The Many Adventures of Keira!

This is our page to document our family's adoption journey- starting from when we first started planning for our little one, to when we brought her home. We're also going to keep this updated with all of the things that Keira has been up to since she's been home with us here in the U.S!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Frustration!!!





Yesterday, I went to the bank to get the cash needed for the adoption. Some of the last expenses we have aside from the actual trip itself is for the donation to the orphanage and for documentation expenses in China. It's a pretty large sum of money and it needs to be newer bills, no tears, no rips, no folds and no ink or pen marks. Because I understand that many people such as myself fold and crinkle money, I tried to be as prepared as possible by contacting the bank ahead of time. Now, mind you, I have had an account with this bank for 20 years and have personal, joint, savings as well as business accounts with them. I would say that I'm a pretty good customer. Well, this particular branch ALWAYS gives me problems--they just can't seem to get anything right. Why I would think that they could get something as important as this right, I don't know. I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them LOTS and LOTS of notice. I started asking about how MUCH notice I would need to give them a couple of months ago. I have never been able to get a consistant answer from them. One says a week, one says 2 days, one says 1 day. One says just ask one of the tellers, one says you have to call the Customer Service Number to have them arrange it for you, the other say you have to contact the Branch Manager. I didn't want to have the cash sitting around the house too soon and obviously they can't HOLD money for me for too long, so I can't give too much notice...
I decided to give them a week since that was the longest amount of time that I could give. I contacted the Branch Manager and she didn't sound all that happy at first that someone gave me her direct number. I explained the situation and had to check my savings account letting her know that was the account that the money would be coming from in case they needed to pull it out. I stressed how important it would be that the money be in the condition that I was asking for. She said that she had a friend that adopted as well and she understood how important it was. She said that she would have to order the money so that it was brand new and that they would have it by Tuesday (yesterday). Well, the weekend came and Monday was a holiday, so I went into the bank yesterday to get the money. Wouldn't you know it...
The tellers had no idea what I was talking about and said that they wouldn't have the money because there weren't any orders for new money. I told them that I talked to the branch manager and they said they would ask her about it, but she's with another customer. They checked with her and lo and behold... no money. The teller's supervisor said that she tried to order the money, but they said that she couldn't. Uh...so why didn't they call me? Well, we didn't have your phone number. You mean to tell me that you have HOW many accounts for me here for HOW many years and you don't have a phone number---I'm SURE you do somewhere. No, we don't have a way to contact you. Your telemarketers sure call me all the time, so don't tell me that you didn't have a phone number for me. I KNEW they were going to screw this up...The lady's attitude was basically like- Oh well, we don't have it...deal with it. Well, I told them that they needed to do the right thing and fix the problem by helping me find newer bills either in their branch or at another branch because I was going to be leaving the next day and had to have it. The other tellers were looking through the money that they had and the supervisor flat out REFUSED to even try to call other branches to look for any newer bills and walked back over to her desk. The teller that was helping me said that she would call while looking for newer bills. The supervisor didn't like that very much and told her that she needed for her to stay there and help other customers. I heard this and told her, that she wasn't DONE helping me yet and that she might as well keep looking because I wasn't going to leave the window until they got the money for me. Interesting----NOW she wants to help just to get me out of there because by now, I've started talking very loudly so that all of the customers in the bank knew how they screwed up and were uninterested in helping fix their mistake. I really hate causing a scene, but apparently that was the ONLY way that I was going to get them to fix the problem. Well, after much digging and searching, they were able to find enough new, unfolded, newer condition bills to cover me. Well, of course by now, the Branch Manager decides that she doesn't need to bury her head in the sand anymore and comes out to say how glad they were that they could fix the problem...ARGH...I don't think I need to go into detail on my response to her ;) I have so many other things on my plate right now that the last thing that I want to have to do is look around for another bank although it looks like after this fiasco, I might have to do that when I get back. I didn't want to say what bank it was here, but if anyone really wants to know, I'll tell ya ;). All that aside......YAY!!! We're leaving tomorrow!!!!

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