Banks and dresser drawers.

When I was a little girl, I used to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house a lot.  Like every weekend a lot.  It wasn't that I wasn't close to my parents or that we didn't get along, because we did, I just had a super strong bond with my grandma.  I remember one weekend I was there, I was looking through her books on a shelf in the front hallway, and I flipped through, and came upon a $20.  Flipped another couple pages, another $20.  I didn't say anything to her, didn't want her to think I was snooping, because I wasn't, I wanted to see what the book was about, because I had forgotten my library books at home- and I wanted to read something.  But Grandma and Grandpa were born in 1910 and 1915.  They were old enough to remember The Depression.  Which knowing that they were teenagers at the beginning of the Depression, it made perfect sense to me that she didn't trust banks.  Neither did Grandpa.  And now, neither do I. 

I honestly don't mean it to sound all DUH DUH DUH.... But, a lot of what I'm seeing, and reading, makes me want to pull every single bit of money out of our accounts, and hide it in the mattress.  (Or the sock drawer, under my .44).  Which is exactly what my grandparents did during the Depression. 

The latest indignity was this afternoon at one of the local Chase branches.  I've never been a huge fan of Chase (they're slightly better than Bank of America, but that's really not saying much.) For those that don't know, Chase is complying with a Federal recommendation to require cash deposits to only be made by the person (or people) who are named on the account.  When I asked why they all of a sudden required ID, I was told, Chomp Chomp Chomp Federal REGULATION Chomp Chomp Chomp.  So I *might* have told her that she looked like a cow chewing her cud because of her lack of ability to chew gum.  Cry baby told her manager, and when I called to complain about her wording and lies, she basically yelled at me for calling her teller a cow.  Um, sorry, didn't say she WAS a cow, said she looked like one.  Huge difference.  Hmm... surprise surprise, she lied to me, and misheard what I said.  As soon as I called them on the whole regulation vs. recommendation, her tone changed.  Not surprisingly, they've been getting a lot of pushback from customers.  Also not surprisingly, I'm one of the few that's calling them on their word choices. Also?  She was getting ready to call me to yell at me for 'hurting her teller's feelings'  Sorry- does it look like I care?  Yes? Damnit, must work on my 'not give a rat's patootie' face. 

So now the fun starts of finding a new bank.  I'm completely over Chase- they're too big now, and don't care about the little people. 

Customer Service is so lacking these days....

I joke about the fact that I'm going to be the crochety old lady shaking her fist at people as they walk by.  But I'm really secretly quite serious about that.  I have very precise ways that I feel things need to be done, and how people need to behave- especially if I'm paying them money to do something for me.  I do not expect groveling, I expect politeness, and, doing the best you can to help me resolve my issue.  Because chances are really good that by the time I call you, I've tried everything in my power to resolve it, or figure it out on my own.  And *now* I'm angry.  This has happened twice this week already.  And it's only Tuesday.  I can't WAIT to see what next week and the rest of this week will bring.  :(
The first one was Chase Bank.  As most of you all know, we recently moved.  Three weeks ago, I called, and let them know the updated snail mail address.  I was also quite clear, and asked the girl, as there are 4 accounts associated with my name, to make sure that all 4 accounts had been updated.  She stated they had been.  No problem, or so I thought.  Last week, I got a bounce check notice, (oops, my bad!) and noticed that it had gone to my old address.  Um, ok, whatever.  Sunday night, I tried yet again to get paypal to work so that I could purchase a gift card for Disney when we go, and it wasn't going through.  PayPal kept saying that the address didn't match my billing address, etc.  So I call Chase.  Yeah.  Those 4 accounts?  Only 2 of them had been changed, and when I questioned it, I was told that it would take 30 days to update it.  WTF?  Seriously- a multi billion dollar industry can't update addresses instantly?  So I spent an HOUR on the phone with them, because they couldn't get it straightened out.  The woman put me on hold, and when she comes back on, I just told her they won.  I couldn't take their incompetence anymore, and I was going to leave their bank, because I couldn't deal with them anymore.  She kept on trying to get me to talk to HER manager, but I was like, no, you keep trying to get me to talk to them, but I don't care enough anymore to talk to him/her.  I'm done with Chase.  So when we get back, I'm going to start switching everything to Indiana Members.  It's going to suck, having to change all those instant payments, but who the hell cares at this point?  I don't. 
The second one is a local mom, whom I trusted to book our Disney trip.  I've been the one emailing asking questions, etc.  She has not once emailed telling me what's going on, when I should be expecting stuff from Disney, etc.  She posted something about packets, so I'm like Yay, I'll be looking for mine.  I get the response, oh you should get it today, great, right?  No.  She mailed it to the WRONG address.  And then today, I get a message from her, oh, well, they'll forward it to you, right?  Well, yes, the post office will forward, but you've had the packet from Disney for over a week, and the trip is in a week for us.  That's not cool already.  I should have just planned/booked my own trip, and skipped using a travel agent.  And, really, in her defense, they did just move as well, however, we were booked before she moved, and all the business stuff should have been a priority for her.  I don't expect a lot, I expect common courtesy.  And maybe she just doesn't feel I'm a priority for her, but Disney paid her to book this trip.  Maybe because I didn't get the dining package.  Maybe because I'm not doing a bunch of add-ons.  I don't know.  All I know is next time we do Disney, I'm going my own.