but this aunt would not be one of them. She is actually my ex-aunt since they divorced decades ago but then hooked up again many years later and that’s fine because people should just be happy but they also don’t have to be crazy right in my face.
She had been sending me certified letters telling me to take the phone out of her name and put it in mine which I have no problem doing since I’ve been paying the bill for months and having it come to “Batty Aunt c/o Me” at my address and I was getting worn out running to the post office to sign for these certified letters thinking that one of them might actually be important but it never was.
The day of reckoning with Verizon had arrived and the rep seemed to get the whole story. After about ten minutes of her going screen to screen to make sure I wasn’t some impostor trying to steal the right to pay for my uncle’s phone bill, she said she needed my social security number so they could run a credit check and put the account in my name. She put me on hold and when she came back the fun began. The computer froze. Everything had to be re-entered. It froze again. My SS# wasn’t showing as valid. A supervisor was summoned. The system kicked her out. Twenty more minutes passed.
Finally, I was expected elsewhere and had to end the call.
OSV: Listen, it’s been a half hour and I have an appointment. I’m going to have to ask you to call me back and let me know the changes went through.
VERIZON: It’s not our policy to do that.
OSV: Do what?
VERIZON: Call people back.
OSV: You’re the phone company.
VERIZON: We can put these changes on hold and you can call us back when you have the time to finish the process.
OSV: The process is finished. I will tell my aunt you’ve done what you could and if she has any questions she can send you something certified mail.
I hung up and the phone rang. It was the bank lady.
BANK LADY: My supervisor reviewed this situation and she wants to know if you have in fact used the checks we charged you for.
OSV: Whatever checks you sent us were the checks we used.
BANK LADY: Since you used the checks we’re prepared to split the cost with you.
OSV: I want to get this right. Your bank charged me for checks that should have been free and now you’re offering me fifty cents on the dollar as remedy for your mistake. Is all of that correct because I may be recording this call.
BANK LADY: Let me get back to you.
In that frame of mind, here is Daughter’s Featured Foto frame of the day.
global junkyard