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Got out of class at 10:00, got my adviser to sign my Fall '07 registration form (man, I hope I get into Narrative Preaching!), dropped it off in the registrar's office. There was a lecture scheduled for 11:30 that I wanted to go to, and I figured the hour+ between dropping off my form was enough time to make a couple of 'business' calls taken care of. Right? Wrong.
The first wasn't bad. The plastic on my laptop is cracking/splitting apart at the right hinge, and it needs to be replaced. Fortunately, it's still under warranty. A quick call to Dell got that taken care of; the repair guy will call me by Friday. It took maybe ten minutes, freeing me to make my second call.
I just finished the second, at 12:15. It took at least forty-five minutes, which is about thirty-five minutes longer than it needed to. I had noticed three withdrawals from my bank account in the form of "pre-authorized checks." It wasn't a normal electronic transfer, and it wasn't a normal check, either (I'd certainly never seen them!). Each "check" was withdrawn a month apart, and each was for $8.95. Not much, but when you don't have a job it adds up, y'know? So I call my bank. It takes a while (it took a while just to get through the automated system), but we finally figure out that they have no idea what they are either, and they can't dispute these "pre-authorized checks." The images of the checks are online with my account, and they don't have a phone number or the name of the person/company who submitted the check, just their bank. After another several minutes on hold, the guy assisting me comes back with a phone number for the bank that the money went to and transferred me. Except the phone number he transferred me to doesn't work anymore. I check out the bank's home page, can't find any phone number to call that might possibly work, so I have to call my bank back, work my way through the automated system again, and explain the problem again. Got a new phone number, one that actually worked. Except that after working my way through their automated system to finally get to a live person, the live person tells me that she can't help me without the trace ID# on each of the three transactions. There is no trace ID# on the checks, and she assures me that none of the information that actually is on the check can actually help, but that my bank should be able to provide me with it. %^$$# *&%$!
Back for another trip through my bank's phone system--the third today for those of you who are keeping track--to get the numbers, then another call to the other bank's phone system. Except that the new operator says the first one must have been new because they certainly don't need the trace ID#, the information on the check is perfectly sufficient to track it down. She can't give me the company's name that wrote the "check," but she can give me their phone number and my customer ID number. (And, btw, how the hell did she get my customer ID number if she didn't even know the name of the company?!?) I call them, and wade through their phone system, which is much more annoying than either bank's system, because mostly it consists of trying to sell me their product. Light dawns: I at least know what the company is, now. It's one of those travel/entertainment membership discount places. I'd signed up in September just to see what it was like and because they were offering gas vouchers, and canceled it as soon as I got the full packet. But once I finally got to talk to one of their operators, she assured me that I had only canceled part of the service, and she was very sorry but she could only reverse the most recent of the three monthly fees. The fact that I had believed I was canceling the whole shebang and never took advantage of any of their services was irrelevant. So I asked to talk to her supervisor as politely as possible. Explained the whole thing and just why I was so pissed off in great detail to the supervisor, who apologized and agreed to refund all three monthly fees, not just the latest. And was quite insistent that they always out their name and phone number on such things as preauthorized checks, so I should have been able to find them with no trouble at all. Yeah, right. I'm looking at a picture of the check now, sister, and it ain't there.
And by now, the lecture is probably over already. I'm going to lunch.
The first wasn't bad. The plastic on my laptop is cracking/splitting apart at the right hinge, and it needs to be replaced. Fortunately, it's still under warranty. A quick call to Dell got that taken care of; the repair guy will call me by Friday. It took maybe ten minutes, freeing me to make my second call.
I just finished the second, at 12:15. It took at least forty-five minutes, which is about thirty-five minutes longer than it needed to. I had noticed three withdrawals from my bank account in the form of "pre-authorized checks." It wasn't a normal electronic transfer, and it wasn't a normal check, either (I'd certainly never seen them!). Each "check" was withdrawn a month apart, and each was for $8.95. Not much, but when you don't have a job it adds up, y'know? So I call my bank. It takes a while (it took a while just to get through the automated system), but we finally figure out that they have no idea what they are either, and they can't dispute these "pre-authorized checks." The images of the checks are online with my account, and they don't have a phone number or the name of the person/company who submitted the check, just their bank. After another several minutes on hold, the guy assisting me comes back with a phone number for the bank that the money went to and transferred me. Except the phone number he transferred me to doesn't work anymore. I check out the bank's home page, can't find any phone number to call that might possibly work, so I have to call my bank back, work my way through the automated system again, and explain the problem again. Got a new phone number, one that actually worked. Except that after working my way through their automated system to finally get to a live person, the live person tells me that she can't help me without the trace ID# on each of the three transactions. There is no trace ID# on the checks, and she assures me that none of the information that actually is on the check can actually help, but that my bank should be able to provide me with it. %^$$# *&%$!
Back for another trip through my bank's phone system--the third today for those of you who are keeping track--to get the numbers, then another call to the other bank's phone system. Except that the new operator says the first one must have been new because they certainly don't need the trace ID#, the information on the check is perfectly sufficient to track it down. She can't give me the company's name that wrote the "check," but she can give me their phone number and my customer ID number. (And, btw, how the hell did she get my customer ID number if she didn't even know the name of the company?!?) I call them, and wade through their phone system, which is much more annoying than either bank's system, because mostly it consists of trying to sell me their product. Light dawns: I at least know what the company is, now. It's one of those travel/entertainment membership discount places. I'd signed up in September just to see what it was like and because they were offering gas vouchers, and canceled it as soon as I got the full packet. But once I finally got to talk to one of their operators, she assured me that I had only canceled part of the service, and she was very sorry but she could only reverse the most recent of the three monthly fees. The fact that I had believed I was canceling the whole shebang and never took advantage of any of their services was irrelevant. So I asked to talk to her supervisor as politely as possible. Explained the whole thing and just why I was so pissed off in great detail to the supervisor, who apologized and agreed to refund all three monthly fees, not just the latest. And was quite insistent that they always out their name and phone number on such things as preauthorized checks, so I should have been able to find them with no trouble at all. Yeah, right. I'm looking at a picture of the check now, sister, and it ain't there.
And by now, the lecture is probably over already. I'm going to lunch.
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Date: 2007-04-11 05:00 pm (UTC)From: