Is it finally over?

(Refer back to these for the back story:
http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/2007/09/28-days-later.html
http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/2007/10/um45-days-later.html)

Finally…seven weeks after this ordeal started, it’s finally over. After another round of bank visits and phone calls, Wachovia has finally relented and given back the money taken from us during this absurd fiasco. We FINALLY got a live human on the phone who had a clue, a guy named David, and between him and our local bank person, Dianne, we finally put this monster to bed. Yayyyyy…….

Of course it still took several calls and transfers and hassle, and it wasn’t even towards us all the time; poor Dianne got stuck on hold and sent to non-existent extensions and made to wait and tap-dance too. It’s bad enough when a company screws around the customers, but to screw around its own people, managerial-types no less, that just blows me away.

We’re sorta still held hostage by Wachovia, though. See, in a rural town of 6000 people, the banking is a bit limited. We have 9 banks in town, actually, but apart from Wachovia there’s only one bank in town besides Wachovia that’s a nation-wide operation. The rest are local banks and one regional bank. I already had a bad experience with the other national bank so I’m not switching to them, and I really prefer the convenience of being able to go anywhere nationally and have a branch there, or at least an ATM that I don’t have to pay a million bucks per transaction to use.

So I’m stuck with Walk All Over Ya for the meanwhile….we’ll see what happens next.

Um...45 Days Later?

Blow the picture up to catch all the evil nuances...

Okay kids. We can add a couple more weeks to my “28 Days Later” blog.
http://mojosteve.blogspot.com/2007/09/28-days-later.html

On Monday, October 1st I get a Nastygram from Walk-All-Over-Ya Bank stating that they never received my affidavit concerning the fraud on my account and that if they didn’t hear back from me within 7 days that they were gonna drop the case and TAKE BACK the “provisional credit”; ie: the money that was MINE that they put back in my account. I had a few problems with this new batch of crap:

Problem A: I never received this affidavit from them
Problem B: This letter of theirs was dated Weds. September 26th
Problem C: This letter was postmarked Friday the 28th
Problem D: They said I could type something up and fax it over but
by the time I could get home to accomplish this, it would
then be after midnight, thus giving me ONE DAY to work
with before the week was up, since they were so late in getting it to me.

Well…..it gets typed and faxed to Wachovia. And be DAMNED if they didn’t go ahead and just take my damned money back, which caused 3 of my transactions to bounce, at $35.00 a pop on top of what they’d already taken from me. It was now Friday, October 5th, a good 5 1/2 weeks after this crap started. And I am STILL getting screwed around.

Well…guess who was at the front door of the local branch banging his shoe on the desk like Nikita Khrushchev? After telling the nice lady that I really didn’t want to pull my money out of their bank and go elsewhere, several phone calls were made and another fax was sent, as well as an actual affidavit being faxed too. Would they put the money back in yet? Oh, hell no.

They said it would take 24 hours for the fraud department to get & process my fax and about 72 hours to get my money back. Bloody hell. So they MIGHT process it Saturday since the department runs supposedly 24/7, but Monday was Columbus Day, a bank holiday. I may or may not see my damned money again by Wednesday. That will make exactly 6 weeks without a finalized solution to this episode.

Needless to say, one more screwup and I’m changing banks.

28 Days Later

Back on Friday, August 24 I received the disturbing news that some scumbag had managed to get hold of my Visa debit card number and had used it to make some fraudulent charges that caused my account to be overdrawn for a day or two. Needless to say, I was bent. Beyond bent; I was livid.

I spent the better part of 30 minutes on the phone with a fraud manager at Wachovia, and this individual was quite helpful at the time. They cancelled my card and said they’d issue me a new one, and that I’d get it in 3-5 days. They also said they’d reimburse my account for any & all charges and that I should have the money back in my account by 0900 Saturday morning. Okay, cool… I may have to go without my bank card for a couple days but at least I’ll have my scratch back.

Sure enough, the money was there at 0900 Saturday morning as promised. And right after that is when the wheels fell off the train. After a week of waiting, Crys called Wachovia wondering where the card was. They said it would be 7-10 business days, not 3-5 days as I was originally told. Okayyyyyy…….factoring in the weekends and the Labor Day bank holiday, I was looking at two weeks without a card. Daily checking of a very empty mailbox ensues.

She called again, and they didn’t want to give any information because it was for my card, not hers. WTF? It’s a joint account. So she called again the next day, and this day's guy seemed all happy & jolly and said that we should have received the card since it had already been mailed out. He said he’d cancel that card and overnight us a new one……

Now, this is Thursday night when he says this, so the card would be overnighted on Friday. The day before the Scottish Games. Nobody’s gonna be home on Saturday, we say, so can you have it sent for Monday delivery? Suuuurrrrre…no problem, says he.

Monday rolls around. UPS hasn’t shown up by 5PM. A call to UPS finds no such package for delivery to mine address. So sad. Yet another call to Wachovia with much anger and ill will follows. This last guy was appalled that we’d been waiting over 3 weeks for a replacement card, and also wonders why no one along the way has suggested I go to my local branch and get a temporary ATM card. Well, well, well…what’s this? News to us, sayeth I. Helpful Dude says that the previous guy never overnighted my card, and instead put it in the regular snail mail.

Whoa. Hold up. All engines stop. It…was…MAILED? So, that’s like, what, another 5-7 days? Shit! Helpful Guy was terribly sorry, old chap, and was hopeful that it would arrive by the end of the week.

It did. It arrived Friday the 21st, at Late O’clock in the afternoon, while I was at work. By the time I get home and call to activate the card, it will be the 22d, which means it’s been 4 weeks. Yes, 28 days from when I called to cancel my tainted card and order a new one to the time when I’ll be able to access my money when I want to without writing a check or using cash. How’s that for a scary story?